Ryuichi Sakamoto performs from beyond the grave for Asia TOPA 2025

Melbourne’s Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts returns in February 2025, with the first two program highlights revealed today.
The late Ryuichi Sakamoto will perform in a virtual performance at Asia TOPA 2025. A white-haired Japanese man in dark glasses and a black shirt poses for the camera with his raised hands held to his lips.

The late, legendary Japanese composer, pianist and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in March 2023, returns next February in digital form for an immersive concert as part of the third edition of Asia TOPA, Melbourne’s Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts.

Kagami (a mixed reality concert that had its world premiere at New York’s cultural institution The Shed in June last year before transferring to Manchester International Festival in July) is a collaboration between technology collective Tin Drum and Sakamoto, developed before his death, and features a virtual Sakamoto piano performance synchronised to a number of original compositions including ‘Energy Flow’, ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’ and ‘The Seed and the Sower.’

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts