Björk: Biophilia app for iPhone and iPad

4.8 ( 6208 ratings )

Music Entertainment
Developer: Björk

12.99 USD

Current version: 1.6, last update: 6 years ago
First release : 18 Jul 2011
App size: 1.1 Gb

Biophilia is an extraordinary and innovative multimedia exploration of music, nature and technology by the musician Björk. Comprising a suite of original music and interactive, educational artworks and musical artifacts, Biophilia is released as ten in-app experiences that are accessed as you fly through a three-dimensional galaxy that accompanies the album’s theme song Cosmogony. All of the album’s songs are available inside Biophilia as interactive experiences: Crystalline, Virus, Moon, Thunderbolt, Sacrifice, Mutual Core, Hollow, Solstice, and Dark Matter.

Björk has collaborated with artists, designers, scientists, instrument makers, writers and software developers to create an extraordinary multimedia exploration of the universe and its physical forces, processes and structures - of which music is a part. Each in-app experience is inspired by and explores the relationships between musical structures and natural phenomena, from the atomic to the cosmic. You can use Biophilia to make and learn about music, to find out about natural phenomena, or to just enjoy Björk’s music.

Biophilia opens into a three-dimensional galaxy with a compass allowing navigation between the 3-dimensional universe and a two-dimensional track list. Take a closer look by tapping on stars within the constellations and you’ll see that each is an in-app purchase that gives access to the inspired combination of artifacts for each new Björk song: interactive art and games, music notation which can be used to sing along karaoke-style, abstract animations, lyrics, and essays that explore Björk’s inspirations for the track. These artifacts bring together conventional and alternative ways of representing and making music to create an environment for entertainment and learning. Biophilia challenges the way we think about music. Here, for the first time, is a music album that exploits the multimedia capabilities of mobile interactive technologies.

Biophilia was developed by Björk in collaboration with interactive artist and app developer Scott Snibbe, and Björks longtime design collaborators M/M Paris. The individual apps were created by Luc Barthelet, Drew Berry, Kodama Studios, Stephen Malinowski, Scott Snibbe Studio, John Simon Jr., Touch Press, and Max Weisel.

Features:

• Three-dimensional galactic interface with the song Cosmogony
• Nine song apps available as in-app purchases
• Music scores with karaoke playback
• Abstract song animation
• Lyrics
• Essays
• MIDI out to drive instruments

Pros and cons of Björk: Biophilia app for iPhone and iPad

Björk: Biophilia app good for

Much more than just another digital delivery of an album. All iTunes albums should be sold like this! Well done to Bjork and her creative team and all the developers!

Probably one of the best musical application. A new model to provide an album... Thank U.

Très belle appli pour iPhone. Ne fonctionne pas sur iPad Pro :-( dommage

Play, listen and create. I think this might be the future of music inspired buy art, nature and technology. I hope there is more to come. PG 

Biophilia is a visually stunning and entertaining app for anyone with an appreciation for music and art. A+

This app is stunning. I have always loved Bjork and this unique app allows you to explore and interact with her music in a new dimension. Not to be missed.

Some bad moments

The app crashes whenever you try to play or show the animations in the different parts of the space.

I am getting tired of buying apps that wont run on my iPhone 3G! I have wasted money because the requirements arent correct in the App Store. I downloaded the first biophilia app for free and along with that the Crystalline app for 1.59 euros. Now I have tried to update the biophilia app to download the Virus app (being stupid I guess, because Crystalline didnt work properly and no mention of a minimum of iPhone 3GS to be seen at the time). So here I am with the original biophilia app and a Crystalline app that crashes and I cant get the Virus app becaus NOW they say iPhone 3G not supported! Way to go! Thanks a million. I guess this Björk fan is going to have to stick to the music.

Interesting concept but poorly development and design. Less content but no context

When you open this app, you hear an old man telling you how wonderful the universe is. Then, you see a set of 3D constellations. Each constellation leads you to another app that....you have to pay for. So, basically what youre getting is a menu for buying more apps. Thats all this thing is. Whats more, only one of the apps is available. All the rest simply say, Coming Soon. Im not against bjork making money and Id willingly pay for something worthwhile, but this so far has proven to be a total waste.

Wow! This is not very impressive Experimentation has is risk

It says free app, but it seems to be all IAPs ( in app purchases). Why not just charge up front like Kraftwerk did with the Kling Klang Machine? - Which is an AWESOME app btw!! Cmon Bjork, your name is attached to this... Still though, Im gonna give it a chance. Maybe.

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