As Herbie Hancock showed on ‘Chameleon’, a synth can create deep, in the pocket grooves on the simplest of riffs. So if you’re going down the funky route, take a synth with you. Hiromi uses a Nord Lead A1 analog synth and a Nord Electro 5D electric/acoustic piano, although her influences are less Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly Stone (as were Hancock’s), more video game soundtracks – check out the album’s title track on YouTube, with its syncopated synth groove aided and abetted by Hadrien Feraud’s virtuoso bass playing and animation inspired by retro computer games.

The addition of Adam O’Farrill’s lyrical playing (with subtle electronics) allows Hiromi to lay back and expand her vocabulary into more ambient spaces, while she’s more than happy to trade lines for some thrilling piano/trumpet interplay. Feraud’s bass really captures the attention, with parts of the album written around his playing, with his main feature on the epic ‘Utopia,’ while a more thoughtful side of Hiromi’s compositional style emerges on the half-time ballad, ‘Reminiscences, featuring O’Farrill and Oli Rockberger’s soulful vocals.