HCM City musician Huu Thanh, who has several CDs of traditional folk music and poetry already on the market, has just completed a series of 40 CDs of story telling.

The stories on his CDs are always performed by several voices, and the background music is specially composed for the products. He hopes that the CDs will be enjoyed by those with eye-impairments, as well as the mainstream market.

As a musician, what made you interested in this audio book project?

I wanted to introduce as much music into my project as possible. Music in the audio books is not just for fun, but it is a fairly important factor in bringing the content of the works together with the voices to enhance the quality and attractiveness of the CDs.

Apart from serving people with eye-impairments, the CDs will be interesting products for literature lovers, so that they can “read” while doing other activities like driving, walking, doing morning exercise or doing housework.

Are there any other products on the market in Viet Nam today that compare with your audio books?

In similar products on the market, there are only one or two voices, and not much care is given to having good background music. Sometimes, the music is not very good, and it does not even match content of the books.

In my audio books, music has been brought into full play. Each character in a story has a different person do the voice. Music is composed for the books and helps describe the characters’ moods. Music can include a song or a piece of music describing the content instead of dialogue.

All features blend well to make audio books artful products rather than simple story telling.

What are the topics of your new products? When will they be published?

I chose various topics for the literature works including family life, patriotism, love and even sensitive issues like homosexuality. I have completed all 40 audio book CDs, which have been permitted to be published. The first four CDs will be released in mid May.

Who did the voices in the CDs?

The voices are dubbed by 18 members of Dream dubbing group from the city’s UNESCO Communications Centre; the songs are performed by singers Yen Xuan, Khanh Du, Duc Minh, Vu Van, Tuyet Mai, and Doan Viet Phuong, saxophone by Quang Trung, violin by Thanh Thao and music background by musicians Quoc Dung, Thanh Nga and myself.

What do you think about your products?

This can be considered a new kind of culture product, which will have a new market. That’s why I have paid much attention to the quality and invested properly on that.

After releasing the CDs, I will donate a certain number of free CDs for the national blind association.

I hope my products will be welcomed by literature lovers, who have little time to read. The audio books will offer a new way to bring literature works to an audience. They will also help diversify audio products in our present market.

VietNamNet/VNS