In the wake of Flappy Bird’s final flight earlier this month, English alt-rock legends Radiohead released their first smartphone application, Polyfauna. More visual experience than video game, Polyfauna offers users an interactive playground of looping colors and sounds. Each new area explored features different layers of the band’s 2011 track “Bloom.” Developed in collaboration with software design studio Universal Everything, the band states that the app “comes from an interest in early computer lifeexperiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious.”
The free application is yet another in a recent trend that finds high-profile artists taking to the Apple App Store and Google Play platforms to create new experiences for listeners.
Icelandic avant-garde artist Bj’Û,rk released her own experimental app, Biophilia, in 2012. The application retails for $13 and features games, animations and essays based on each of the tracks on her 2012 record of the same name. Bjork’s vision for the application came about when she was unable to curate an entire museum exhibit dedicated to the album. The 48-year-old artist composed much of the record using a tablet computer, and viewed the device as the most relevant method of bringing her vision for Biophilia to life.
Independent musicians have also managed to make a place for themselves in the app market. Many have even gone as far as to create new concepts that go beyond their own catalogues.
Baltimore electronic artist Dan Deacon introduced a companion app in support of his 2012 American Tour. Labeled a