Breathe! Robot the game a way to play with spatial audio

Collateral Nature, Immersive experience, Immersive sound

Enriched with immersive content, immersive sound and the tuning of most of the tracks in 432 hz like Verdi did, Morning Mars opens the dance with a fascinating approach to enjoy music. Morning Mars places Collateral Nature as one of the first Italian projects to interact organically with the new digital immersive experiences. the first single that has been released is Breathe! Robot. Breathe! Robot comes with a game.

The Game Breathe! Robot brings an immersive experience of the single Breathe! Robot. Showing the impact of spatial audio and the possibilities this new way of listening has. In a fun and interactive way you can experience when you move through the game. The game is build in WebGL making it possible to play in a web browser (firefox, chrome ).

You can find the game from on www.flowerofsound.com/app/cn/breatherobot

More on immersive sound as the most natural way to listen you can read here: http://flowerofsound.com/immersive-sound-the-natural-way/

Breathe! Robot the meaning

Collateral Nature, Flower of Sound, Immersive sound

Claudio Vittori is the producer of Collateral Nature. He wrote and produced the music and most of the lyrics of the new debut Album Morning Mars. The first single will be released on the 5th of July called Breathe! Robot. But why Breathe! Robot? What is the meaning behind this first single of Morning Mars.

“I composed Breathe! Robot thinking about the human breath and how little importance we assign to this vital mechanical action full of life force. Not only in life but on a spiritual level it calls for an awareness to differentiate between what is purely human and what is artificial. In the near future it will be increasingly difficult to distinguish the human form from a robot. In the breath we will find the essential distinction of life.

Breathe! Robot is an invitation to stop for a moment and breathe deeply, to understand the difference between automaton and being aware.

In our modern society nothing has a clear boundary any more and when you think you are progressing often you end up in the same place like a hamster with its wheel.

True wealth is to be able to understand the profound meaning that exists between living and surviving and being able to transcend from it. In other words stepping outside of the rat race. We are slaves to the propulsive thrust that we have inflicted on ourselves for decades. We just have to have more and more since the era of technology launched us in a mad rush with ephemeral ambitions. If we keep following this progression we are no longer needed, either the technology or the earth will take over, so maybe it’s time to start breathing, robot.

I composed the song by only using the instruments we use on stage (piano, ambient pad, bass and drums). Giving prominence to the dynamics. A dialogue between full and empty and intimate and dilated moments creating a living rhythm.

Key are the pauses when the breath is released giving a sense of communication between the outer world and the inner emotional experience.”

Breathe! Robot will be available on the 5th of July 2021 and will be available on all streaming platforms and in both stereo and Dolby Atmos format. Breathe! Robot will also be available in a game format you can play on this website. If you would like to listen to Breathe! Robot subscribe to our newsletter. You can have a pre-listen.

What is Flower of Sound?

Flower of Sound, Immersive experience, Immersive sound, Well-being

We would like to introduce you to Flower of Sound. Flower of Sound applies sound and technology to establish healing in the widest meaning of the word using vibration, or frequencies. We create immersive experiences based on spatial audio using XR technologies and for physical spaces using IoT (Internet of Things).

What does this mean?

We create virtual and physically appealing environments that enhance the effects of sound and light so it functions as a healing modality. We use our own experiences as musicians, producers and sound healers as well as evidence-based insights from neuroscience, technology and sound therapy to help you reach altered states of consciousness, giving you access to a deeper feeling of well-being. Our dream is to create digital medicine pills so you know exactly what to listen to when, and with what effect.

Or in less techy words:

“We create modern day immersive sound and light baths to help relax you, so you feel better, lighter and more at peace.”

What does this mean in terms of our offerings?

Flower is Sound has four key offerings:

A music catalogue produced in stereo, binaural and Dolby Atmos.
An XR application.
Immersive space / immersive installations built with IoT.
Live gigs in a metaverse environment “streaming” online and in real life.

The range of our music catalogue extends from pure tone, shamanic sound, neuromusic, fractal rhythm, ASMR all the way to ambient sounds. We produce everything in house and work with different sound healing artists.

