There are a few ways to experience a journey across the world. One is simply to take it -- but unless you've just cashed in your ten year-old Microsoft options, that trip might put you on the short road to Chapter 7. The trio behind Lok 03 took another route by creating their own excursion -- one that will take you further than you imagined.

World-renowned husband-and-wife pianists Alex Schippenbach and Aki Takase, and adopted musical stepchild Dj (sic) Illvibe, pull together their resources -- piano, percussion, turntable, trumpet -- to simulate a train ride (Lok, as in locomotive) in which each new track explores one of twenty different and disparate locations, from Oklahoma to Utrecht to Caracas to Osaka. Sometimes the works are humorous to the point that you'll expect to hear the Roadrunner's "meep, meep"; other times they're baffling and mysterious. Whichever trait they adopt, they are always impressive and fascinating.

The first stop, "Berlin", introduces the work as turntable master Illvibe lays down glitchy train samples and drops in a sampled German conductor, while rumbling left hands chug along with increased momentum, forming a solid wall of sound before sinking over the horizon. Though you may never visit "Köln" (or may call it Cologne when you do), Takase and Schippenbach show you the avant-jazz corner of town; they work in tandem, mixing the likes of Boulez and Herbie Hancock into a single work. A quantum leap to Detroit yields downtempo breakbeats, scratched bass accents, squirrelly percussion and quasi-honky-tonk piano that's just consonant enough to land you a local Hard House gig. As quickly as thecabaret-like "Paris" fades away, complete with jazz brushes and a sampled chanteuse who pops in from nowhere, "London" creeps up with a display of dripping alleys and stalker-a-few-paces behind you atmospheres -- thank Heaven you didn't take that semester abroad! On "Oklahoma", blips of Muddy Waters spill over a backbone of straight-ahead 4/4 comping (though closer to Stravinsky than Memphis Slim) until the group can't take it any more. Illvibe cuts Muddy into a swarm while trilling high keys anticipate a return route back to serialist Eastern Europe.

Although each musician adheres to the various "themes", they effectively do what proves difficult to many groups, experimenting with improvised and juxtaposed sounds: they listen to one another. All three shine, and they never seem to step on each other's toes (for instance, lower frequency prepared piano thumps during Illvibe's high-pitched "shanai" solo on "Alma Alta", the turntablist echoing Takase's melodies and rhythms on "Utrecht" through punctuations and shadow play on his wax accordion while Schippenbach works magic on a trumpet mouthpiece.).

Dj Illvibe's quote in the liner notes is a plea: "If my train goes off track, pick it up and do it like never before." Though Lok 03's vision is a little different than some of the sites it visits, you needn't worry; everything about the disc is full speed ahead. Toot toot... ahem.