Customer Reviews

Into a Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music and Natural Sound

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Bernie Krause's albums have been an important part of our lives for nearly thirty years. We are so very pleased to learn that he is as facile in communicating with the written word as he is with sounds. When we were huddled in a little tent last year, 19,000 feet up Tibet's holiest mountain, we longed for something appropriate to read, while waiting for the snows to abate. Into A Wild Sanctuary would have been perfect. Now, stop reading this and go buy the book.

Bernie's earliest recollections of being fascinated by the sounds of nature set the stage for his discovery, in middle age, of his passion for documenting and protecting the environment. To make his avocation his vocation he had to create a whole new profession, and then sell the museums and zoos of the world on the concept -- but it is a testament to his genius and determination that he did just that.

His recordings are unequalled, and they speak loudest for his passion. However the stories here, which contrast the Rwandan jungle with his previous life, will make you understand when he says, "I feel much more comfortable and safe when I'm alone in a rainforest or a desert at night than I do when walking around the streets of Manhattan, Los Angeles or Paris in broad daylight, or enduring the pitfalls of academia or the business world."

Bernie is that rare creature, a man of genius and principle. In time he will become known as the Thoreau of his generation.