Biophony: Music of the Wild
Biologist Bernie Krause believes animals communicate with each other on their own frequency, and when you put all those frequencies together, they interact in a way not unlike a symphony orchestra. He calls it “biophony.”
“I was sitting here listening to these sounds and it occurred to me that these sounds were kind of symphonic,” Krause says about one of his research first trips to Kenya. “All of the insect voices, and the mammal voices, and the frog voices … all of these critters had found channels to vocalize in without their voices being masked by other creatures.”
Jill DuBoff talked to Krause about his research in the wild, and got an even wilder story about his pre-scientist days as a 1960s music pioneer.
Krause is the author of The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places.
(Originally aired August 29, 2008)
Listener Challenge: Name that Sound
Bernie Krause made a recording of this mystery creature: what is it?
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