David Byrne introduced me to Bernie Krause's recordings of the natural world. As summer begins, turn on "Dawn at Trout Lake," close your eyes, slow your breath, and reconnect with the magic of the natural world.
Here's how Byrne set up the recordings.
"Last month I did a book talk with Bernie Krause at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Bernie’s book, The Great Animal Orchestra, is sad but worth checking out. Over recent decades, he and a few others have been releasing beautiful recordings of soundscapes, some of which I played before the concerts St. Vincent and I did recently. This month’s playlist are those recordings. Sometimes people thought there were birds loose in the theaters—though there were also some recordings of a wild boar, possibly from Chernobyl, where Peter Cusackdid some recordings (released as Sounds From Dangerous Places). Lastly, there are a couple recordings made by Chris Watson whose Mexican soundscapes on El Tren Fantasma are lovely in a strange way (but not included here—too industrial sounding)."