A band that pairs a Fender Rhodes player with a pianist and no bass perhaps shouldn’t work, but with sheer flair that not only overcome that challenge, Kira Kira utterly thrives in it.

‘Live’ proves that adding Ed Kuepper to a very good acoustic jazz piano trio transforms Asteroid Ekosystem into an experimental, improvisation-heavy rock outfit.

From two very fertile musical minds come endless ways to approach a duet. with ‘Any News,’ Satoko Fujii and Alister Spence don’t even need to plug in and be in the same room to make theirs compelling.

For their newest album ‘Asteroid Ekosystem’, the adventurous Alister Spence Trio shook things up by inviting a guitarist — fellow Australian Ed Kuepper — to join them for the recording sessions. In Kuepper, Spence brought a real provocateur into the party.

Turns out that Satoko Fujii’s rule-breaking orchestras can continue with their marvelously misbehaving ways even when someone else leads.

Satoko Fujii is issuing an album in every month of 2018, and if there’s one musician with enough ensembles, projects and ideas to pull it off, it’s her.