Radiohead has launched Polyfauna, an app based on the bands last album, King of Limbs.

Developer Universal Everything describes the app as “ a pioneering new collision between digital art and the world of apps … set to a lunar calendar”.

In practice, that means travelling through a series of stark abstract landscapes, controlled with the devices accelerometer – but Polyfauna isnt anything as simple as a mobile game. The only direct interaction users can perform is drawing with their finger, which causes matching shapes to form on the screen, and the only objective is to find a red dot, which takes you to the next level.

Instead, the emphasis is on the audiovisual experience – each level is soundtracked by its own sparse set of noises, taken from the bands recording sessions, and the apps design is based on sketches by longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood.

As a promotional tool, Polyfauna isnt particularly effective; its not going to win over any non-fans, and certainly not those who reject the band for being too pretentious. And its unlikely to have the same effect on the public that some of Radioheads previous digital experiments – most notably, the pay-what-you-want launch of In Rainbows – but its an interesting little tidbit nonetheless.