Into a Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music & Natural Sound

by Bernie Krause

As a professional musician, Bernie Krause led an amazing life. He performed at Carnegie Hall as a member of the legendary Weavers and pioneered the use of synthesizers in pop music and film. He worked with musicians such as Mick Jagger, Frank Zappa, and George Harrison, and he contributed to the soundtrack of "Apocalypse Now" and more than 100 other films. As a recorder of natural sound, however, he has been intimately associated with even more remarkable characters: humpback whales, polar bears, silverback gorillas, and the rich sound environments in which they perform. In its portrayal of Krause's transition from pop music to the music of the wild, "Into a Wild Sanctuary" opens the door to a new and enlarged way of perceiving the natural world.

Genres: Nature, Music

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Dr. Bernie Krause is both a musician and a naturalist. During the 1950s and 60s, he devoted himself to music and replaced Pete Seeger as the guitarist for The Weavers. For over 40 years, Krause has traveled the world recording and archiving the soundsof creatures and environments large and small. He has recorded over 15,000 species. He lives in California.

Reviews

[Kyle D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, lovely book--but you need to know what you're getting into.

This book is a mix of autobiographic narrative (lots of it about the folk music scene in the 50s and 60s), nature writing (what it's like recording sounds in various parts of the world), occasional entries from journals (including a long recounting of a humpback whale caught upstream from the San Francisco bay), and thoughtful musings on humanity's relationship to nature and sound. All of that combines to make the book feel occasionally uneven, with moments that defy expectation or suddenly shift genre.

But in the end, that isn't a bad thing. Krause, while perhaps not a beautiful stylist of words (this isn't a literary memoir), is inspiring in part because of the variety of experiences and stories he shares. His thinking on the relationship of sounds to each other is brilliant and lovely, and his emphasis on quiet contemplation always strikes me as wise.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different book. I saw this guy speak at the National Zoo years ago. This is an interesting slant. Try it. You might like it.