BJÖRK’S VULNICURA VR – REMASTERED
i am thrilled to say that vulnicura vr has been remastered !
it has new spatial audio , reprogrammed visuals .
when we did it originally , our hands were often tied because of memory limitations
and the capacity of immersive tech .
now the company pulsejet studios have upgraded the whole thing .
it is also a passion of mine to be part of a mindset where digital work doesn´t evaporate
and expire , as i have witnessed with a lot of my digital artist friends .
so i am grateful for all the labour the team put into this .
i was excited to combine all the songs on vulnicura into one VR album . out of all my music
, i felt it had the narrative and chronology to carry it .
it is a digital home for all the virtual reality videos we made
the VR videos have been touring museums around the world as part of the Björk Digital exhibition ,
but now that it is possible to put them all out on an accessible gaming platform available toeveryone ,
i am thrilled for people to be able to download them in their own home .
—Björk
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—PulseJet Studios, San Francisco’s leading VR music studio, in collaboration with Icelandic musician and artist Björk, is proud to announce the release of Vulnicura VR – Remastered, with new enhanced spatial audio and fully reprogrammed visuals, including added features, realized with the advancement of modern immersive technology. The experience is available now on the Vulnicura VR – Remastered app, which can be downloaded on the Apple Vision Pro.
The virtual reality album by the highly-acclaimed artist was first released in 2019. It is a culmination of Björk’s lifelong pursuit of uniting music, technology and nature into profound new forms. She was the first artist to embrace VR and consistently pioneers immersive experiences that break the mold of traditional performance. At the time of its release, Vulnicura VR was a cultural catalyst and continues to inspire creatives to push the boundaries of expression.
The partnership between PulseJet and Björk was announced in December 2024. PulseJet was inspired by Björk’s vision for Vulnicura VR, the narrative she constructed through the visuals and music as well as her commitment to making the experience extraordinary for her fans. PulseJet Studios founder, John Gearty, believes the reinvigoration of this production will encourage more artists to discover the creative potential behind VR.
“Björk was the first artist to conceptualize a VR album which we believe is the right approach to combine music with immersive tech,” said John Gearty, the CEO and founder of PulseJet Studios. “We’ve built our whole platform around the visual album and we couldn’t be more excited to have Vulnicura as one of our first.”
PulseJet Studios had the opportunity to collaborate directly with Björk herself as well as with members of the team who produced the original Vulnicura VR experience. World-renowned director Andrew Thomas Huang, M/M (Paris), Wolf & Crow, Stephen Malinowski, Jesse Kanda, James Merry, Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones all played a role in bringing this project to life, again.
The remastering process involved several aspects. An expert team of 3D artists, musicians and developers fine tuned the imagery, movement and sound of the arrangement. Visually, the content has almost all been completely rewritten in Unity’s Universal Resource Pipeline (URP). Audibly, the content uses newly remastered spatial audio that envelops the user in Björk’s lyrics and compositions.
“Vulnicura VR redefines emotional immersion,” says Liya Safina, Lead UX Designer. “In ‘Family,’ you stitch Björk’s broken heart back together through threads you weave yourself. The terrain traversal is based on LiDAR scans of real Icelandic landscapes (now altered by volcanic activity) — a blend of raw nature and digital preservation. We reconstructed the music scores in 3D space using Stephen Malinowski’s groundbreaking visualizer techniques — letting users experience sound wrapped around them, synesthetic and mathematical.”
Björk’s Vulnicura VR is just one aspect of the creative force the artist has become. The artist consistently pushes technology and art forward in ways that the world catches up to years later. Along with introducing the world to the first VR album, she has become one of the best-selling alternative artists of all time with over 40 million records sold.
PulseJet continues to partner with artists to create exciting, immersive content. Other experiences currently available on the PulseJet app include VR music videos with EDM producer Phutureprimitive and performances from Joshua Tree Music Festival by several artists including Nicky Genesis.
The link to download Vulnicura VR – Remastered for use on the Apple Vision Pro is available below. The experience will also be available soon on Meta Quest devices.
Vulnicura VR – Remastered on Apple Vision Pro – LINK