Thanks to new technologies, artists can now make 3D films and play them like melodic, texture-based visual instruments in real time, performing in duets with acoustic musicians. A new genre of collaborative performance is in the making, as demonstrated in “Minimus 3D Arkestra,” a visual-sonic concert by Ikuo Nakamura (film) and Hayes Greenfield (sax/voice/effects rig).

The performance weaves three-dimensional film narratives, from the celestial to the terrestial — shot by Nakamura in stunning, remote and dramatic locations — into the fiercely innovative live acoustic and electronic music by Greenfield. Visuals include the Aurora Borealis (shot in the Canadian Northwest Territories), subways of NYC, canyons in Utah, villages in the Andes and scenes of Easter Island in the Pacific. Nakamura’s films are shot with two identical cameras in stereo 3-D and none of them are computer-generated. Similarly, none of Greenfield’s music is sampled or pre-recorded; it is entirely acoustic and performed live, in real time.

The music, however, is primary: it is the infrastructure upon which Nakamura hangs his images. The piece is built on an eight-movement suite that Greenfield has composed. He uses a looper to record each musical layer, one by one, adding each part in real time, building and orchestrating a rich and lavish sonic backdrop. Upon this, Nakamura’s 3D visual essays and poems unfold in real time.