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Games

Virtual Psychedelia: Enter Vinyl Williams' Surreal Jungle

Explore the interactive, lo-fi music video filled with oversized diamonds, trippy sounds and views of outer space.

Remember that creepy tunnel scene in the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory when Gene Wilder turns awesomely demented while embarking on a psychedelic boat trip with crazy, multicolored lights and images of eyeballs and insects on people’s faces? Yeah, well that is how Vinyl Williams' interactive music video feels like, except less traumatizing, more ethereal, and immersive. The Los Angeles-based visual artist and musician who explores esoteric concepts inspired by outer space, religious imagery, and the unconscious mind produced a surreal environment in the new video for his single "Stellarscope." The A/V project is powered by Unity, and is available to navigate online or download and play on your desktop here.

The heavy and psychedelic vibe of his music flows with the lo-fi landscape, and is intertwined with the dream-like interaction players experience in the virtual, and at times, ghostly environment. As players approach objects, they discover new sounds that go along with the trippy melody like a tree that sprouts synthesizers. Williams' world is a musical journey through a tropical forest floating on orbital space. It takes you through a collage of ancient archetypal images, nonsensical 3D objects and architecture, and leads you to the eternal.

Jump on oversized diamonds, walk through a tiled floor of black and white eyes, go inside a hybrid between the milky way and a cloud, go up a never-ending staircase, and finally reach a space-like church where you'll find the low-drone synthesizer that pulls you in as the game comes to an end. Eventually you have to tell yourself, "There's no knowing where we're going… and why did I eat that many mushrooms?"

Photos via DAZED DIGITAL and Vinyl Williams.

[via DAZED DIGITAL]