BT is dropping the world’s first programmatic album that is a software cipher for fans with Origin Protocol with ‘Metaversal’.
‘Metaversal’ follows the wildly successful release of BT’s groundbreaking landmark Genesis.Json which sold for 88.8 ETH on Superrare in May. ‘Metaversal’ is BT’s 14th studio album, designed from the ground up for the blockchain. Like Genesis.json It is built around a 200,000 line of code, one-of-one, NFT. Metaversal is both an audio-visual playback engine and software cipher. In the Metaversal engine, audio-reactive art is woven together with cryptographic riddles that fans can play to win 33 unique, super rare, secret, encrypted one-of-one NFT’s. Metaversal is a cryptographic treasure hunt.
The Metaversal engine follows the lunar cycle and plays back the album differently in three modes: day, night, and during the full moon. It is accompanied by 11 handmade 3D-printed, fine art sculptures, lovingly created from the true audio waveforms of each song. Each sculpture contains an embedded NFC tag developed by Suku that binds the physical object to its digital equivalent living on the blockchain. Additionally, there are bespoke dual vinyl box sets all hand-numbered in gold foil.
“I believe blockchain technologies will liberate the arts and free artists of all stripes to be able to release meaningful media at will and be celebrated and remunerated fairly. It’s a miracle that in our lifetime it’s possible to combine creative coding, digital treasure hunting, cryptography, art, and music into a single unified project. I’m humbled to be alive and to create to witness this. It is my great hope that this leads my brilliant community of fans (many of whom are incredibly gifted creators in their own right) into the web 3.0 experience. My dream is this inspires a future where all creators thrive; creating works of true creative significance, merit, and meaning for their audiences.
Metaversal is more of an experience than an album. It is the culmination of a life obsessed with subtext and hidden meaning in everything from artistic works to music and nature. The thru line of my greatest passions, music, math, art, and encrypted design weave together into a beautiful and intentional tapestry. Whether it’s the golden spiral hidden in a fern or finding Bach’s name hidden in a musical cryptogram, I’ve been captivated since childhood by hidden meaning encoded in great works of art and music. From Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to Bach and Shostakovich – the idea of subtext and musical encryption has held profound significance and, turns out, to my fans too. Since my first album, Ima, I have been hiding and encoding messages in all my work, some found and some still yet unfound.
This is a passion my fans and I share. I’ve met innumerable hackers, cryptographers, and code-breaking enthusiasts amongst my fans. To say I have smart and creative fans is the understatement of the century. One of the most thrilling things about releasing music over the years has been how long it will take and who will uncover the hidden meanings in the compositions first.
This is the first time I’ve actively gamified this process, overtly encrypting multiple layers of meaning into a body of music, art, and code. As this is in an auction format and limited to a very small group, I wanted a way for my core audience to be able to play-to-own rare NFT’s as well. This begins a journey of riddles, ciphers, and puzzles for you to explore, solve and unlock, revealing hidden easter eggs and treasures. The end will remain a secret to all but those who solve these.”
— BT
Metaversal is being released as a tiered auction on Origin Protocol’s NFT Launchpad on September 29th, 2021 – with 11 spots to be filled – but any and all who want to participate in the solving of Metaversal, are able to do so.
BT’s landmark Genesis.Json was the first piece of 1-of-1 software, containing a 24-hour audio-visual meditation with over 15,000 hand sequenced audio and visual events ever created. Genesis.Json reacts to web-scraped data via network time, functions as a grandfather clock of sorts, with audio that evolves throughout a 24-hour timeline, with the energy and vibe of the music to match the time of day/night.
*Featured image via BT*
