When Björk first experimented with virtual reality a decade ago, the world wasn’t quite ready for it. Back then, only a handful of people even owned VR headsets. Fast forward to 2025, and here we are, Björk’s iconic Vulnicura VR has been remastered for Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, promising new life for her deeply emotional album in an age where immersive art finally has a home.
But while the concept still feels fresh, the execution? Well, that’s where things get complicated.
From 360° Dreams to Full Immersion
Let’s rewind to 2014. Before Apple Vision Pro or even Meta Quest existed, filmmaker Andrew Thomas Huang filmed Björk performing Stonemilker, the first track from Vulnicura, using a 360° camera perched on the windswept beaches of Iceland.
At that time, most people didn’t even know what a VR headset looked like. Oculus was still selling early developer kits, and Samsung’s Gear VR was just beginning to experiment with mobile VR for the Galaxy Note 4.
So Björk did what Björk does best: she turned limitation into art. Instead of selling the experience digitally, she brought Vulnicura VR into physical spaces, installing the immersive videos in record stores and museums so people could literally step inside her music. A few months later, in 2015, she uploaded the first video to YouTube, just as YouTube added 360° video support. Talk about perfect timing.
Building the VR Album Before VR Was Cool
From there, Björk and her team dove headfirst into experimentation. They released more 360° experiences for tracks like Black Lake, Mouth Mantra (which was filmed inside Björk’s mouth because, of course,e it was), and Quicksand, one of YouTube’s first major 360° livestreams.
These weren’t just music videos. They were digital sculptures, abstract, sometimes unsettling, but always emotionally raw.
Exhibitions popped up at places like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Vivid Sydney, drawing crowds who’d never worn a headset before.
Later, two tracks—Notget and Family—were reimagined as real-time VR experiences, running on game engines rather than pre-recorded video. By 2019, Björk released the full Vulnicura Virtual Reality Album on Steam for PC VR, complete with all those tracks in one surreal, emotional journey priced at $30.
The 2025 Remaster: New Tech, Old Soul
Fast forward to today. The VR landscape looks completely different.
Standalone headsets like Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro have made high-end VR accessible without wires or gaming PCs. It makes sense that Björk wanted her virtual world reborn for this new generation.
So, she teamed up with PulseJet Studios to remaster the experience for modern hardware.
According to Björk’s own post on X (formerly Twitter):
“It has new spatial audio, reprogrammed visuals. When we did it originally, our hands were often tied because of memory limitations and the capacity of immersive tech.”
PulseJet upgraded everything from the ground up higher fidelity environments, sharper visuals, and support for hand-tracking controls instead of clunky controllers. They even tweaked the spatial audio to feel more three-dimensional, wrapping Björk’s voice around you like the wind on a Reykjavik cliff.
The Good, the Bad, and the Baffling
Trying it out on a Meta Quest 3, it quickly becomes clear that Vulnicura VR Remastered is a fascinating mix of brilliance and frustration.
Let’s start with the good: when it works, it’s hauntingly beautiful.
The music seeps through you rather than around you. The lighting, movement, and atmosphere feel deeply personal — it’s like being inside Björk’s emotional diary.
But then, the technical side kicks in.
Hand-tracking doesn’t always register your gestures, so you often end up reaching for controllers anyway. The “overworld,” a serene, stylized Icelandic landscape that serves as the album’s hub suffers from noticeable frame rate drops. It’s pretty, sure, but not nearly stable enough for a $35 VR app in 2025.
The Download Disaster
The real patience-tester comes before you even reach the first song.
Despite being several gigabytes in size, the app doesn’t include the actual video content at install. Instead, each track has to download individually, which means sitting inside that low-detail Icelandic hub world staring at a “Downloading content…” screen that feels more 2015 than 2025.
There’s no progress bar, no percentage indicator just a vague blur and a “Got it” button. It’s the VR equivalent of waiting for a dial-up modem to connect.
