Bernie Krause

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Bernie Krause (born December 8, 1938 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American bioacoustician, who coined the term "biophony". Krause holds a Ph.D. in bioacoustics from Union Institute in Cincinnati, and is remembered as the "Pied Piper" who lured a stray humpback whale from the Sacramento River Delta back to the Pacific Ocean, through the use of sounds.

In his previous career as a musician, he was a member of The Weavers, and was one of the first performers of the Moog Synthesizer in the 1960s. He formed Beaver & Krause with fellow synthesist Paul Beaver (who, with Krause, had played the instrument on a Monkees recording, "Star Collector"), to make electronic music featuring the Moog and other instruments. Because of their efforts in Hollywood, New York, and London, Beaver & Krause are largely credited with helping to introduce the synthesizer to pop music and film. From 1966 to 1972, Beaver & Krause released five albums, in total, which, among other musical contributions, were effectively the beginning of both the New Age and Electronica musical movements.

In November 1968, Krause demonstrated the Moog for Beatle, George Harrison, who was visiting California; a recording of the session became the basis of "No Time Or Space", a track featured on Harrison's Electronic Sound album the next year. Krause also provided soundtrack music and/or natural soundscapes for Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, Dr. Doolittle, and Apocalypse Now, "Duma," and "Where the Wild Things Are."

Krause's 1970 album (recorded in 1968 and '69) with Paul Beaver In a Wild Sanctuary – the first of three albums they did for Warner Bros. Records – was the first to incorporate natural soundscapes as an inherent component of the orchestration and to address the theme of ecology. During the late '80s, Krause recorded and composed a highly acclaimed and successful series of environmental titles for The Nature Company. He continues to record in the field and produce 3-D soundscapes for public spaces, and natural sound titles that can be found on the Wild Sanctuary web site.

His 1988 CD album, Gorillas in the Mix prominently featured samples of dozens of animals mixed with pop synthesizer tracks.

In 1996, Ellipsis Arts published Krause's first book titled "Notes from the Wild."

In 1998, Heyday Books published Krause's autobiography, Into a Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music and Natural Sound.

In 2002, Wilderness Press published his instructional Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World with companion CD.

In 2007, Krause demonstrated at the O'Reilly Media Where 2.0 Conference a KML layer to Google Earth and Google Maps that makes it possible to listen to the soundscapes from all over the world. He plans to make part of his sounds collection available via this add-on.

In 2009, Little Brown (Hachette) in New York, contracted Krause to write a book titled "The Great Animal Orchestra: How Animals Taught Us to Dance and Sing," due for publication in 2011.

Discography

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• Paul Beaver and Bernard L. Krause. The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music, 2-disk double album: Capital-Nonesuch Records, 1966. (Revised and repackaged with new material by Bernard Krause in 1980.)

• Paul Beaver and Bernard L. Krause. Ragnarok: Mercury - Limelight records, 1968.

• Paul Beaver and Bernard L. Krause. In a Wild Sanctuary: Warner Bros. Records, 1970.

• Paul Beaver and Bernard L. Krause. Gandharva: Warner Bros. Records, 1971.

• Paul Beaver and Bernard L. Krause. All Good Men: Warner Bros. Records, 1971.

• Bernie Krause. Citadels: Takoma (Chrysalis) Records, 1979.

• Bernie Krause & the Human Remains. Gorillas in the Mix: Rykodisc CD, 1988.

External links

• Bernie Krause biography at Wild Sanctuary
• Google Earth
• Bernard Krause at the Internet Movie Database

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