Visage: The Third Eye

New York-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tomoki Sanders (they/them) presents their debut solo album, Visage: The Third Eye, on Brownswood Recordings. 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.

Born in New York City in 1994, Sanders began playing drums and percussion at the age of four before teaching themselves E-flat clarinet at six. At ten, their father, the late legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, introduced them to the saxophone. By thirteen, Sanders was performing professionally throughout Japan’s Kanto region and recording with psychedelic rock outfit TENGOKU BATAKE JAPON.

A graduate of Berklee College of Music, where they studied performance and music production, Sanders has since developed an international career spanning performance, composition and collaboration. Their credits include work with Pharoah Sanders, Kassa Overall, Ravi Coltrane, Maurice “Mobetta” Brown, Taylor McFerrin, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Matthew Garrison, George Garzone, Jack DeJohnette Trio and Kyoto Jazz Sextet.