Bloom

Brian Eno needs no introduction. The guy coined the term 'ambient music'. He is the embodiment of artful calmness. Just listen to Music for Airports and you'll understand what I mean.

So I was getting pretty sick of this overhyped, underperforming, incredibly well marketed device known as the iPhone. You may have heard of it. Then out of nowhere, discover this gem...

Bloom.

An application designed by Brian Eno, Bloom is "generative music software". The idea of Bloom begins with one of 9 moods (which are really just scales). An ambient drone plays in the background, and as the user touches the screen of their iPhone (or iTouch), a note in the (randomly) selected scale is played. The note is then repeated at a fixed interval (which is user-adjustable), accompanied by any other notes that the user decides to play.

Each note is accompanied by a bubble that forms around your fingertip upon playing it. The bubbles fade out, as does each note.

To put it simply, Bloom does nothing more than create an undefined 2 dimensional matrix in which the user can play notes, loop/decay each note in the selected scale, and provide a simple visualizer to go with the sound.

And it is damn good.