Ryuichi Sakamoto materializes into the middle of the spacious studio at VS. Osaka. He’s seated behind a long Yamaha piano, playing “Before Long.” His grey hair swoops around as he moves along the keys, and sitting in the back of the room it almost does look like the Japanese artist is a paper-plane throw away.
The digital fog floating into the area, though, reminds this is fantasy.
All I have to do is lift the mixed-reality goggle off of my head to be reminded of reality — I’m sitting in a very large room in Osaka’s Umeda district, with a great sound system playing a selection of Sakamoto’s standout piano compositions and a bunch of high-tech sensors on the wall that work in symphony with the heavy sensor tied around my neck to bring him into the space when I slide the glasses back on.
After doing that, I experienced something both touching and ghostly at “Kagami.”
