Nature & Environment

Silence is spreading over the natural world

By T.K. Randall
September 4, 2012 ·  26 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.0 mjwinoz Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause has spent over four decades recording sounds in some of the most diverse natural environments on the planet. Using his microphones Krause has recorded over 4,500 hours of audio of more than 15,000 species. But there is an encroaching silence in places where once these harmonies existed - as habitats die out the sounds die with them and the only trace of the creatures that once lived there are their sounds recorded on his tapes.

"A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening," wrote Krause in his new book 'The Great Animal Orchestra'. "Little by little the vast orchestra of life, the chorus of the natural world, is in the process of being quietened." [!gad]Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause has spent over four decades recording sounds in some of the most diverse natural environments on the planet. Using his microphones Krause has recorded over 4,500 hours of audio of more than 15,000 species. But there is an encroaching silence in places where once these harmonies existed - as habitats die out the sounds die with them and the only trace of the creatures that once lived there are their sounds recorded on his tapes.

"A great silence is spreading over the natural world even as the sound of man is becoming deafening," wrote Krause in his new book 'The Great Animal Orchestra'. "Little by little the vast orchestra of life, the chorus of the natural world, is in the process of being quietened."

Source: Guardian Unlimited | Comments (26)

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