The Audio File: Blum

Audio dramas can be found all over the world. I’ve always been particularly interested in what the audio drama community outside the Anglosphere is like. Unfortunately, the only language I speak is English, and this can be a major stumbling block. However, sometimes I get lucky, and the stars align just right. And by that, I mean a non-English audio drama gets re-released in English. Such was the case with the audio drama we’ll be reviewing today. We’re taking a look at Blum. 

Blum follows a university student named Emma Clark. She has traveled to Switzerland to research an artist named Ursula Blum. Ursula Blum was a painter who lived during the early 20th Century. However, she was also a composer, and dedicated her life to researching the possibility of using music for healing. She was involved in a lot of esoteric groups and secret societies. In particular, Blum was intrigued by the concept of the Music of the Spheres. Emma isn’t the first person to research Ursula Blum. Five years ago, another student named Clara Torres disappeared while researching Blum. Emma is determined to find out what happened to Clara. She’ll also do whatever it takes to discover Ursula Blum’s secrets.

I had known about Blum for quite some time. As is often the case, it first got on my radar when I was pursuing the r/audiodrama subreddit. I was intrigued, but then I saw that it was only available in Spanish. Blum is produced by the Spanish audio drama production company El Extraordinario. However, there was a potential silver lining. If it made the weekly roundup list, then maybe, just maybe, an English version might arrive someday. Time passed, but eventually my faith was rewarded. However, I got tied up with requested reviews, so I couldn’t listen right away. But then I finally got a gap in my schedule.

I share what I’ve been listening to every other Sunday on the Twitter feed for my own audio drama, The Books of Thoth. Naturally, one Sunday I mentioned I had listened to Blum. El Extraordinario was happy to hear this, and I promised them I would give a full-length proper review of Blum when I have a chance. And so, here we are now.

I have a degree in history. I spent my freshman year at a liberal arts college. It didn’t work out, but eventually I found myself at LSUS, where things turned out better. I bring this up, because Blum really tapped into that feeling of being a liberal arts major. The liberal arts are fairly interdisciplinary. History, music, art, literature, philosophy; no matter your major, you’ll get a bit of everything eventually. So, like the protagonist of a Marcel Proust novel, I felt enveloped by a strong sense of remembrance for my own days in university.

The scenes at St. Gallen’s Monastery were particularly fun. Learning about the musical notions that medieval monks used took me back to my days in Music Appreciation and Music Theory. Though, I also admit I got excited because one of the segments in Agent of Byzantium took place at St. Gallen.

Blum is quite possibly one of the best tourist ads for Switzerland I have ever encountered. I really wanted to go visit Switzerland after I listened to Blum. This, of course, is very much by design. Blum was commissioned by Switzerland Tourism in hopes of attracting more visitors for Switzerland. However, it never felt like I was listening to an ad, or any sort of product placement. It is very clear to me that series creators Manuel Bartual and Carmen Pacheco have a deep, and genuine, love for Switzerland and Swiss culture. That love is stitched into every aspect of Blum, and the audio drama is all the better for it.

But that’s not the only area where love shines through. This is, ironically, felt the most in scenes where sounds are absent. There was clearly a great amount of care put into the sound design of Blum. Emma often finds herself in various museum galleries. There is a certain ambiance to these scenes in how they are quiet in a specific way. I have spent much of my life exploring museums and art galleries. As such, I’m well acquainted with the sounds of such buildings. These scenes were recorded in actual galleries to properly capture this ambiance.

But, of course, Blum is certainly no slouch on the other end of the spectrum. One of my favorite scenes is in the first episode. Emma talks about how music and religion have been intertwined for centuries. We get a montage of music being using in religious ceremonies from around the world. It was a very well crafted sequence; felt like something out of a non-fiction podcast. On that note, Blum really nailed the true crime investigation vibe. Each episode opens and closes with a bit of classical piano music. There’s also a few more bit of classical music liberally sprinkled through the audio drama.

