Radiohead launch their own PolyFauna app for iOS and Android

Radiohead have become the latest band to launch their own smartphone and tablet app, with the release of PolyFauna for Android, iPhone and iPad. The free app is a collaboration with design agency Universal Everything, based on imagery and sounds from the song Bloom, from the band’s The King of Limbs album. In a blog post announcing its release, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke described the app as an “experimental collaboration” that “comes from an interest in early computer life-experiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious”.

The app gets fans to explore an “evolving world” by moving around and following a red dot on-screen. It’s eerie, rather beautiful, and occasionally makes you feel a bit seasick – pretty suitable for the music it’s based on, in other words.

PolyFauna is reminiscent of some of the elements of Björk’s Biophilia app, whose interactive visualisations and mini-games took their cues from the biological themes in her album of the same name.

Other musicians to have recently released official apps include Tinie Tempah, whose Rap Demonstration app lets fans lip-sync to his new album using the star’s (virtual) mouth, and Lady Gaga, whose ARTPOP app encouraged fans to create and share animated GIFs with slogans.

Yorke and musician/producer Nigel Godrich – credited as a collaborator on PolyFauna – made headlines in 2013 with their strong criticism of streaming music service Spotify, with Yorke memorably describing it as “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse” in October.

However, Yorke and Radiohead have a track record of experimenting with new technology to deliver their music to fans, from Radiohead’s decision to sell their In Rainbows album direct to fans for whatever price they chose, to Yorke and Godrich’s Atoms for Peace working with startup Soundhalo to sell live recordings of live concerts.

Source: The Guardian