THE TRIO PROJECT: VOICE

This album saw Hiromi debut her current recording unit, the Trio Project, with Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips joining her on bass and drums respectively. Naturally, the spotlight is largely on Hiromi's piano and keyboard performances. Whilst subsequent albums would have a more prominent progressive rock influence, here it seems scaled back somewhat, the band focusing on delivering what comes across as an ECM-style jazz sound with enough fusion influences to avoid things becoming excessively dry. It's a good listen, but the unit would undertake more ambitious excursions on later albums, and is therefore worth a listen eventually but doesn't need to be your top priority when it comes to exploring Hiromi's work.