Ryuichi Sakamoto virtual show Kagami at The Roundhouse

The Oscar winner penned film scores for The Last Emperor, The Revenant, and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, which he also starred in alongside David Bowie and Hampstead actor Tom Conti.

And his work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra in the late 70s is credited with influencing hip hop, dance and other electronic music genres.

Audiences at Kigani wear special spectacles that allow them to see the virtual 3D show (Image: Marissa Alper/The Shed)

Sakamoto was working on 'mixed reality' show Kagami when he died in March. It has already enjoyed sell out runs in New York and Manchester and been described as both 'hauntingly beautiful' and a fittingly elegy for the musical genius.

Running at the Roundhouse for four weeks from December 29, the immersive show sees audiences either seated or moving around as they experience the 3D performance through optically transparent glasses. Dimensional art, created especially for each song, also appears as the music is relayed via surround sound.

The show is created by Tin Drum which was founded by Todd Eckert, who became obsessed with Sakamoto's work as a teen.

"I have always been obsessed about music. What is singular and beautiful about music when you are a kid is that one record that understands you when nothing else will. For me it was the soundtrack of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence I would listen to that constantly."

The late composer was famous for his film scores for The Last Emperor, The Revenant and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence which he also starred in. (Image: Luigi and Lango)

Eckert got to know Sakamoto in the 1990s when he was a music journalist: "As a personality Ryuichi was always kinder than anyone you would imagine someone of that incredible talent to be. He was just the gentlest guy."

He went on to produce Anton Corbijn's Joy Division movie Control, before pitching a show that would create a unique connection between artist and audience and transcend the limits of time.

"I told him my intention was to create a long standing relationship with the public. 'I am not interested in catering to the people who already know they love you, but in making a piece that will attract an audience that has not been born yet.' He just went 'wow'."

Eckert believes certain performers including Bowie and Prince "had a singular relationship with the audience that was incredibly intimate but very much an event, and could not be copied in a 2D medium."

Creating the virtual concert was a lengthy technical process - then Sakamoto asked to play a concert grand rather than the weighted keyboard they had tested to transfer the data.

"He said 'the piano was the source of everything beautiful and terrifying that ever happened in my life, this is going to last forever, can it please be on that?'. I knew we didn't know how to do it, but the whole reason we started working on this was the idea that eventually it would be a presentation of him in a very authentic way to any audience he would never meet. So I said yes."

On the morning they started shooting, the composer received worrying test results from his oncologist in Tokyo.

"He saw his mortality was staring at him, but he went on, dropping his head down much further than he would usually. When he went into hospital two weeks after we wrapped, he didn't come out for over a year. I knew what we had was it, but I never anticipated he would die before we opened. The ephemeral nature of the show is its end construction, to my great dismay."

Eckert believes composer's impending death lent his performance a tragic edge. It ends on his musical eulogy for The Last Emperor director Bernardo Bertolucci which he played at his funeral and which has been heard nowhere else.

"He really loved life and didn't just accept the idea that he was going to go, but his wife was instrumental in giving him a sense of peace that allowed him to do some of his best work and the songs he recorded for me are infused with a slightly tragic emotion. Everything feels big and perfectly small." Todd Eckert and Ryiuchi Sakamoto (Image: Luigi and Iango)

Eckert insists the show plays in a circular space, and loves The Roundhouse: "It's not just iconic because of what happened there, but because of the singularity of its construction, which elevates absolutely everyone who plays there."

He says of his late friend: "He was perpetually curious and wanted to make sense of the world, and find different ways to elucidate the human condition through sound. He wasn't looking to become famous or rich and because of that purity the public hears in his work something so human that they can't help but feel moved by it.

“There's an elemental energy in the relationship between Ryuichi and the piano. In Kagami I wanted to present an event both intimate and urgent - happening in real-time, forever."