Natural Sound

Bernie Krause

Bernie Krause Curriculum Vitae

DISCOVERING BIOACOUSTICS

In the late 1960's, Krause began his ground-breaking life work in bioacoustics and the recording of environments throughout the world, much of which has been accomplished with techniques and technologies for recording, analyzing, and presenting habitat- and species-specific sounds that Krause has developed on his own. His album, In a Wild Sanctuary (WB, 1970), earned a place in history as being the first recording to use environmental sounds as both a central component of orchestration and as a statement about the environment. Under the company name Wild Sanctuary, Inc., Krause continues to share his compelling field experiences through his musical albums and dramatic sound installations in public spaces such as museums, zoos, and aquaria. Krause holds a Ph. D. with an Internship in bio-acoustics from Union Institute, Cincinnati.

Among Krause's other notable and diverse achievements include 10 albums for The Nature Company that have enjoyed tremendous success (over $24 million gross sales), national recognition as the "Pied Piper" whose audio wizardry lured Humphrey the Wayward Humpback Whale from the Sacramento River Delta back to the Pacific Ocean, and the audio technology innovation known as the Intelligent Sound System(tm) an automated system for public exhibitions and installations that creates non-redundant audio recreations of the natural environment. Krause's Music and Word(tm) Series captures the unique cultural sounds of several overlooked and endangered human groups, including the first publicly available documentation of the spoken work and traditional songs of this now-extinct culture under the title Ishi: The Last Yahi. Krause is also a widely published author, including his seminal article introducing a controversial theory on human musical evolution called "The Niche Hypothesis."

Today, Krause and his wife Katherine, with the Wild Sanctuary team, continue to explore new territories in sound. The role of Wild Sanctuary's incomparable archive is leading the way into how modern technology can be a tool to help connect people to the wild. Valuing the voice the of the natural world in research and outreach is a vital new adventure. We invite you to join us.

Find out more by reading:

WILD SOUNDSCAPES: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World (Available here and at Amazon.com) The premier introduction to listening and recording natural sounds in the wild. The book features a 55 minute CD of narrated field techniques and a foreword by Roger Payne. (Wilderness Press)