W&K's new AR platform turns your vinyl into 'music you can see'

Forget music videos; here's a visual experience for the generation rediscovering vinyl. A new platform developed by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam is claiming to deliver "music you can see" by adding augmented reality visuals when you play a record on a turntable.

The agency's "Department of New Realities" has come up with the platform, LAVA, and its first outing is on a new app designed for the vinyl release of the debut album by Amsterdam-based artist Necessary Explosion. Using the Necessary Explosion app, the listener can use their phone or tablet to view psychedelic AR sculptures that accompany the soulful, '70s vibe of each song as they play the record.

Audio fingerprinting technology triggers the AR content specifically designed for each track, and listeners can further engage with the sculptures by moving around them, as the proximity-based animations react when you move closer or further away.

Anita Fontaine and Geoffrey Lillemon, creative directors of W&K Amsterdam's Department of New Realities, say in a statement: "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, and say that each future iteration of LAVA will be specific to the artist's vision. The agency in collaboration also worked with The Lodge at W&K Portland.