2010 The Lord of the Rings (Phil Dragash)

Release Date: 2010-2013
Reader: Phil Dragash
Language: English
Organization: Independent
Copyright: n/a
ISBN: n/a
Duration: 48 hours 14 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: USA
Licenced: No

Unabridged audiobook soundscape by Phil Dragash, using music written by Howard Shore for the film trilogy, and immersive sound effects throughout. An extremely high quality production.

This was a labour of love project that took Dragash about three years (roughly 2010–2013) to complete. Despite the cinematic feel, this is not a radio play or a condensed dramatization. Dragash did the unabridged narration and vocal performances, the editing, the sound design, and even painted the original digital artwork for each chapter’s “cover art.”

He is an good mimic and recreates actors from the Peter Jackson films reasonably well, with ambient sounds an a dynamic use of music; swelling during battles and softening during dialogue.

Dragash himself never charged for it, viewing it as a fan project. Each chapter was originally posted as a single video on YouTube and each had a ‘mediafire.com’ link in its description. It cannot be sold or hosted on major official platforms like Audible or Spotify (though it frequently pops up there until it is flagged). It is often found today on the Internet Archive or via various fan-maintained “underground” links.