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Music

Audio-Reactive Moons Erupt in iO Sounds' "Another Love EP" Video

Rock, volcanic explosions, dust, gas, and energy inspired visual artist and programmer Joëlle to create this generative music platform.
Images courtesy the artist

IO Sounds - Another Love EP from Derelicht on Vimeo.

As an established denizen of the UK underground, iO Sounds explores the darker, more minimal side of house and garage. With a sonic palette that is both futuristic and familiar in a retro way, the producer crafts subtly impressionistic dance floor music. For part of his new Another Love EP, out now on 20/20 Vision Recordings, the artist commissioned visual artist, programmer, and designer Joëlle to create a generative music platform that took three months to complete.

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Joëlle tells The Creators Project that the concept evolved from research into Jupiter's moon, Io. After discovering that Io was the most geologically active location in the solar system with over 400 volcanoes, she knew she had her conceptual inspiration. “This inspired thoughts around how the surfaces and textures of a planet’s moon might look and feel, and really informed the aesthetic of the video,” Joëlle said. “Rock, volcanic explosions, dust, gas, and energy were elements that I wanted to convey, and I wanted it to be quite gritty and slightly surreal.”

To pull these texture off, Joëlle used Trapcode Mir v2 Beta and Trapcode Sound Keys in After Effects to create audio-reactive moons and landscapes. “I’m a huge fan of the Trapcode plugins as they really allow for fast iteration and experimentation,” she explains. “There’s also the unknown element as it’s somewhat generative and there are some unexpected results which can be awesome.” She then imported the renders into Quartz Composer and added some effects using a plugin by vade called Optical Flow. Using the videos as a data source, she next applied feedback, distortion, and blur with some of the parameters driven by the BPM using the EMIT Quartz Composer library by Rybotron. Joëlle then captured those results in real time using Syphon Recorder, and re-imported them into After Effects to make the final edit.

The evolving orbs look rad online and may have taken months to create, but we'd wait months more to watch them warp and wiggle live in the background of an iO Sounds show. Check out some of our favorite moments from the video below:

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Click here to grab a copy of iO Sounds' Another Love EP.

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