Bjork Biophilia Review

I’m terribly interested in interactive music and unusual musical interfaces in general. I’m also a fan of the Icelandic singer Björk, who I’d consider to be the greatest female musician of the past 20 years. So when I found out that she was going to be releasing an iOS app alongside her new album Biophilia, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to help myself from being anxious to play with it. Now the app is available in its entirety and I have to say: I had good reason to be excited.

You may have noticed that various parts of this app were trickling onto the App Store over the past few months, and that’s easily been this thing’s biggest failing. Early adopters of this unusual software experience have arguably been punished, as -- after three individual tracks were released for $1.99 each -- all nine tracks are now available for $9.99. The option to spend $10 up front and get access to each track as it was released would have been much better than what’s happened: anybody who was enthusiastically keeping up with the app’s content has now spent $16, whereas those late to the party are more likely to just buy the same content for less. Fortunately, the content itself is extraordinary.

Though there are many impressive aspects to this package, the first track that was released is also one of the most compelling. “Crystalline” is as close to a game as any of these interactive experiences get. You float through a three-dimensional cavern that has a primitive, neon aesthetic not entirely unlike the original Tron. As you explore this virtual space, you collect crystals to unlock new paths. The way you navigate through the tunnels informs the arrangement of the song and it’s probably the greatest example of how Biophilia is incredibly successful at allowing you to crawl inside these pieces of music and inhabit them in a much more intimate way than simply listening to them (though you can do that via this app too).

There’s something interesting to appreciate in every single facet of this suite, but some experiences will demand your attention (and input) more than others. Other highlights are “Solstice”, “Moon”, and “Thunderbolt”. “Solstice” is best described as an interactive sound sculpture. You send different colored spheres in orbit and, as they pass lines of the same color (the length of which determines its pitch), they make musical sounds. “Moon” is a cool little sequencer that abstracts time signatures into phases of the moon, and “Thunderbolt” allows you to make music by drawing and making shapes. One thing common to many of these different tracks is the option to play around by yourself, or to add your own accompaniment to Björk’s songs.

Music is already an immersive medium, but the dimension of interactivity afforded to these songs by Björk and her collaborators will hopefully inspire other artists to experiment with these kinds of mechanics. Creative people in both musical and interactive disciplines should take note of this app. Regardless of the artistic qualities of Biophilia, this form of media could also be a boon to the business side of making music, which hasn’t been in a particularly healthy state since the rise of file-sharing. Biophilia is a revolutionary product that definitely deserves a look from fans of Björk's music and people who are generally interested in innovative digital media.