What if you could lay back and watch your music playing on vinyl? Vinyl is in the middle of a resurgence and Wieden + Kennedy has added AR to its allure. The project is called LAVA. It was created by W+K’s Department of New Realities and it has given birth to an app designed to turn the debut (vinyl) album, SOS, by Amsterdam artist, Necessary Explosion, into a psychedelic experience – seven sculptures that evolve and rotate as you listen to the ‘70s-style sound. The visuals are W+K’s 2018 version of the ‘70s craze, the lava lamp.

The visuals, which rely on audio fingerprinting, vary depending on the user’s proximity to the record player and listeners can also move around them.  The visuals can also be triggered when listening to the music via streaming.

Anita Fontaine and Geoffrey Lillemon, creative directors of W&K Amsterdam’s Department of New Realities, commented, “The music industry has gone through multiple reinventions fueled by media and technology. With LAVA, we wanted to continue evolving the magic of music and the experience of listening, but create something that people have never seen before.

“Necessary Explosion’s impending vinyl release was the perfect opportunity to experiment with this concept, and to pair the nostalgic pace of the ’70s with new technology and give it a retro-future twist. With this experience, you engage at the same passive, chill rate you would looking at a sleeve or lava lamp. It’s the future digital vinyl sleeve.”

W&K worked closely with Necessary Explosion on the visuals. In fact, the artist behind Necessary Explosion is Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam executive creative director, Mark Bernath. The agency intends to make each future AR-vinyl record project by LAVA specific to the artist’s vision.

Credits:

Agency: Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam
Executive Creative Director: Mark Bernath
Creative Directors: Anita Fontaine & Geoffrey Lillemon
Business Director: Kirk Johnsen
Producer: Dylan Galletly
3D Animator & Modeller: Thomas de Rijk
Digital Designers: Leeza Pritychenko & Greta Medelyte

Executive Producer: Adele Major

Producer: Lily Darby
Engineers: Mike Latzoni, Nate Horstmann & Stephen Schieberl
Designer: Jenna Simmons