Backwards and forwards

Germany – Rapper Kontra K has released his latest album, Labyrinth, with an interactive music video that lets the viewer travel through time.

• The rapper stars in a murder mystery told using a non-linear narrative
• By interacting at certain points, viewers can affect the outcome of the story

Next To You is the latest Transmedia Music Video to go viral. Although viewers start in the present, they can choose to go back in time at any stage of the song to try and piece together the events that led to the gruesome deaths of the story’s characters.

Each time zone also has its own acoustic quality. Production studio Unit9 worked with the artist to create two versions of the single Next To You, one more distant and muffled, reflecting the past.

‘Our immersive experience challenged everyone to keep both films in mind at all times,’ explains director Maximilian Niemann, who worked with post-production studio NHB Studios Düsseldorf. ‘At all points in the experience, the storylines need to work on their own, but also together.’