Wild Sanctuary

Bernie Krause is an American musician, soundscape recorder and bio-acoustician, who coined the term biophony, which refers to the collective sound vocal non-human animals create in each given environment. Long devoted to sound and music, he has led an amazing life of exploration and innovation. From a classical musical background, to pioneering the use of the synthesizer in pop music and film, to his current explorations into the world of natural soundscapes, Krause continues to innovate new ways of perceiving and valuing the aural world. His company, Wild Sanctuary has produced over 50 environmental record albums and created environmental sound sculptures for museums and other public spaces. Google Earth uses Krause's sound layering technology to allow people to hear soundscapes from all over the world.

Krause's mission is to help connect people to the wild by presenting, preserving, and protecting the voice of the natural world, which is being lost due to increasing habitat degradation and human noise. Krause explains, "Natural orchestrations, the sounds of our unaltered temperate, tropical, arctic, desert and marine habitats, are becoming exceedingly rare and difficult to find. The keys to our musical past and the origins of complex intra-species connection may be learned from the acoustic output of these wonderful places. We are beginning to learn that the isolated voice of a song bird cannot give us very much useful information. It is the acoustical fabric into which that song is woven that offers up an elixir of formidable intelligence that enlightens us about ourselves, our past, and the very creatures we have longed to know so well."