Our music is produced in different formats and we create immersive experiences to amplify the effects. This includes 360 video, virtual reality clips or games. All the techniques we use are rooted in our research. We distribute all our music and experiences via different streaming platforms including YouTube, Tidal, Amazon, HD, oculus, Quest 2 and our own immersive space in Amersfoort, Netherlands.

Our mission is to create more well-being through the application of sound. Through our blog, we share our knowledge about soundhealing and technology. To get the latest blog and other updates, sign up for our newsletter.

Immersive sound, the natural way

Flower of Sound, Immersive sound, Well-being

A new revolution is happening within the audio and music world. It is called immersive sound or spatial audio. This way of experiencing sound opens up Pandora’s box of possibilities. And we are just at the beginning. If you like or work with music but aren’t so interested in technology you’ve probably experienced immersive sound. You likely had no idea what it was, what it can do and how you can use it. If you are interested in technology and audio you’ve probably heard a lot of terms that sound cool, yet you might have a vague understanding of what you can really do with it, or what it really is. In both these cases, this blogpost is for you. This is the first in a series of posts on immersive sound.

The natural way

So what is immersive sound? Immersive sound is foremost the most natural way to experience sound. If you walk into the woods, you’ll hear the birds and other animals around you. Some birds will be chirping loudly while other birds are further away. Some sounds will come from above, others from below. Say you bring a friend along who starts to sing. You will hear that voice coming from the direction of where your friend is. If you are too far you won’t hear it. If she is on your left, you will hear more with your left ear then with your right.

“Immersive sound is foremost the most natural way to experience sound.”

You hear most of the sounds with your ears but also with your body. Think of a heavy tree that falls down. Maybe you can only hear the leaves but when it hits the ground you can pick up the vibrations with your body, especially if you are sensitive. The sound of water running in the little creek nearby is extremely relaxing not only because you pick it up with your ears but also with your whole body or energy field. It is subtle but it does make a big difference in the overall experience. This is immersive sound.

Recording sound

The downside of this natural sound is that it can not be duplicated or heard more than 1.000 km and it can’t be warped in time. Then, recordings came around. Recordings are by definition limited by technology. To put it simply, it is the recording device and the playing of the device that bring the limitations.

At the same time, it also brings a whole new world of possibilities. You can mix and match different recordings and sounds to a composition of your own liking. You can bring in electronic instruments. Here, we see the birth of the producer.

Technology has now reached a time where it is possible to record (ambisonic), to produce and also to replay sound in such a way that it reproduces the natural experience of listening sound. It is this experience that is called spatial audio or immersive sound. And it is made possible by formats like Dolby Atmos, WFS, Auro, or Sony 360.

Making sound spatial

To give you a deeper understanding of this spatial audio/immersive sound, when you listen to music or audio on the radio, television or via your streaming services you often listen to it in a mono format or stereo format. All the different sounds are brought together in either one (mono) or two outputs (stereo), or for the non-technical readers two speakers.

With the latest available sound technology, you can now bring more layers in the output and this means you can basically program the audio/music in such a way that you can not only hear different instruments at the same time but the sound can also come from different directions. It’s as if you can perceive and hear it the violinist standing right before you, the singer behind you, the drums 3 meters before you and the guitarist 2 meters on the left. This gives you the experience as if you are standing right in the middle of the band.

Another possibility is actually to make the sound move. Imagine the singer is walking around you for instance, or moving closer and further away from you. This can be done with just audio or in combination with virtual reality, 360 degree video and games.

The power of immersive

By making music and audio spatial or immersive we bring extra layers of experiences, opening up whole new world of possibilities with sound. From creating really cool and intimate experiences like experiencing sound as if the singer whispers the song in your ear, making listening to sound a whole body experience, to directing the sound at specific heights creating an extra layer of relaxation for the body. It is because of these possibilities and the extra power of immersive sound that we at Flower of Sound produce all our digital content in spatial audio (for the tech people, in Dolby Atmos and Binaural).

Do you like this blog or have any comments? We’d love to hear from you. This blog is the first in its series. We’ll continue to explore other aspects of immersive sound, from the ways to use it, to more in depth posts about the technology involved. If you’d like to stay informed of our latest posts and news please sign up for our email newsletter.