Helium, Homeshake: an Album in VR

Helium, Homeshake: an Album in VR

2022

How will VR impact the music industry?

This immersive experience is based on Helium, the 2019 album by Canadian musician Homeshake, with cover art designed by Salina Ladha.

The impetus for this project was to explore what it would feel like to be inside a world suggested by a musical album. Helium provided the perfect inspiration for this idea—its hazy soundscapes, lo-fi R&B textures, and introspective lyrics create an almost weightless atmosphere, evoking a sense of detachment and dreamlike wandering. The album’s sonic and emotional qualities naturally lent themselves to being reimagined as immersive spaces within Virtual Reality.

At the same time, we observed how modern streaming platforms have diminished the role of conceptual artwork that traditionally surrounds an album. Rather than reverting to physical formats like vinyl or CDs to restore this visual identity, we sought to use Virtual Reality as a way to reimagine how listeners engage with music in a multi-sensory space.

To bring this vision to life, the project was developed in Unreal Engine 4, transforming the album’s musical landscapes and lyrical themes into interactive environments. It consists of three main spaces, each inspired by a different track from Helium, and is designed to be explored in Virtual Reality using an Oculus Quest 2.

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