It’s baffling, really. Why not package at least the first track in the initial download? I’d much rather wait in my living room while it installs than burn precious minutes in a virtual snowfield that looks like a forgotten PS3 game.
Once It Loads, The Emotions Hit Hard
When you finally make it past those rough edges, though, the magic starts to flicker back to life.
Tracks like Stonemilker and Black Lake still hold a strange power. Even though the footage was shot a decade ago on 4K monocular cameras (meaning you don’t get full 3D depth), the emotional intensity of Björk’s performance makes up for it. You can almost feel the chill of the Icelandic wind as she sings directly to you.
Still, time hasn’t been kind to some of the visuals. The resolution feels soft compared to today’s ultra-sharp 8K 360° cameras. Mouth Mantra, filmed inside her mouth, is more confusing than artistic in this low-fidelity format. Whatever metaphor was intended gets a little lost amid the blur and distortion.
The Real Highlights: Notget and Family
Here’s where things take a turn for the extraordinary. The two real-time rendered VR tracks, Notget and Family, are pure gold.
Unlike the older 360° videos, these are fully interactive, running on modern graphics engines with crisp lighting, dynamic movement, and surreal, pulsating worlds that respond to Björk’s voice.
It feels less like watching a music video and more like standing inside one — you become part of the performance rather than an observer. The color palettes shift with the melody, the space breathes around you, and it’s impossible not to get lost in it.
Honestly, these two pieces alone justify the remaster. I found myself wishing Björk would release them separately or better yet, integrate them into social platforms like VRChat, where people could share and experience them together.
How It Looks and Feels on Vision Pro
If you’re curious about the Apple Vision Pro version, it’s visually cleaner, but still inherits most of the same structural issues. The image upscaling and spatial audio improvements shine brightest here, making Björk’s vocals swirl naturally around your head.
Still, even with Apple’s power, the core limitation remains: these are old recordings dressed in new clothes. Beautiful, yes — but not entirely new.
And that’s what makes this remaster feel so conflicted. It’s trying to resurrect a moment in VR history that was groundbreaking then, but feels quaint now.
Pricing and Value: For Fans or the Curious Few?
Vulnicura VR Remastered costs $35 on the Meta Horizon Store (for Quest 3 and Quest 3S) and $45 on Apple’s App Store for Vision Pro users.
That’s a tough sell for casual listeners. If you’re a diehard Björk fan or a VR art collector, it’s an easy yes. You’re not just buying songs — you’re buying an interactive museum piece, a part of music and tech history.
But if you’re new to Björk or just looking for something visually stunning to show off your headset, temper your expectations. This isn’t a polished AAA VR experience. It’s a passionate, eccentric experiment that occasionally stumbles over its own ambition.
Why It Still Matters
Here’s what really stands out: Björk was creating immersive art long before it was fashionable. When most pop stars were chasing streams and views, she was exploring how music could feel when it surrounded you.
Even with its flaws, Vulnicura VR Remastered reminds us that true innovation often starts messy. It doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to push boundaries.
Watching Björk embrace VR back then was like watching the future trying to squeeze through the technology of the time. Now that the hardware has finally caught up, this remaster serves as a time capsule, proof of just how far we’ve come and how far imagination can go when tech dares to follow.
Here’s What This Really Means
When you step back, Vulnicura VR Remastered isn’t just a re-release. It’s a reminder of what VR could be: a bridge between music, emotion, and presence.
Yes, the experience wobbles between breathtaking and broken, but it also shows how immersive storytelling can evolve. With just a few fixes — better optimization, bundled downloads, maybe even updated visuals this could stand as one of the most poetic VR albums ever made.
Until then, it’s a beautiful, flawed love letter to experimentation and to an artist who’s always a few years ahead of everyone else.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a Björk fan, buy it. If you’re a VR enthusiast, try it even just to see where the medium’s artistic roots lie. But if you’re expecting a seamless, high-tech spectacle, you might walk away disappointed.
Vulnicura VR Remastered is messy, moody, and magical just like Björk herself.
And maybe that’s exactly the point.
