Friday, October 10, 2008

Has Brian Eno Made The Coolest iPhone App To Date?


Er... well, Yes actually.
Superb piece of work - and as creative, refreshing and innovative as you'd expect from Britain's national treasure in charge of brainiac music.
Bloom is not merely a music generator - a very clever ambient music generator - it's also an experience to be enjoyed passively or interactively. Probably why it's described as "part instrument, part composition and part artwork."
And it *is* pretty much a work of art in its own right.
Having set a basic "Mood" - which defines tone and colour, a drone starts up and you tap / press the screen wherever you want to create musical notes, which repeat in looping patterns and drive blossoming and fading 'dot' visuals across the colour gradients of the screen.
The application will even evolve and develop the 'music' if you leave it alone.
Then in the best traditions of Etch-a-Sketch you simply shake your phone around to clear the composition.

It's beautiful, and strangely addictive - and the fact that it's done with such a non-musical interface (just coloured washes, with no need for keyboards or buttons or anything) makes it a genuinely enjoyable and non-technical experience.
It's only a couple of quid and it's worth every single penny.
Awesome.

Here's the iTunes link to the Bloom application...



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