"Complex chords and confident melodies, along with a conspiratorial balance where the protagonists cross the finish line hand in hand like two runners. In the end, we leave the duo with the urge to dance."
Bruno Pfeiffer, Jazz Blog of the newspaper Liberation

Here, two giants of contemporary jazz come together. Pianist Aki Takase and saxophonist Daniel Erdmann are, each in their own right, influential icons on the international scene. Aki Takase has played with greats like Sheila Jordan, Lester Bowie, Bob Moses, Joe Henderson, and many others, and is a recipient of the SWR Jazz Prize and the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff Prize, among others. Daniel Erdmann is also a recipient of the SWR Jazz Prize and the Echo Jazz, and has collaborated internationally with musicians such as Das Kapital, Vincent Courtois, Carlos Bica, Heinz Sauer, and Henri Texier.

In 2015, they met by chance at the Paris airport and decided to play together again. Later that year, the quintet "Japanic" was formed, which released the album "Thema Prima" in 2019. Their collaboration as a duo began in 2019 and intensified during the first lockdown due to COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. Daniel Erdmann, based in Reims, and Aki Takase, in Berlin, began rehearsing together every Wednesday for a quarter of a year through Zoom. Despite the limitations and technical challenges, both say that it had its benefits: complete focus on the project. Since it became possible again, the energetic duo has been performing at renowned festivals around the world. In early June 2021, Aki Takase and Daniel Erdmann were awarded the first-ever German Jazz Prize.