ARTS&LIFE EXHIBIT
The Music of Sound “THE GREAT ANIMAL ORCHESTRA,” ON EXHIBIT NOW, SHOWCASES THE SYMPHONY OF NATURE. SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUC BOEGLY, BERNIE KRAUSE AND UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS
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ernie Krause developed an interest in music while growing up in northwest Detroit, and he pursued that interest through a stellar career as instrumentalist and sound designer. In the 1960s, Krause performed with many celebrated artists, including Van Morrison, The Doors and The Weavers. With music partner Paul Beaver, he introduced the Moog synthesizer to the pop scene and movies, enhancing more than 250 albums and 135 feature films, including Apocalypse Now and Performance. Away from stage and studio, Krause ventured outdoors and tuned into the sounds of nature. That sensibility led to the pioneering of an offshoot sound career that has brought him
international attention through recordings and artistic installations of what he has encountered. To showcase a range of his recordings at distant locales — which have encompassed travel to the research sites of Jane Goodall in Tanzania and Dian Fossey in Rwanda — Krause’s efforts are being represented in an immersive exhibit, “The Great Animal Orchestra.” On display Nov. 20-May 22 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., the exhibit presents specific soundscapes and associated spectrograms (graphic visualizations of what is heard). Each of seven stations communicates an environment he has recorded, now paired with spectrograms developed by United Visual Artists in London.
THE SOUNDS OF NATURE “For a long time, I’d wanted to create a statement celebrating my life’s work in the field of soundscape ecology (the study of sounds produced by all organisms in a given habitat, marine and/or terrestial),” said Krause, a graduate of Detroit’s Mumford High School and a history graduate of the University of Michigan. “When expressed through the lens of science — like a scientific paper published in an obscure journal — perhaps a dozen or so colleagues will read it. If, however, I transform some of this data into works of fine art, it exponentially reaches larger numbers of people.” Describing a favorite segment in the exhibit, Krause turns to the Yukon Delta, a location in continued on page 48
NOVEMBER 25 • 2021
