Fantom Mezzanine is a free new iOS app from legendary UK group Massive Act which recreates their classic, masterpiece album Mezzanine into an immersive, interactive format. It's co-created by adaptive music/sound artist Robert Thomas, who's been designing ambitious audio experiences across many mediums and technologies over the years, including in Second Life. (Disclosure: Also a pal.)
"It's a continuation of many previous discussions really about music and tech, what we could explore," Robert tells me. "In this app, you shoot a video and the app generates a realtime remix which is like a soundtrack to the action in the video. If you move around in the image, the drums come in and glitch out, if the device moves some of the sounds modulate and change. If you smile the vocals come in. Lots of interactions, some secrets to discover too."
I'm just starting to play with the app, and it's a dreamy way to walk around in the world, where your camera and microphone inputs integrate with indelible audio clips from (in my opinion), one of the best albums of the last two decades. And it's an amazing creative pinnacle for Robert, who many readers might have met in SL back in the day. He worked closely with Massive Attack's Rob Del Naja to create personalized remixes of Mezzanine.
"I was very into Mezzanine when it came out. Working with the multitracks from that album was a real honor."
Download it here, and if you do create videos, be sure to put links to them in Comments!
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