In March 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of Japan’s greatest contemporary composers and pianists, passed on after a long battle with cancer. Known for his ambient, sparse compositions that were capable of evoking powerful reactions and emotions from his listeners, his fans mourned him, while also knowing they would never get to see him perform live again.

Yet, one of those fans, who also happened to be a close friend of Sakamoto, was already mentally preparing himself for this day to come. That person happens to be Todd Eckert, founder of arts company Tin Drum, specialising in creating technologically-driven experiences that elevated mixed reality to new heights. Tin Drum would eventually come to work together with Sakamoto to produce the critically-acclaimed concert KAGAMI, which makes its Singapore premiere at the Esplanade this week, and is set to feature Sakamoto and his artistry onstage once more.

“In the 2000s, I had helped produce a film called Control, about Joy Division, and because of that, ended up meeting Rony Abovitz, who had founded an augmented reality and spatial computing company called Magic Leap,” says Todd on the origin of Tin Drum. “I saw the potential in the technology they had, that it could help with storytelling that goes beyond the screen, extending the way that film works. I joined Magic Leap as Director of Content Development, and our team worked on developing the medium further, to create stories and performances that forged stronger connections between artists and audiences. I stayed till 2016, before leaving to start my own company, which was Tin Drum, which put the focus on recording and preserving artist work, while also being able to present it in a way that goes beyond traditional filmed recordings.”

“Think about a time way before when people had no way of recording performances, and each time you went to a recital or a play or even gave a speech, the experience would be completely and totally unique, not just in terms of what the performer did, but even in how you experienced it. But with the advent of film and moving pictures, that changed the game, with this mechanism that held information in light and presented it as something that registered in our brain as authentic repeatable reproduction of what the camera pointed at,” says Todd. “But unfortunately, that is still a ‘flat’ experience. Compared to a live interaction, where you can shift in one way or another, look at different parts of the stage and notice different things, you can’t do that on traditional film, which is solely up to the director to present a point of view through post-production and editing.”

With such new technology that few people have had access to, let alone know about, selling the show was initially a struggle, with many assuming it was simply a film or some form of traditional virtual or augmented reality. “The world doesn’t have the vocabulary for such performances yet, and when we first showed it in New York, the people marketing it wanted to see a ‘film’ of what we were going to see in the headset itself, but that doesn’t really do justice to what we intended to do,” says Todd. “So it really relies more on word of mouth, and each time we show it, the world gets a little closer to knowing what we’re doing. By the end of each run, we end up selling out our tickets, and people still end up clamouring to get in.”

If we want a more technical explanation of what happens, in Singapore, the audience will essentially be seated on the stage of Esplanade Theatre, and be provided with optically transparent devices that show an augmented Sakamoto performing at the piano. This isn’t just an ordinary film however; with surround sound and lighting design, the audience also gets to move around ‘Sakamoto’ and observe him up close, wandering about or remain seated if they so wish, elevated further still through Sakamoto’s set. “So what we do is that using ‘full dimensional film’, it provides a medium that gives you more dimensional reality as to what the story is about, and gives you the ability to have your own curiosity dictate the experience you have, where it is almost as if the concert is happening right in front of you,” says Todd. “At the same time, it’s not virtual reality, it’s mixed reality, which still involves lighting and sound design, which we have to adapt for every venue, blending it all together into a singular theatrical presentation to give the production a sense of presence.”

“We had over 60 people working on the filming process alone, this great big room with 48 cameras, and all these post-production tools to make it feel like a real performance. We’re just incredibly fortunate in that we have such amazing technologists and artists willing to give their time for this project which is still so new to the world,” he adds. “We’re always figuring out the solutions to new issues or challenges we face in each new venue to make sure the production is presented as we wish, and how to connect to the audience. And really, it’s also about recognising how this is still such a temporal art form, and how human it all is. Your experience is uniquely your own with how you decide you want to take it in, and in a way, even with Sakamoto no longer being with us, it’s a way to ‘cheat death’ and still be with him in spirit as you immerse yourself in his playing.”

