“Kagami,” the new “mixed reality” concert of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music by the production company Tin Drum is meant to be a profound experience, a groundbreaking achievement in virtual reality that expands the visual limits of recorded performance.
In some ways that’s unavoidable; Sakamoto, one of Japan’s most internationally recognized artists, died in March, so any presentation of his music so soon is hard pressed to avoid a funereal pallor.
Scenes from the 2017 documentary “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda” play on mute on the far wall — Sakamoto collecting rainwater in a bucket; sampling the sound of an ice floe in the Arctic Circle — which, out of context, seem more oblique than they really are.
The actual performance takes place beyond a curtain in an empty black box theater, which, materially speaking, stays that way.
You sit in the round, staring at a glowing, virtual red cube in the center of the room, which suggests a séance administered by an AV club.
Persons:
“ Kagami, Ryuichi, Sakamoto, Griffin, Ryuichi Sakamoto