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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

The Great Animal Orchestra/Bernie Krause & United Visual Artists

An installation view of “The Great Animal Orchestra,” 2016.

June 10 – Oct 15, 2023
Pier 15 Embarcadero at, Green St, San Francisco, CA 94111, San Francisco, CA 94111, United States

The musician and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause has dedicated himself to “biophony,” the rich texture of frequencies one hears in the wild. Krause became invested in the concept of animal orchestras as a young man. Over the years, he traveled across continents to the rainforests of Borneo, the Arctic Tundra, the Sonoran Desert, and the Serengeti Plains to document the sounds of thousands of animal species. In 1970, Krause founded Wild Sanctuary, and has since collaborated with the composers Pauline Oliveros and Richard Blackford, and the Kronos Quartet, to structure the sounds into musical compositions. In this immersive exhibition, 5,000 hours of recordings and 15,000 species converge. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © Luc Boegly/courtesy of Bernie Krause/UVA