I’m excited to announce a new feature for A Year of Tolkien book club: Reading Soundscapes!
I’ve teamed up with music composer and sound designer Jordan Rannells, who has spent years creating original soundscapes for J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, to create an audio experience for each post of the Year of Tolkien book club!
Each month, I’ll be recording a reading of my posts diving into Tolkien’s works that will feature Jordan’s original music, ambient sound design, and sounds from nature added in the background.
This book club was created to read more of Tolkien’s works but to also really slow down that reading experience and connect with nature. To think that Jordan has gone out into nature to collect sounds that will be incorporated into what I’m doing with the Year of Tolkien slow read is just about the coolest thing. I can’t thank Jordan enough for this idea and helping make this experience happen.
To help support Jordan’s work, the soundscape for the Year of Tolkien book club will be for paid subscribers. But I’ve made this first one available for everyone so that you can see if it’s something you would be interested in! (And if there is anyone who is very excited or interested in this and cannot become a paid subscriber at this time, please DM me and I can see what I can do!)
You can listen to the first soundscape here in this post (just click “play” above!).
More about Jordan and the Soundscapes of Middle-earth
Earlier last year, the Voices of Arda team (made up of various Tolkien content creators, including myself!) did a reading together of some of Tolkien’s works with soundscapes and interviewed Jordan about his process. You can learn more about how he creates soundscapes for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion by checking that out:
Beyond this book club, if anyone is interested in hearing more of the soundscapes of Middle-earth and getting them for your own reading collection you can head to Jordan’s website here! Personally, I found reading The Silmarillion with the soundscape to be such a rewarding experience for me. I really recommend checking it out, especially if you want to slow down your reading experience or just really enjoy listening to audiobooks.1
I hope you all enjoy this added feature for our slow read! I’ll be doing my best in reading these posts out loud and hope to get better and better at doing so throughout the year for you all!
If you end up wanting to purchase anything from his website, you can use KELLY25 for a discount! I’m waiving any commissions I would earn from this code so all purchases directly support Jordan while also getting you a little discount!
