BEAUTIFUL STORIES OF THE GREAT ANIMAL ORCHESTRA

THE GREAT ANIMAL ORCHESTRA

There are symphonies that are arguably more beautiful than any human could compose. They are created and performed by nature.

“The Great Animal Orchestra,” a cross-platform production directed by Thomas Deyriès, invites us to experience the incredible natural soundscapes happening in our world as animal “musicians” play on.

For more than 40 years, audio artist Bernie Krause has been on a mission to record wild sounds made by all sorts of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects. There are snapping shrimp and viruses that make popping sounds!

Originally produced for an immersive exhibition commissioned by Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, held in Paris this year, “The Great Animal Orchestra” presents 5 landscapes and their sounds, selected from Krause’s archive of more than 5,000 hours of recordings of over 15,000 individual species.  

The aural beauty captured by Krause comes from 2,000 habitats around the world, of which 50% no longer exist due to global warming and human encroachment. Many of those that remain are in danger. 

We are in awe of Krause’s coastline recordings of fish, crustaceans, and sea mammals in complex symphonic works with waves and coral reefs. The wolves, recorded in Algonquin Park in Ontario, still haunt us with their howls. 

Birds, like we’ve never heard them before, sing a rich opera in the Yukon Delta in Alaska. Monkeys riff in the Central African Republic. Whales are jazz improvisationists off the coast of Hawaii. And the Amazon’s cacophony blows our minds.

Krause points out the basses, sopranos, and percussionists in the fascinating orchestra, as he narrates.

The main production platform is a beautifully designed website, allowing us to interact with the music, and offering gorgeous visual accompaniments. 

The London-based collective United Visual Artists transformed Krause’s recordings into 3-D renderings and spectrographs to form a sound-and-light installation.

New York-based Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang made a 60-foot-long mural of horses at a watering hole by lighting the gunpowder until the images were burned into the paper.

Hiroshi Sugimoto took black-and-white photographs of dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Japanese photographer Manabu Miyazaki took stunning images of birds, using robotic cameras.

Krause began his interest as a musician. He performed with the folk group the Weavers and helped introduce the Moog synthesizer to pop music — including songs by the Doors and Van Morrison. He began to study bioacoustics after working on the soundtrack to the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now.”

Krause also served as a judge for the BeautifulNow Most Beautiful Sound in the World Competition.

The Fondation Cartier exhibition runs through January 8, 2017. And check out the book, “The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places,” by Bernie Krause for an even more in-depth understanding. 

Read more about IDFA 2016 film favorites in IDFA 2016 - Beautiful Stories in Film: Part 1.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Manabu Miyazaki. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
2. Image: by Luc Boegly. Courtesy of United Visual Artist. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
3. Image: by Tim Chapman. Courtesy of Wild Sanctuary. Bernie Krause.
4. Image: by Manabu Miyazaki. “A Black bear plays with the camera.” Courtesy of Fondation Cartier. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
5. Image: by Manabu Miyazaki. “Japanese marten: spirit of the forest floor.” Courtesy of Fondation Cartier. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
6. Image: by Christian Sardet et Les Macronautes. “Plankton Chronicles.” “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
7. Image: by Manabu Miyazaki. “Jay.” Courtesy of Fondation Cartier. “The Great Animal Orchestra”exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
8. Image: by Luc Boegly. Courtesy of United Visual Artists & the Fondation Cartier. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
9. Image: by Luc Boegly. Courtesy of United Visual Artists & the Fondation Cartier. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
10. Image: by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Courtesy of United Visual Artists & the Fondation Cartier. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
11. Image: by Moké. “The Orchestra in the Forest.” “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
12. Image: by Christian Sardet et Les Macronautes. Courtesy of Fondation Cartier. “Plankton Chronicles.” “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
13. Image: Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company. “The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places,” by Bernie Krause.
14. Image: Courtesy of “Wild Sanctuary.” Bernie Krause. “The Great Animal Orchestra” exhibition at the Fondation Cartier.
15. Image: by BN App - Download now!
16. Image: Courtesy of Wild Sanctuary. The Great Animal Orchestra.