Kagami means ‘mirror’ in Japanese. In this mirror, the image of the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto is reflected back at you. And it’s completely astonishing.
One of the key performances in this year’s Manchester International Festival, it is all the more poignant because its creator is no longer with us. Sakamoto, composer of scores for movies like The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, for which he won the Oscar, died in March this year at the age of 71.
But yet here he is, sitting in front of us, thanks to ground-breaking ‘mixed reality’ technology from the production company Tin Drum, which worked with Sakamoto to bring Kagami - and its composer - to life.
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In a studio at the bottom of Quay Street, the audience sits in a circle, around a painted square in the centre of the room. You’re given a headset. Through its lenses, a red cube floats in the middle of the room as soothing ambient music plays.
The lights dim, and then there he is, sitting at a grand piano. It’s disarmingly real. He begins to play and it’s like he’s physically there in the room with you.
It’s a haunting experience to start with, just Sakamoto on the piano. Then puffs of smoke begin to emerge from under your seat. They’re not real, and not for the first time, you’ll lift up the headset to compare the blank reality to the wizardry that’s going on in your headset.
As the second song begins, fireflies appear in the air above Sakamoto, playing his music for what may have been the last time in his life. Then geometric shapes appear, and then cityscapes and newsreel footage, right in front of your face.
Slowly, one by one, people start to stand and move towards the images in front of them. You can walk around him, and see him from every angle.
A tree grows in the air from the centre of the piano, and then disappears. Droplets of water then surround him, so real you could reach out and touch them, and I find myself hand-over-my-mouth astounded, as the sound swirls around me.
And then he speaks, as he plays Energy Flow, saying how surprised he was that the song went to number one in his native Japan, a moment which feels strangely jarring.
As the chords of Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence begin, I’m moved to tears, and I hear others around me similarly overwhelmed.
He ends with a song called BB, a tribute to his friend, director Bernado Bertolucci, explaining that he wrote the song five minutes after hearing of his death. At the end, there is a stunned silence before people slowly begin to clap.
This felt like a glimpse into the future and the past at the same time - how we might view media in the future - and you may come out of it feeling slightly changed by it. More importantly than that, Sakamoto will live on forever through this work.
Check out our full guide the the Manchester International Festival here...