This is not simply a fan’s dream of bringing an artist back to life however, as Todd and Sakamoto were in fact, friends and worked closely with each other on this project for four years, fuelled by Todd’s own passion for music and film, developed since his childhood. “I started my career as a music critic at age 14, and I was that obsessive kid, who saved up what I could by writing reviews and spending it on albums, and even the Japanese versions of records with bonus tracks and different art. I met a guy in a record store who had a friend who was the editor of a weekly publication in Houston where I was living at the time, and eventually, I ended up becoming the editor of a national music magazine at age 17,” says Todd. Some of the songs that will be featured include compositions like Energy Flow and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, along with rarely played pieces, such as the unreleased BB, dedicated to director Bernardo Bertolucci. “Ryuichi Sakamoto was not very well-known back then, but when I listened to him, I knew he was playing in a way no one else did, with this kind of dextrous, sensitive approach to tone and composition, which I found so beautiful yet so strong, and that was exactly how I wanted life to be. I ended up meeting him for the first time in the 90s, and he was the reason I went to Japan for the first time.”

“Eventually, while working at Magic Leap, a couple of dreadful things happened – David Bowie and Prince both passed on, and having seen them both live, you know that both of them have such a specific relationship with the audience that was both open and vulnerable, yet completely in control. And you can’t capture that on film,” adds Todd. “That was really what motivated me to continue on and start Tin Drum to focus on recreating that concert experience, and expand on the idea of making this ‘flat’ medium come alive. I already knew Ryuichi was ill at the time, and was in remission after resting from cancer, and it was so important to me that we could preserve a way of capturing his relationship with the piano and music in some way. I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t manage to do it, and we started the project in 2019, got through COVID, and eventually finished the project.”

While the show’s title KAGAMI means ‘mirror’ in Japanese, referencing the idea that Tin Drum have created a mirror image of Sakamoto that reflects him, Todd also reveals that it was an inside joke where the two of them shared a love for filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, who had made a film called Mirror (1975), and in part wanted the show to be a nod to that as well, reflecting their friendship with each other. “We were meant to fly to Tokyo to present KAGAMI to him for the first time, but Ryuichi passed before he could see it, turning it into a final goodbye instead of a celebration,” says Todd.

“I started my career as a music critic at age 14, and I was that obsessive kid, who saved up what I could by writing reviews and spending it on albums, and even the Japanese versions of records with bonus tracks and different art. I met a guy in a record store who had a friend who was the editor of a weekly publication in Houston where I was living at the time, and eventually, I ended up becoming the editor of a national music magazine at age 17,” says Todd. “The two of us actually curated the tracklist together, and I suggested some songs like The Seed And The Sower (M-16A) to him, which I still remembered fondly after seeing him live in Los Angeles over 20 years ago. And he laughed, because it was a song he rarely played live, but agreed to include it. It felt random, but I guess it ended up so significant in the grand scheme of things.”

If anything, this is a work that is born from passion, and love, and dedication for the art itself. Todd even recalls how up to the very last minute there were things they still weren’t happy with, and before premiering at The Shed in New York, were literally still changing things two days before. As Todd puts it, the team ended up “Wong Kar Wai-ing” this, referencing how director Wong Kar Wai was still cutting the film before the premiere of In The Mood For Love in the Majestic Hotel before the premiere.

“Most of the time, media companies and arts organisations are run by people who focus on the money first, and yes, it’s important to support the investors, but for us at Tin Drum, we really want to ensure that the art is the priority,” says Todd. “We’re making something nobody else can, because at our collective core, well, we’re really these obsessive dorky kids who love film and music and performance. It’s important for us to make these things because to us, the arts is a way of explaining what life means, and my hope is that through KAGAMI, people understand the power and beauty of Ryuichi Sakamoto, but also evoke a sense of wonder, and how anything is possible, like world peace or the world not melting from climate change. It may sound overblown or even arrogant, but that is what I believe art can and will do.”

Promising a transcendental concert experience, Todd ends off by explaining the unexplainable – that this is a work that will move you. “Technology itself is seen as a kind of arms race, where everyone is rushing to be the first to develop or invent something. But to me, it’s really all math, and sometimes it’s hard to fall in love with math,” says Todd. “What most of us fall in love with is tone, and images, and moments, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

“And with KAGAMI, I believe that’s possible. I remember that at one showing, I saw people who didn’t seem to know each other come in, and oddly, as it went on, you saw them moving towards each other, and by its end, they were watching it together and holding hands. I caught a glimpse of that, and that really is the whole reason why we make art – to bring people together. Tech is merely the affordance, and if we’ve done our job right, you’ll end up losing yourself in the art, and just immersing yourself in that moment, as an audience.”

Featured Image Credit: Luigi & Iango

KAGAMI plays from 24th October to 3rd November 2024 at the Esplanade Theatre Stage. Tickets available here