I must also take a moment to praise the voice acting. Emma’s voice actress did an especially good job. There were a couple time she pounced certain words more along the lines of British English, even though Emma is supposed to be American. Make me wonder if the voice actress might not be American. But if that is the case, she did an absolutely amazing job of maintaining the accent. Come to think of it, Clara was pretty much the only Spanish character in the entire podcast. I wonder if, perhaps, Emma was from Spain in the original Spanish version of Blum. Whatever the case, it never felt like anything had be lost in translation. There was clearly effort put in to ensure the English version of Blum would live up to its Spanish predecessor.

Okay, I want to choose my words carefully for this next part. I want to make sure nobody misconstrues what I’m saying here. Blum reminds me very much of a Dan Brown novel, and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. Look, I’m aware that Dan Brown has a bit of a bad reputation. Yes, he often gets pretty significant facts wrong in his novels, and maybe his novel aren’t exactly high literature. But that man knows how to write a page-turner. If nothing else, he got me interested in the various artists he mentions in his books. Another big appeal of his books is that, for lack of a better way of putting it, they are travel porn. They are often filled with loving descriptions of various European cities. I always wanted to travel and see the world, and Dan Brown’s novel let me indulge those fantasies. Thankfully, I did eventually get to visit Italy, and I even got to see all the places mentioned in Angels & Demons when I was in Rome.

Blum evokes that same sense of wanderlust with its lovingly detailed descriptions of Swiss cities. It also incorporates art and classical music into a plot about solving a mystery. However, unlike Mr. Brown, the writers stayed true to actual facts and history. So, you get all the good parts of a Dan Brown novel, in audio format, but none of the downsides. For example, Ursula Blum is an entirely fictional character. However, she was inspired by several real life artists and musicians.

Speaking of the mystery, just what is the Music of the Spheres? We have known since Ancient Greece that all music can be converted into mathematics. But what about the reverse? Can math be turned into music? There have been attempts to translate the orbits of the planets into music. Under the Ptolemaic Model, the planets were believed to occupy different celestial spheres, hence the name Music of the Spheres. But what if it goes deeper than that. What if there is a music written into reality itself? This appears to have been the opinion of Ursula Blum and the various esoteric groups she belonged to.

Okay, now comes the part where we have to get into spoilers. So, turn back now if you don’t want any of that.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

If everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.

So, as Blum progressed there were hints dropped that Emma was poking into things better left alone. I got some cosmic horror vibes. Perhaps there was something Lovecraftian afoot? Would it turn out to be something that mortal minds weren’t meant to comprehend? Something that would drive Emma into madness?

Well, I suppose that it is a matter of perspective.

You see, Emma does uncover the music Ursula Blum had been researching. It turns out to be incredibly beautiful. So beautiful that it makes Emma feel as though she is flying. So beautiful she can see the connection that binds everything together. So beautiful that she completely fails to notice that she jumped out a window.

I was reminded of my own short story “Chain Reaction.” It is about a man who goes crazy and starts a religion based around rollercoasters. He has a very similar experience where the rollercoaster god shows him the connections that bind all things together. The rollercoaster explains that it can’t show him this too long, or he might forget to eat and drink.

Well, as they say, great minds think alike. I thought the big reveal was very well executed. I liked the way it explored that concept of pantheism. It is the idea that everything within the universe contains a spark of divinity. Or, to put it another way, that the universe itself is God.

Blum was an absolute joy to listen to from start to finish. It appealed to my inner liberal arts major. It was like taking an auditory vacation to Switzerland. It was a great introduction to the world of Spanish audio drama. I cannot recommend it enough. You should listen to it as soon as possible.

I certainly hope this means we might see more El Extraordinario audio dramas getting translated into English. I also hope we might see audio dramas from other parts of the world getting translated. Perhaps, even some English audio dramas getting translated into foreign languages. But whatever the future holds, I’m glad that the world of audio drama is ever expanding. It is great to see more countries joining the party.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.