Bloom review

Matthew Sparkes

We review Bloom, a music creation app that can also be a work of art

Published on Sep 4, 2009

Bloom is a hard app to pin down to a specific genre, combining music and art.

The simple interface, part developed by Brian Eno, is a blank screen on which you create bubbles by tapping the display. As you tap, a note rings out, and fades as the bubble expands and becomes transparent. These taps build up, repeat and mutate to give you a bizarre, new-age music, of sorts.

When you launch the app you are given two options; create or listen. If you opt for listen you will be given a randomly created Bloom, which you can alter as you please. Opting for create gives you a blank slate. There's little choice between the two, because it's so easy to get started.

It's not a game, as there's no objective. It's not really a synthesizer, either, as there's no way to choose actual notes or control tempo or beat. it's somewhere between the two, some sort of ambient, chill-out app. It's all temporary, too, as it loops indefinitely and cannot be recorded.

It's wonderful to listen to, especially when reading. As it mutates it doesn't get boring or annoying, it just alters gradually until there's nothing left of your original input.

Tap the bottom-right of the screen and you're taken to the settings page. There's a simple volume slider, as well as a shake to clear option which lets you start from a clean slate with a jiggle of the wrist. Under this there's a delay button which sets how long the gap is before a tapped note is repeated; ramp it up to the limit and the delay will be measured in tens of seconds, lower it and each note will play every few seconds.

Three buttons rest right at the bottom of the screen. Listen will create a new, random Bloom. Freeze will set the current Bloom in concrete and keep looping it, and clear will wipe the Bloom.

Controls is just one of the three tabs available. About is a simple information screen, and Mood lets you choose from nine pre-created sets of noises. Each has a different feel, and you can set the app to slowly run through them automatically.

Usually, we like our apps to be functional, but this is an exception. Is it a work of art, like Eno's usual output? It's hard to say, but it makes wonderful background sounds and it's superb fun. Of course, you can't save a sound you like, but that's all part of the appeal. Our only gripe is the high price.