Soundscape Ecology: Harmony or Cacophany? with Bernie Krause & Kat Krouse

Aspire with Osha: art, nature, humanity

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a world without birdsong? What can we learn from listening to the changes in our wild soundscapes over time?
My guest today, Dr. Bernie Krause, is a world renowned expert in Soundscape Ecology, here to expand your understanding of the value, meaning and impact of our soundscapes.
Soundscapes courtesy Wild Sanctuary, 2021.
Photo: ©2021 Wild Sanctuary, All Rights Reserved.
About Bernie & Kat Krause
“Musician & naturalist, Bernie Krause is one of the world’s leading experts in natural sound.” That’s a quote by Sir George Martin, who you know as the producer for the Beatles.
Since 1968, Bernie Krause has traveled the globe to record, archive, research and express the voice of the natural world, it’s soundscape.
Dr. Bernie Krause spent his early career as a recording engineer and backup studio guitarist. He performed with The Weavers at Carnegie Hall in 1963. Bernie and his late music partner, Paul Beaver, introduced the Moog synthesizer to pop music and film. Bernie’s work is featured on many albums of that era, including those of the George Harrison, Mick Jagger, David Byrne and Bryan Eno, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, the Byrds, and the Doors not to mention Beaver & Krause’s own albums. Bernie’s contributions can be heard on over 135 major feature films like Apocalypse Now, Performance Love Story, Cast Away, and Rosemary’s Baby.
In 1981, having earned his doctorate in bioacoustics, Bernie began his second career as a founder of Soundscape Ecology – a new field of study focusing on marine and terrestrial soundscapes of remaining wild habitats. As a sound designer, Bernie’s sound sculptures can be heard at major public venues like the California Academy of Sciences, the Smithsonian, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, several London venues, and recent worldwide fine art exhibitions of his work commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, in Paris.
He is the author of “The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places,” and is co-composer of a symphony commissioned by the BBC, created with Richard Blackford. Together they have also composed Biophony, the ballet score commissioned by the Alonzo King LINES Ballet. His newest book is, The Power of Tranquility in a Very Noisy World.
Learn more at WildSanctuary
Hear Bernie's Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/bernie_krause_the_voice_of_the_natural_world?language=en
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