Viacom Releases First Virtual Reality Music Album “Melody Of Dust”
If video killed the radio star, will virtual reality make traditional music performance obsolete? We're in the very early stages, but VR has the potential to transform how music is created and experienced. MTV parent Viacom and multidisciplinary artist Nick Koenig are pioneering this new artform.
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The Melody of Dust, a virtual reality (VR) music and gaming experience created by multidisciplinary artist Nick Koenig (aka Hot Sugar) in collaboration with Viacom, was released today for the HTC Vive headset. This follows its March 14 world premiere at the SXSW Virtual Cinema.
Dubbed a “new art form” by Rolling Stone, this immersive exploration has players discover and unlock more than 80 original melodies hidden within objects found in an animated castle. Together, the melodies form a kind of VR album shaped by the unique gameplay. A self-titled “soundtrack” by Hot Sugar is also available on iTunes and Spotify in conjunction with its release.
“The atmospheric fantasy world in The Melody of Dust allows you to confirm that any object in the universe is a musical instrument, whether we know how to play it or not,” said Koenig.
“The Melody of Dust truly is the first of its kind deconstructed VR music experience,” said Chaki Ng, SVP Viacom NEXT, Viacom’s research and development arm for emerging entertainment technologies. “We believe this is a glimpse of what the future of music could look and feel like as you literally step into the mind of a musician and create your own score.”
Here is the trailer:
Lovely idea. But why is the music for technologically exciting projects usually so unfailingly pedestrian? Kind of like putting a gerbil in a spaceship and sending it off to explore Mars.
Hu?
Creepy. Literally.
I didn’t see anything new or different about it… I’ve seen lots of video with the same kind of abstract idea… Moxy and the Influence has a cool one…
Michael,
Your comments are right on point. Perhaps the reason is that the technology comes first, and then the music has to be willed into existence, like a commission, of which ninety-some percent fail to satisfy, let alone endure.
The same disparity can be found in festivals of new media where the creators can write code, but many lack the essential skills of story-telling and a knowledge of human behavior.
Bobb Goldsteinn