Post-rock titans Sigur Rós delivered one of last month's coolest musical surprises when they released Route One, a day-long "slow TV" broadcast that paired a live-streamed journey through the band's native Iceland with an algorithmically generated remix of their new single "Óveður." The band is taking that project to the next level this morning by releasing a 360-degree version of Route One on YouTube. (Playback is supported in Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera — sorry, Safari users.) It's like the best possible Google Street View trip through Iceland: 24 hours of fully navigable video, soundtracked by a version of the band's music that's evolving in real time.
In addition to the 360-degree version, the band is also releasing a full HD version of the original Route One broadcast and an iOS app with the same technology used to create Route One's generative soundtrack. The former is perfect for viewers who need new desktop photos or just want to enjoy the majesty of the Icelandic landscape, and the latter creates a new version of "Óveður" every time it's used. When you combine those two projects with the release of Route One's 360-degree incarnation and the compact time-lapse version released a week ago, you're left looking at a remarkably ambitious endeavor.
"We stuck to being our stubborn selves and did it anyway"
Filming and releasing a full day's worth of 360-degree video meant getting past some imposing technical obstacles, most of which had to do with the sheer size of the video being captured. The satellite connection the band used to live stream the traditional version of Route One was nowhere near strong enough to send out live 360-degree video — in some remote locations, it couldn't even handle the standard broadcast without introducing some unexpected sonic glitches. When the time came to upload the video to YouTube, the band had to send a hard drive to YouTube headquarters using a courier. There was just too much data. "A lot of people told us that it just wasn't possible to record a journey that long in 360 [degrees], or that because it's slowly changing scenery... it wouldn't be worth it," wrote the band in an email. "But we stuck to being our usual stubborn selves and did it anyway."
Because of the final product's size, the video has been chopped up into two dozen discrete chunks and plopped into a Route One 360-degree playlist. The music and scenery varies widely from chunk to chunk, so they each have their own distinct character: there are urban areas, vast glacial plains, and looming mountains, all given a unique and evolving soundtrack. Almost a month has passed between the first Route One live stream and this release, meaning the band has had plenty of time to spend with every inch and note making up the journey. Can you blame them for leaving the project with a favorite scene?
"The bus comes back into Reykjavik close to the end of the journey," wrote the band. "The sun is shining right into the lens, and [vocalist] Jonsi [Birgisson] enters from stage left and proceeds to open the pedestrian gates on Laugavegur (Reykjavik's main street)... As he's walking ahead of the vehicle, the music completely coincidentally starts to add his voice to the mix, and the whole thing comes together in a way that truly brought tears to the eyes. It was then we knew we'd done a good thing."
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