Tomoki Sanders - Visage: The Third Eye

Release Date 12th February 2027

New York-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tomoki Sanders (they/them) announces their debut solo album, Visage: The Third Eye, released on Brownswood Recordings on February 12th, 2027. Bringing together spiritual exploration, improvisation and a questioning of the conventions surrounding Black American Music, the album offers a compelling introduction to Sanders’ work as a solo artist.
 
Rooted in a rich musical heritage yet driven by a desire to explore beyond established boundaries, Sanders approaches music as a space for experimentation, reflection and self-discovery. Across the album, they draw on the traditions of Black American Music while challenging the expectations and inequalities that continue to shape its culture.
 
Released in June 2026, lead single “The Third Eye” introduced the album’s exploration of intuition, spirituality and the unseen forces that shape human experience. Through improvisation and evolving textures, the track treats music as a means of looking inward and seeking a deeper understanding of the self.
 
“Jazz Is Just A Game”, released in September and featuring trumpeter Nicholas Payton and vocalist Mélanie Charles, takes a more direct approach to the conventions surrounding the music. Challenging the romanticisation of suffering in the lives of Black musicians, the track also examines the inequalities that have shaped who receives recognition, respect and creative freedom within the culture.
 
Latest single “Tranquil Memories” is dedicated to Sanders’ close friend Rodney James-Spann, a saxophonist and beat producer who died on April 12th, 2025, aged 26. The composition reflects on friendship, loss and the enduring connection we maintain with those who are no longer with us.

Sanders explains:
 
“Rodney inspired so many people, including myself. Blending the rhythmic language of straight-ahead jazz brushes with the dancing pulse of acid jazz, I imagine the music as a train carrying you into an in-between world where reality and memory begin to blur and, for a moment, you feel as though you might meet someone you’ve lost one more time. Rather than mourning his loss, ‘Tranquil Memories’ celebrates the beauty of knowing that someone so gifted, inspiring, and deeply loved existed in this world and that I had the privilege of calling him my friend.”
 
Sanders’ approach to music also extends to the language used to describe it. Preferring the term Black American Music to “jazz”, they embrace the breadth of the tradition without being confined by the expectations attached to a single genre. Their work acknowledges the music’s history while asserting the importance of allowing artists to define their own relationship with it.

TRACKLISTING:
A1. The Third Eye
A2. Game Coin - Game Start 
A3. Virtual Warrior
 
B1. The Garden of Truth
B2. Kakigori
B3. Tranquil Memories (Memories of Rodney James)
B4. Jazz Is Just A Game (feat. Nicholas Payton & Mélanie Charles)
B5. Buddha The Golden Teacher