Björk is using the musical instrument “reacTable” on the world tour for her new album “Volta”, which was released globally yesterday. The Icelandic singer performed live using the instrument at Coachella Festival 2007 in California, in the first public performance to a mainstream audience. The shows featuring the reacTable will take place in several music festivals during the next 18 months.

This revolutionary electronic music instrument is a key element to Björk’s new world tour. The reacTable was created by the Music Technology Group of Univesitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. The technology works using a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface, filmed by a camera underneath that analyses the movement of the fingertips and the nature, position and orientation of the objects. The musicians can control the instrument simultaneously by basically moving objects on the table, creating complex sounds and musical landscapes with the movements. A projector, also located under the table, draws dynamic animations, giving a visual feedback of the audio synthesizer.

Check out the press release to find out more.

Read a post about reacTable at Sci-Fi Tech.

See videos of Björk in action at her channel on YouTube. See Björk’s site for more information on the new album.

Via El Mundo (in Spanish).