Mark Kermode and Jenny Nelson have written Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound: The Stories Of Movie Music – and it arrives this year.
Mark Kermode, as many of you will be happily aware, has several film books to his name, alongside his work as Simon Mayo’s wingman on the Kermode & Mayo’s Take podcasts. That, and he’s in a band: The Dodge Brothers. All of these things are relevant for what will come next in this story.
In 2013, after the publication of his book Hatchet Job, Mark Kermode first told me that he was working on a book about music in movies. But he’s taken a few pit stops on the way, and the original expected publication date of 2015 has, er, taken a few turns.
Kermode switched tack to his autobiographical book about his time in bands, How Does It Feel?: A Life Of Musical Misadventures, and has had plenty of other projects to keep him busy.
Yet, as he’s told listeners to Kermode & Mayo’s Take, his new book is now complete. What’s more, it has a title and a release date, and it’s gone up for pre-order as well.
Entitled Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound: The Stories Of Movie Music, the book will be published by Picador on 11th September this year. Kermode has pretty much finished it too, and the book has gone up for preorder. He’s written the book alongside audio producer and author Jenny Nelson.
You can find the book available to order now right here.
I’ll leave you with the synopsis…
How can a film score make you cheer, shiver, cry or punch the air in exhilaration? How do directors communicate their musical vision to composers? And when does a soundtrack take on a life of its own? Award-winning film critic Mark Kermode and radio producer Jenny Nelson embark on a full-throttle trip down the glorious rabbit hole of film composition to answer these questions and more.
Celebrating the emotional connection that audiences form with film music, exploring the evolution of film scoring from silent films to the present day, and examining how what we hear has an impact on what we see, Mark talks to some of his favourite composers about their varied working methods and influences, and delves into the movie music he loves.
Including interviews with extraordinary talents from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood to Oscar-winning composers Rachel Portman and Howard Shore, telling the stories behind iconic soundtracks such as Jocelyn Pook’s Eyes Wide Shut, Michael Kamen’s Brazil and Vangelis’s Blade Runner, and ranging from classics to blockbusters to horrors, Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound is a thrilling take on how great scores are brought to life on the silver screen.
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