The Tokyo Sessions oozes a deep affinity for the “Land of the Rising Sun”. In 2024 and 2025, Herman – along with double-bassist Thomas Pol, drummer Jimmi Jo Hueting and The Tokyo Sessions album producer Jimmi Jo Hueting – found themselves knee-deep in Tokyo’s hyper-eclectic musical underbelly – districts like Shimokitazawa and Koenji where underground scenes in the city continue to flourish.

Minds were ceaselessly and consistently blown: noise artists, freejazz anarchists, math punk outfits… each murky basement a pandora’s box of surprising genre-shattering sounds. Enraptured and infected, Herman, Hueting and Pol found a box of their own to explore their own out-of-the-box mentality to music.

Under the deft hands of analogue recording sage Akihito Yoshikawa at his legendary Studio Dede – the trio bundled their collective chops to forge fresh sounds through time-honoured means. Joining them are some esteemed names in Japanese music, namely venerated composer/jazz musician Otomo Yoshihide and tenor sax maverick Tomoaki Baba.

Through live instrumentation, sampling and recording, Herman and his hermanos enter a collective space of feeling, where styles like free jazz, noise and new wave coalesce within the same express lane. Guided by the inspired production of Hueting, The Tokyo Sessions became an album where friendships translate into a tapestry of distinct sounds and sensibilities, bundled together in a chaotic, high-rolling adventure.