Voices of the Wild: Animal Songs, Human Din, and the Call to Save Natural Soundscapes

The Future Series

by Bernie Krause

A pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology explores the ways in which the voice of the natural world informs many subjects  

Since 1968, Bernie Krause has traveled the world recording the sounds of remote landscapes, endangered habitats, and rare animal species.  Through his organization, Wild Sanctuary, he has collected the soundscapes of more than 2,000 different habitat types, marine and terrestrial. With powerful illustrations and compelling stories, Krause provides a manifesto for the appreciation and protection of natural soundscapes. In his previous book, The Great Animal Orchestra, Krause drew readers’ attention to what Jane Goodall described as “the harmonies of nature . . . [that are being] one by one by one, snuffed out by human actions.” He now explains that the secrets hidden in the natural world’s shrinking sonic environment must be preserved, not only for our scientific understanding, but for our cultural heritage and humanity’s physical and spiritual welfare.
 
Krause’s narrative—supplemented by exclusive access to field recordings from the wild—draws on a compelling range of personal anecdotes, histories, and examples to document his early exploration of this field and to lay the groundwork for future generations. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals, Music, Science

184 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2015

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

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Voices of the Wild” is a short book by Bernie Krause, an interesting person who is clearly an expert in this specialized field of recording natural soundscapes. However, this particular book didn’t do much for me. I found the writing to be a little dense, in the sense that too many “big words” made it sound more like a rhetorical speech, when really there is something interesting underneath. He does use some helpful analogies, though, and directs the reader to other resources, including an accompanying website with audio clips, moved to: http://yalebooks.com/yupbooks/book.as...

More than visual observation, we need to listen, the author argues. But with such a huge (infinite) range of possibilities, how to decide what to record? And what to do with the recording? One very good application he himself used is recording an ecological soundscape before and after a disturbance. For example, not just clear cutting, but even selective harvesting can have an effect. Recording the same place under the same conditions every five years is another way to show change, in the wildlife and other features. The three terms he likes to use are biophony, geophony, anthropophony, which he defines and you may deduce for yourself.

He provides a brief history of the evolution of recording technology, and his own predictions on future developments. Krause talks about music inspired by natural sounds, which he himself has contributed to, and other related artworks. Given his background and accomplishments, I probably wouldn’t recommend this book, but encourage those interested to check out some of his other work. In general, both the science and the art are very interesting fields with plenty of potential for exciting advances.

Note: this e-book was provided through Net Galley. For more reviews, follow my blog at http://matt-stats.blogspot.com/

[R1CEC4KE · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of expected this, based on its title, to be a philosophical-scientific reconsideration to our predominantly visual approach ecology and the biosphere. This, I happily received. However, it was not unaccompanied. I also expected from the title that it would endorse the observably false and potentially dangerous conceptualisation of 'Nature' as a discernable ethos, totally distinct from the activities of Humankind. It delivered this too, in spades. There are moments in this text where Krause's misanthropy makes itself clear, while simultaneously and paradoxically weaving itself together with a dystopian technocracy. An example? Krause suggests that in order to collect pristine soundscape data, environmental scientists' primary directive should be to collect 24/7 surveillance of what he calls 'wild habitats'. Krause's narrative is that the only way to protect 'natural' soundscapes from the human, and specifically technological damage, we need to bring them permentantly into contact with the technological (as if they weren't already). Krause operates with a romantic idyll of 'nature' in mind, hand in hand with the myth of the 'Wild'. It's clear in his linguo - the geophony which is nonliving sound of the physical environment, biophony which is made up of all living sound, and anthropophony, human sound, somehow distinct from both categories (are we not alive? Or does Krause think we somehow transcend the living? Who knows. It's bullshit anyways).

Poor argumentation and weak philosophical and logical grounding aside, Krause's emphatic persistence in discussing Indigenous and colonial subjects' 'inherent connections to natural soundscapes', which he insists are free from human influence, would only be a more clear beastialisation of these identities if he referred referred to 'natural soundscapes' and 'wild soundscapes' interchangeably. Oh wait. He does.

Krause shows his cards at the end of the book: his goal is specified not as conservation, but preservation. While his introduction of sound to our ecosophical perspectives seems progressive (and indeed can, is and will be used in such ways), his intent is to use it not to pioneer, but reify our archaic perspectives of a nature-humanity binary, hand in hand with the depressingly outdated developed immigrant - primitive native narrative of North America.

Would recommend, if only because it ia a coherent inteoduction to working with sound, but take it all with a grain of salt, especially what Krause proposes as potential and desireable uses for these new audiations of the environment.

[Cacey Cottrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book, it reads more like a literature review or expanded journal article than a regular novel. It is fairly concise and bare-bones and wished at times he included more examples from this fifty years of working in the field, as he mentioned, or at least some more current ones, but the book was still fairly interesting and the subject matter still poignant.

[John Barnard · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is some redundancy with Wild Soundscapes, but intriguing nonetheless.

[Angie Reisetter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Krause has been a significant figure in the study of natural sounds for many years, and in this book he reviews where the field has come from and discusses where it might be going. Part of his story is what soundscapes are... the collective sounds of places, not just isolated calls here and there. He tells the story of how these soundscapes have changed over the last 40 years. He also tells the story of how sound collection has changed over the same time period. The technology has become better, more portable, and data is easier to store. There is still lots of room for human innovation in how to process and organize the data, interpret what it means, and act in accordance with it. Also, he calls us to pay attention to sound in our lives and in our conservation efforts. The sounds of a place can tell us how healthy it is. We just need to learn to listen.

I was reminded of a couple other books while I read. One is the recent War of the Whales: A True Story, which is a particular story of sound beneath the sea. Our navy makes a lot of noise, and it affects whales (and other marine life) -- the book is a dramatic example of the importance of Krause's field. The other I was reminded of is The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light, which is a call to remember how important darkness is to our own health and well-being as well as nature's. It reminds us to pay attention to how we light the night and how that affects our experience of nature. In that it is an unconventional aspect of nature to write about and focus on, but that it is important and easy to change with small steps, I thought it was a similar call to action and summary of a field.

I got a free copy of Voices of the Wild from NetGalley.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes it is a rather dry book and does not transport you anywhere. But it does make you consider such a thing as a soundscape. I spend a lot of time outside in my yard, and I do listen. Of course, there is a lot of anthropophony. He introduced that word, and geophony and biophony to me. And the book contains links to other books , papers, and a film.

[ACRL]

Read by ACRL Member of the Week Elizabeth Dupuis. Learn more about Elizabeth on the ACRL Insider Blog.