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KTU
 
KTU: Gunn. Pohjonen, Mastelotto
(photos by Tuomo Manninen)
KTU (trio)
Kimmo POHJONEN,
accordion, voice
Trey GUNN,
Warr guitar
Pat MASTELOTTO,
rhythmic devices, samples
In spring 2007, Kimmo Pohjonen, Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto toured Finland and America as KTU trio and rehearsed and recorded new material in Helsinki and Austin. Dates as follows:
Finnish tour dates 2007:
Jan 29: Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia
Jan 30: Tampere, Finland - Klubi
Jan 31: Jyväskylä, Finland - Lutakko
American Tour dates 2007:
March 7: Los Angeles, California - Knitting Factory
March 9: Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Canadian Music Week - Drake Underground
March 12: NYC, NY - Knitting Factory
March 14: Austin, Texas - SXSW
March 20: Chicago (Palatine), IL - Drum Pad Presents @ Durty Nellie's
March 22: Mexico City, Mexico - Festival de México en el Centro Histórico
March 23: Mexico City, Mexico - Festival de México en el Centro Histórico
European tour dates 2007:
July 20: Trencin, Slovakia - Pohoda Festival
July 21: Jaen, Spain - Etnosur Festival
Kazan, Moscow, Helsinki 2008 :
KTU had successful concerts in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia at the Creation of Peace festival with about 50000 people in their audience. Also appearing in the event were Patti Smith, Keith Emerson, Fairport Convention, Adrian Belew Power Trio, Future Sound of London, Dakha Brakha, Zemfira, Justin Adams and many more.
The Moscow concert at B1, part of the "King Crimson Festival", was a double bill with Adrian Belew Power Trio, drawing over 2000 and was perhaps the best live performance in KTU's career. Special guest apearances by Eddie Jobson and Tony Levin.
The Tavastia concert in Helsinki on September 4 was another big success, here reviewed by Stalker.
Check tour fotos on KTU MySpace slideshow.
Check Moscow fotos by Lana Maykovskaya and more Moscow fotos at Lenta.ru.
KTU have recorded new material for their next album in Dripping Springs, Texas in October 2007 with mixing in Helsinki in 2008. The new album wil be released in early 2009.
KTU: (on 8 Armed Money album)
Kimmo Pohjonen - accordion, voice
Samuli Kosminen - samples
Trey Gunn - Warr guitar
Pat Mastelotto - rhythmic devices, samples
Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen (Kluster) and Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn (from King Crimson and duo TU) join forces for the double duo formation KTU (pronounced "K2").
Percussionist Pat Mastelotto and guitarist Trey Gunn have enjoyed successful careers with the band King Crimson, one of the worlds most dynamic, skillful and innovative bands. Their duo known as TU (pronounced "2") explores and highlights the well-known Gunn and Mastelotto edge, energy, humour, imagination, phenomenal playing skills and dynamism in an improvisational setting. The first TU album was released in early 2004 followed by April appearances in Moscow.
Seeds for KTU took root at SXSW in Austin Texas in March 1999 when Kimmo Pohjonen shared a billing with Mastelotto/Gunn/Fripp's Project Three at the Electric Lounge. Plans for the quartet took shape over the next five years. KTU combines the creative energies, edge and imagination of the four players to make something new, different and musically explosive. Material is mainly comprised of compositions by Pohjonen and Kosminen, plus pieces by Gunn and Mastelotto and arrangements and improvisations by all four. Surround sound design and additional effects by Heikki Iso-Ahola. KTU rehearsals and the World Premiere concert took place in Helsinki at the venue Nosturi in April 2004, followed by four concerts in Tokyo at Eggman. All concerts were recorded on multi-track and released as the debut KTU CD, 8 Armed Monkey. The group performed numerous times in Europe in 2005 and 2006, plus Victoriaville, Canada. The KTU trio of Pohjonen, Gunn, Mastelotto toured Finland in January 2007 and North America in March 2007. (Note: Kosminen takes a break from the band during the first half of 2007.) During the spring and summer seasons, KTU are rehearsing and recording material for a new album.
Reviews
KTU (trio) review from Aamulehti, Tampere, Finland:
"KTU, the world's most psychedelic power trio!...KTU come on like a hybrid of Cream and latter day, King Crimson, led by a Siberian mushroom shaman" (Jussi Niemi, Aamulehti)
KTU Rolling Stone magazine, Fricke's Picks, Aug 10 2006
"KTU (pronounced K2") are a quartet of devilishly integrated halves: avant-accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and digital manipulator Samuli Kosminen from Finland, and drummer Pat Mastelotto and guitarist Trey Gunn from King Crimson. Their debut 8 Armed Monkey , recorded live in 2004, is a robust tumult of Northern Lights sparkle, white-wolf guitar wail and rolling knotted thunder. Pohjonen is a wonder unto himself: animating his wind song with pedals and processing; attacking the bellows with the ecstatic fury of Jimi Hendrix. When I saw KTU play in Europe recently, they were as powerful and transgressive as the current killer Crimson (without, of course, Robert Fripp). But I was stunned to discover, after the show, that KTU have yet to get an American gig, because, Gunn said, promoters are afraid of the word "accordion". People, look at it this way: Pohjonen plays the ultimate in air guitar. Now hit the phone." (David Fricke, Rolling Stone)
KTU reviews from FMM Festival, Sines, Portugal, July 30, 2005
"KTU, with the "diabolic" Kimmo Pohjonen, were the most applauded band of the last day of the festival.....If The Master Musicians of Jajouka are the ancestral spirits who's music has timeless resonance, KTU - "elected" by the crowd as the highlight of the night - imprison those same spirits in the urban schizophrenia of today. The project that reunites the Finnish Kluster (the accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and the percussions and electronic samples man Samuli Kosminen) to the drummer Pat Mastelotto and the guitarist Trey Gunn, created on stage the hellish environment usual in Pohjonens music and went further to create convulsive, ghostly music, able to release gargoyles from its cement skin - and they, scarily, danced slow waltzes, improvised gothic jazz, adding unexpected funk in the encore, which was muscular and overwhelming."
(Diario di Noticias , Mario Lopes)
"Less festive (then Kíla) and much more confrontational was KTU's performance - that is, Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen (Kluster) with Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson). Commanded by Kimmo's demonic accordion, KTU created beautiful scenes, first warlike, then mystical, between fire and ice, in an endless ride through northern Europe plains. Kimmo's work was, once again, intense and unsurpassable, using the music produced by his accordion as a hurling weapon to not underestimate, in which he was accompanied by the also intricate onslaughts of Trey Gunn on his guitar/bass, by Kosminen's maniac manipulation of the sampler, and by Mastelotto's martial beat.".
(Publico, Miguel Francisco Cadete)
KTU concert reviews links:
Desibell.net
Stalker
KTU photos:
KTU trio, photo Kalle Björklid huumakuva.net
KTU trio, photo Kalle Björklid huumakuva.net
KTU foto link:
KTU live at FMM, Sines, Portugal, July 25,2008, fotos by Mario Pires.
KTU live in Tampere - November 2005. Fotos by Mika Hironniemi
Moscow 2008 fotos
Lenta.ru 2008
Nosturi, Helsinki - April 2004. Photos: Tuomo Manninen
Eggman, Tokyo - April 2004. Photos: Kimitoshi Takenaka
KTU album, 8 Armed Monkey
Radio performance and interview:
KTU on KUT-FM, Austin Texas, March 19, 2007
KTU Myspace
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