The Great Animal Orchestra started life as a book by Bernie Krause, an American soundscape recordist and "bioacoustician" who has traveled widely and recorded the sounds of wildlife in many parts of the world. He argues the roots of music lie in mimesis of animal sounds, and indeed he has located cultures where humans sing with a backdrop of animal sounds serving, he says, as something of a karaoke track. Krause was contacted by British composer Richard Blackford, who conceived the idea of using Krause's recordings as the ...
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The Great Animal Orchestra started life as a book by Bernie Krause, an American soundscape recordist and "bioacoustician" who has traveled widely and recorded the sounds of wildlife in many parts of the world. He argues the roots of music lie in mimesis of animal sounds, and indeed he has located cultures where humans sing with a backdrop of animal sounds serving, he says, as something of a karaoke track. Krause was contacted by British composer Richard Blackford, who conceived the idea of using Krause's recordings as the basis for a musical composition. This could easily have become too gimmicky, but it works, thanks on one hand to the variety of sounds involved: gibbons, tree frogs, a pileated woodpecker, wolves, elephants, a gorilla, and a trio of wren, potoo, and piha. These are paired -- and this is really what makes the piece work -- with a brassy score in the Gershwin/Bernstein vein that would be entertaining in itself: there's something compelling about the combination of the highly...
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Add this copy of Great Animal Orchestra to cart. $33.55, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Nimbus Records.