In his liner notes to this trio's first meeting, koto player Brett Larner calls the 13 tracks on the disc "almost pop songs." While filing under pop would be hasty at best, it's an interesting way to look at this cd of strings rung, pounded and plucked.

Like a good pop record, the individual songs explore a variety of ideas without exhausting or belaboring them. But without vocals, melody lines or hooks, the parallel pretty much ends there. Instead they set up motifs and rotate roles (percussive playing, scratching, distracting). Larner as often alters as plays his instrument (among other things, he's used gyroscopes to make the strings drone), but here the instrument's natural voice sings (albeit sometimes muted or otherwise prepared). Electric guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi tends toward effect, doing more background wash than upfront playing.

The surprise here is the enormously talented Joelle Leandre, whose huge tone and towering vocals are kept to a minimum. While this initially is a disappointment, Leandre is more than well documented and it's good to hear her in a different setting. The koto really leads the show, forcing the bass and guitar to slow down.

There's something transient about the results. There is a connection between the players, but the conversation is private and the listener, sitting at the next table, might have difficulty figuring out quite what they're talking about, or even if they're speaking French, Japanese or English. But sometimes eavesdropping is interesting just for it's own sake, even if it's on foreign - or made-up - tongues.