A DEEPER DIVE: Creating Immersive Stories through Sound

Everyone connects with stories differently. Some want to read a book, others like watching movies, or playing video games, and some just love to listen.

So, when we tasked our Folktellers’ musical team to come up with an audio experience for the books within our Excerpts from an Unknown Guidebook Series, we asked them,

“If you were creating a universe from scratch, what would it sound like?”

To make their job even harder, we challenged them to craft an immersive auditory experience, which we dubbed SOUNDSCAPE™, that would allow our audiences to select different levels of immersion, putting fans smack dab in the middle of the story.

In the beginning, all they had to work with was the book series, and the basic foundations of our storytelling universe, starting with the opening of Book I: Phases of the Moon:

There’s a story in the story

Like a wheel within the wheel

Spiraling forever

Through the world we see and feel.

There’s a tale within the fable

Like a gear within the gear

Marking time forever

Until the secret is revealed.

From there, we gave our musical team a brief outline of what this series is all about — A Boy, a Book, and a Shadow:

In every age, across time and space, there have been Folktellers. These are the select few who have been chosen to collect and share the stories that must be told.

Unassuming teenager, Aaron Anderson, has his world turned upside down as he learns that his destiny is to become a Folkteller, a guardian and wielder of those essential stories that comprise the hopes, fears and potential of humanity across all dimensions. Aaron and a group of friends find themselves on a desperate mission to protect those stories from shadowy creatures who have the power to manifest as monsters of myth and legend to snuff out all life and light, wherever it might exist. And, along the way.

Aaron will be forced to overcome his crippling lack of confidence and trust himself to use the primal power of these stories to fight back the darkness and bring order to the Universe.

Producer Jaunty Meek noted:

“The Folktellers are notorious for challenging us as musicians, and we love it. Music is a powerful tool to tell stories, as the emotional connection is immediate. That means we only have a few quick seconds to hook our audiences and get them engaged, or risk losing them. That is what makes this project so exciting!”

Producers Randy and Allen Lynch added:

“It is a daunting task to set the tone for an entire universe. But we believe that even the most complex things must start with an elegant simplicity. You have to get the basic, foundational sounds correct, so that you can build off them. Then, you can add layer after layer and take that soundscape anywhere across the cosmos.”

Singer/Songwriter Lexi Jones concluded:

“There is a lot of pressure in creating something that you know is just the beginning of an entire storytelling universe. It’s daunting and you keep asking yourself, ‘Where do I even start?’ Eventually, I just went back to the stories themselves and thought about the unique journey of each of the characters. I decided their starting points would become the places where our musical world should begin as well.”

Ultimately, the Folktellers artists came up with the unique SOUNDSCAPE™ audio platform, that offers three levels of immersion for their listeners. These new audio books for the Excerpts from an Unknown Guidebook Series will include wonderful narration, inventive scoring, and beautiful, original songs in the following formats:

A. Standard Soundscape

Straight Narration with selected songs

(For those who appreciate spoken word and leading narrative voice)

B. Enhanced Soundscape

Narration with full scoring soundtrack and selected songs

(For those who want a deeper listening experience, while letting the narrative voice lead)

C. Premium Soundscape

Narration with full scoring soundtrack, complete album of songs. and artist commentary

(For those that want a full, auditory, immersive experience)

It will be interesting to see and hear what these incredibly talented troubadours have cooked up in the first series offering, Phases of the Moon.

If you’re as curious as we are, you can sneak a listen of one of the original songs from the audio book series. This first tune represents the bond between grandfather and grandson, demonstrating how even the most complex universes begin with a simple story.

Check out Ahoy, My Boy! Right here: https://youtu.be/_LQry252SFc