Wake up to Yoko Kanno and Cornelius

Popular Japanese fashion designer and retailer UNIQLO teamed up with music legends Yoko Kanno and Cornelius to release a free alarm clock app. Available for iOS and Android devices, this app creates a unique alarm, depending on the weather and time. The visuals are very minimalist in style but varies depending on the day of the week. While the app is available in a multitude of languages (English, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Thai), the vocals are only available in English and Mandarin Chinese.

Check after the break for the promo video UNIQLO has released for this app, plus my quick review.

After downloading it on my Android phone, I was asked to select my location (either via GPS or I could select a location via a list), the language of the vocals, and the temp (*F or *C). Surprisingly, it gives you the ability to sync this app with your social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, etc…). I’m not sure if I want to tweet every time my alarm goes off, so I nixed that option. There is a really cool feature that brings up a rotating silhouette of a globe that shows the location of random users worldwide. One very minor gripe is that there is no landscape option.

As far as the actual alarm goes, you can definitely hear the signature touches by both Kanno and Cornelius. It is a catchy mix of warm chords and staccato arpeggios, depending on the current weather. The vocals are clearly understandable, even with the auto-tune. Unfortunately, for a deep sleeper like myself, the alarm music itself is way too soothing for me to use on a daily basis (unless I connect my phone to my sound system).

Overall, the app is cleverly designed, the visuals are easy on the eyes, but the alarm itself may not be enough to wake up heavy sleepers. It’s completely free, so go check it out for yourself.

Here is the video UNIQLO release to promote this app.