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Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Creative in association withGear Seven
Group745

VW Collaborate with Underworld on 'Play The Road'

22/11/2013
Production Company
London, UK
405
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Unique music piece composed depending on how car is driven via Tribal WW London & B-Reel

Volkswagen Golf GTI & Underworld have collaborated on an experience that aims to redefine the meaning of driving music.  The project highlights both Volkswagen’s & Underworld’s strong history of innovation. 
 

In a unique project, Volkswagen Golf GTI, Underworld and Tribal Worldwide, London, have developed software and Underworld exclusive music compositions that synchronise motion, technology and music. This is the Play The Road experience.

 

 B-Reel London produced the films, with Trine Pillay producing, Anders Hallberg directing and Peter Riis as DOP. Ed Sayers also directed a special behind-the-scenes making-of film.

 


Underworld’s Rick Smith: “I think we all felt from the beginning that if it was just an experiment that produced an experimental result, and that was it, then it was going to be a failure. It needed to arouse emotions, as music does. What was really fascinating, was our precision driver, a self-proclaimed non-musician, doing the most beautiful things – performances.”


Underworld’s Karl Hyde: “Driving and music are probably the most important things in my musical education: sitting in the back of my dad’s car at night. It was a filmscape to me, it was beautifully lit and the dashboard was magical, and radio Luxemburg or some pirate station was on the radio and that was everything to me.  It’s still the root of why I love music. Being in a car surfing the radio, finding stuff that suits how you feel.”

 
Underworld has created a dynamic composition and helped Volkswagen develop a software application that reads the Golf GTI’s behaviour and creates music that is completely in tune with the drive. Every turn of the wheel, gearshift or location change, is reflected in the music. Every drive is different creating a unique performance every time.

 
Matt Oxley, Head of Creative Technology, Tribal Worldwide, London, said: “Play The Road is a highly ambitious concept that reinvents driving music. We’ve created an experience that blends music, technology and emotion, turning the new Volkswagen Golf GTI into a responsive musical instrument. It delivers a unique experience. 

 
Demonstrating the one-off concept has demanded months of composing, coding and driving, using a collaborative team of experts including: sound designers, developers, drivers and the members of Underworld themselves, all on the safety of a track. The end result is at the cutting edge of ‘responsive’ and ‘reactive’ music
 

The application utilises engine data from the Golf GTI’s on-board computer, combining it with steering, acceleration and GPS data (calculated from the phone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and GPS receiver). This data is filtered, smoothed and analysed. The musical programming language PD (Pure Data) uses the data to create and affect the music in real time, meaning the drive is always in sync with the music.

 
Nick Ryan, Sound Designer, Nick Ryan Music: “The idea of making a piece of music that’s non-linear is challenging. It’s made even more challenging when the audience rather than the composer interacts with that composition. When you’re actually playing it with an instrument that’s not even a musical instrument - a car - that’s an extreme abstraction of what we think of as music.” 

 
As the Play The Road experience is not available for general release the public will have the opportunity to drive the Volkswagen Golf GTI with the Play The Road Experience by entering an exclusive competition on Facebook.co.uk/VolkswagenUK.
 

Tom Wharfe, Communications Manager, Volkswagen UK: “Music and driving have always been synonymous since the invention of the in-car stereo.  Along with the new Golf GTI’s advanced technological features we wanted to explore how we could build on the driving experience and make music feel like an integral part of driving. For safety reasons, we can’t release Play the Road to the public, but it’s important for us to continue to innovate, learn from this and find applications for our future cars.”

Credits
Work from B-Reel Films (old)
ALL THEIR WORK