Canongate go ‘cutting edge’ with Bunny Munro audiobook

So you’ll remember I spoke about Nick Cave’s new novel The Death of Bunny Munro (Canongate) in an earlier Daily Bookshot? And you’ll also remember I spoke about the girly design and pinkness of the cover being a bit of a stumbling block for the butch reader? Well for those manly men out there (and manly women too), who want to absorb this great new novel, but would feel a bit uncomfortable parading around with such a ‘distinctly pinkly’ book, Canongate (God bless them) have come up with a solution, and it’s one that’s more than a little bit special (and appealing to everyone, regardless of manliness).

The solution, which coincides with the release of the hardback edition, is that Canongate are also offering a fully unabridged audiobook version of The Death of Bunny Munro, which, wait for it, is narrated by Nick Cave himself. But that’s only a teeny bit of what makes this audio version ‘more than a little bit special’. The audiobook is also being heralded as groundbreaking, in that it employs a special 3D audio spatial mix to give the listener an altogether unique and new listening experience. Mr. Cave’s pretty excited about the whole thing. Here’s what he has to say about it:

The idea of creating a book which can be experienced in different ways is exciting for me. Iain and Jane, with Arup, have created a groundbreaking audio journey which allows the listener to experience the book in a hitherto unprecedented third dimension. The fact that the reader can choose his or her own experience is interesting because the true meaning of a book lies in the reader’s own interpretation and the circumstances of that interpretation.

Did you notice the mention of Iain and Jane in Mr. Cave’s quote? Well that’s Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, and they’re the beautiful minds, along with Arup Acoustics (New York), who worked in collaboration with Cave on this, and they’re the geniuses responsible for making the audiobook version so groundbreaking. Here’s what they had to say:

We set out to create an immersive and transportive 3D listening experience. We’ve not heard anything like this before – the result sits somewhere between a film soundtrack, a radio play and a hallucination. Working from fragments of music provided by Warren and Nick, we introduced real-world sound effects, and then sent this to Arup with a spatialisation script to construct a complete soundscape for the narrative designed not only to enhance your experience but also to disturb and interrupt it. For example, you hear sounds occupy the acoustic space inside Bunny’s canary yellow Punto, you hear the infrasonic rumblings of elephants mating on the TV in the corner of the room and you experience the sound of fear rising from the pit of your stomach…

Now that to me sounds pretty amazing (especially the bit about fear rising from the pit of your stomach), and it’s almost worth forsaking a physical reading of the book, to jump straight into the 3D listening experience. But you know me folks. I’m first and foremost a traditionalist. So maybe, after I’ve read the book first, I may indulge myself.

For those wishing to indulge themselves right now though, The Death of Bunny Munro in its audiobook form is available to download from audible.co.uk and iTunes. For those wishing for something with a bit more substance i.e. the audiobook presented on 7 CDs in deluxe packaging, with an additional DVD of eleven films of Caves reading key parts of the novel, then that’s available too. More details and links to various retail options for this, are available on Canongate’s product page for this title.

Canongate Books | 03 September 2009 | £30 | AUDIOBOOK | 0 PP | ISBN: 9781847675477