Mateus Asato Claims His Name With Debut Album "ASATO" & New Single "HENDRIX"

Written By: Big C

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Acclaimed guitarist Mateus Asato announces his long-awaited debut album ASATO, due February 27, 2026, The announcement marks a defining shift for an artist long revered as a virtuoso collaborator, now stepping fully into his own narrative. Rooted in identity, ancestry, and self-belief, "ASATO" unfolds as a vivid sonic travelogue inspired by the landscapes of Japan and the personal history tied to his name. Almost instinctively, alongside the release of its first single, HENDRIX. The track sets the emotional tone for the album as expressive, intuitive, and unburdened by expectation. Honoring the late Jimmy Hendrix, Asato explains:

Everything started after a late night thought I had in my studio while trying to make another song for my debut album: "If Hendrix were alive today and we were friends… around the same age… how would he write an instrumental song?! After that, I had a song in 20 minutes. Everything simply just came out and I felt like a vessel receiving melodies from above. A unique experience. But this thought only happened after reading two books of his biography. Being completely inspired by it — I had no choice but honor the greatest guitar hero in history in my opinion.

He adds:

His passion & faith through music, his sense of feeling things. One of the things that captivated me the most about his books was the story that "he’d always use his broom while cleaning his house pretending it was a guitar when a solo was being played on the radio." Jimi was an eternal dreamer. Jimi truly believed music had supernatural powers — and that’s why his legacy shall remain. This song might not relate much to Hendrix’s music in technical structure, and that is not my intention here. This is just a title of gratitude to the one who changed my perspective of playing the guitar.

Instrumental at its core, the album resists the notion that music requires lyrics to feel complete. Once a surname which marked difference in childhood, the title now stands as an affirmation of heritage and self-definition. The project traces over a decade of evolution, from early compositions like Change to recent pieces written with renewed clarity, all informed by a pivotal 2017 journey through Japan. That experience reframed Asato’s path, from elite sideman for artists like Bruno Mars, Jessie J, Tori Kelly, and Silk Sonic, to a solo voice grounded in place and purpose. Listen to "HENDRIX" now and connect with Mateus Asato on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X, Spotify, and Apple Music.

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