Biophilia

Biophilia
(Developed by Björk)
Available for: iOS
Price: Free
Originally published: July

It was inevitable that sooner or later an artist would expand the parameters of contemporary music by leveraging the full multimedia capabilities of the mobile platform, bringing together sights, sounds, social sharing and the touchscreen interface to redefine how listeners consume and consider the pop idiom. It was probably no less inevitable that the artist achieving this breakthrough would be Björk, whose two-decade solo career spans countless innovations across music, video, live performance and visual art. Her Biophilia reinvents the traditional album format as a collection of ten iPhone applications, each composed of original music, interactive graphics and related media content designed to explore the spatial relationships between sound, technology and the natural world.

The free Biophilia app comes pre-installed with the album's theme song "Cosmology"--users float through a three-dimensional galaxy, tapping on constellations of stars to access each of the ten premium tracks, each added over the course of multiple software updates (and now bundled for download at a price of $9.99). All songs and corresponding app experiences are unique and fascinating: For example, the first single "Crystalline" is presented as a game that sends players spiraling through a series of virtual tunnels, building a cluster of crystal fragments as they progress. Another standout, "Dark Matter," depicts a dozen circles corresponding to the 12 pitches of the equal-tempered chromatic scale. Press a circle and you not only hear that note, but also the onscreen particles rearrange according to each circle's magnetic field.

From a purely musical perspective, Biophilia is vintage Björk, both deeply human and fantastically alien at the same time. The candy-colored animations (programmed by Paris design team M/M and interactive artist Scott Snibbe) are enthralling, and each individual app allows for different levels of interaction and immersion, giving fans unprecedented control over the listening experience. In short it's a milestone for both albums and applications, bringing the two formats together to create something new and extraordinary.