In the world of virtual reality (VR) you occasionally come across a piece of content that defies explanation, a mashup of several ideas and genres into one cohesive whole. Tomorrow, Fathomable Ltd will launch its first VR title for Oculus Rift, a synergy of music and puzzle elements called GNOSIS.

“Dive into audiovisual cyberspace and explore a large network of knowledge unfolding around you,” explains the official synopsys. “GNOSIS is a Virtual Reality artifact and music album combining retroarcade-styled puzzle gameplay, interactive data visualisation and artistic performance, all set to a kaleidoscopic soundtrack by VVDS, Cooptrol, Black Bolt, Psykocosmos and Q P.O.P. Dance performance by BACANTOH.”

If that didn’t help explain GNOSIS then there’s always the bizarre and rather surreal launch trailer (below) which features in-game footage as well as several player impressions from events GNOSIS has been showcased at.

Originally the work of lone developer Robert Bogucki, the Fathomable team has grown to nine. “I’m a marine hydrographer by trade and a VJ /creative coder by passion; those disciplines are not as unrelated as they might seem,” Bogucki wrote on The Virtual Report.biz last year. “Hydrographers usually work five weeks on, five off – leaving me time to engage in passion projects, which included Machineparanoia using Ogre3D game engine, Resolume and Spout. We progressed this by adding a Kinect sensor to allow festivalgoers to mix their dance moves into the projected VJ-mix for a German installation. This led to using Kinects to capture dance performances which became the basis of the project I’ve been working on ever since…”

GNOSIS will launch today for Oculus Rift and Windows PC, with Fathomable Ltd also planning a HTC Vive version for a later date. Check out the trailer and see you can figure out what’s going on, and VRFocus will bring you further updates from the GNOSIS team as details are released.