Music / Science & invention
Bernie Krause
born 1938 · musician, synthesizer pioneer, soundscape ecologist
Detroit-born musician who joined the folk group the Weavers, helped introduce the Moog synthesizer to pop music and later founded the science of soundscape ecology.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 87- Birth name
- Bernard L. Krause
- Detroit years
- 1938–early 1960s
- Field
- Music, Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bernie Krause was born in Detroit and began his career in Michigan: from 1957, while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, he worked as a recording engineer and producer in Ann Arbor. In 1963 he joined the Weavers, the pioneering folk group, taking the chair once held by Pete Seeger. He then moved west and with Paul Beaver formed the electronic duo Beaver & Krause, which demonstrated the Moog synthesizer to the rock world and played it on records by the Doors, the Monkees and others. In 1968 he founded Wild Sanctuary to record and archive natural soundscapes, and he went on to earn a doctorate in bioacoustics. He coined the terms biophony, geophony and anthropophony, and his archive of thousands of hours of wild habitats has been exhibited at museums around the world.
Highlights
- Member of the Weavers (1963)
- Half of Beaver & Krause, early champions of the Moog synthesizer
- Founded Wild Sanctuary (1968)
- Coined the terms biophony, geophony and anthropophony
- Began as a recording engineer in Ann Arbor in 1957
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · late 1950s
University of Michigan
He studied here as an undergraduate while working as a recording engineer in Ann Arbor.