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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Paul Beaver (1925) and Bernard Krause (1940) emerged from the avant-garde clubs of Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Krause had replaced Pete Seeger in the Weavers in 1963 and later enrolled at Mills College to study electronic music. The duo belonged to a broader generation of unconventional ensembles that bridged the gap between psychedelia and electronic music. Beaver had played electronic keyboards both on the legendary drummer Hal Blaine's Psychedelic Percussion (1967) and on Mort Garson's (an arranger of easy-listening pop) The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (1967), recorded in a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, one of the earliest examples of Robert Moog's synthesizer being used on a commercial recording. He had also composed the soundtrack to the film The Magnetic Monster using electronic instruments. Krause, for his part, invented the guitar synthesizer in 1967.
Beaver and Krause met in 1967 in Los Angeles. Beaver was the veteran of electronic sound effects, Krause (15 years younger) was the young talent just hired by Elektra, a record label that had signed several Los Angeles acts
(Love in 1965, Tim Buckley and the Doors in 1966).
Beaver and Krause were originally simply salesmen for the Moog company. They sold synthesizers to the Monkees, who used it on their album
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd
(1967), and to George Harrison, who used it on
Electronic Sound (1969), including the demo that Krause gave him.
Their first work, Ragnarok Electronic Funk (Limelight, 1969), released when Beaver was already 44 years old, employed the Moog synthesizer to create dramatic atmospheres, at times complemented by vocals and at others by acoustic instruments. The title track, Circle X, and 33rd Stanza Of A Hymn avoid gimmicky futurism, electronic noise for its own sake, and provocative Dadaism, instead attempting to forge a new musical syntax in which "artificial" sounds could find a legitimate place. In some pieces the Moog assumes a melodic role (Changes), while in others its more surreal register gives rise to angelic harmonies (Fountains Of The Dept Of Water & Power), anticipating in both cases the styles that would later become popular in new-age music. Alternating classically inspired interludes (Interplay) with music-hall diversions (Moogy Blues Funk), Beaver and Krause demonstrated that the Moog could be used to make musicpopular music at thatrather than merely generate electronic noise.
The album's impact on the rock world proved far more enduring than anyone realized at the time. Indeed, later that very year George Harrison himself made a pilgrimage to Krause in order to record the album Electronic Sound.
On In A Wild Sanctuary (WB, 1970), featuring an instrumental palette of keyboards, flutes, and exotic percussion, the duo found the right balance in a sophisticated fusion of Indian raga with classical, folk, and psychedelic music (Another Part Of Time), of pure electronics with archaic melodies (So Long As The Waters Flow), and of world music with musique concrte (Walking Green Algae Blues). Naive though it may have seemed, the album would prove enormously influential on future generations.
In a Wild Sanctuary featured
Milt Holland on percussion,
Bud Shank on flute,
Howard Roberts on guitar,
and
Dave Grusin on piano,
besides Beaver and Krause on Moog synths.
Gandharva (1971) is two records in one. The first side (recorded in studio) featured jazz flautist Bud Schank, guitarist Mike Bloomfield (of the Butterfield Blues Band and Electric Flag) and future hard-rock star Ronnie Montrose also on electric guitar and even a choir.
The songs cover a broad spectrum, with hardly any electronics:
spiritual (the a-cappella Walkin', the gospel-ish Walkin' By The
River), swinging suites (Good Places for saxophone and pipe organ,
Short Film for small ensemble of saxophone, harp and guitar).
Side two, recorded live in Grace Cathedral, featured Beaver on pipe organ, Krause on synth, Howard Roberts on guitar, Gail Laughton on harp and Gerry Mulligan on saxophone.
All Good Men (WB, 1972) sounds like a mediocre attempt at selling out.
The two classics were reissued together as In A Wild Sanctuary/ Gandharva (Warner, 1993).
Beaver died in 1975.
Krause went on to create the "Habitat Series," in which he documents the soundscapes of entire ecosystems (Amazon Days/Amazon Nights) or assembles collages of natural "voices" (Gorillas In The Mix, for keyboards and the calls of dozens of animal species).
He had made his solo debut with Citadels (Takoma, 1979), a collection of six compositions for electronics, exotic percussion, and a jazz combo (featuring, among others, guitarist Peter Maunu and keyboardist Andy Narell). The exuberant dances of Festivals Of The Sun (highlighted by the radiant solos of Mel Martin's flute and Maunu's guitar) and Flight To Urubumba, the fiery African jazz of Jambo Jambo, and the Caribbean anthem Citadel Ay Bobo (featuring an extended metallophone solo and a children's choir) seemed to foreshadow a career at the crossroads of world music and jazz-rock.
His albums include: Equator (Nature Company, 1986),
Nature (Nature Company, 1987),
Gorillas In The Mix (Rykodisc, 1988),
Meridian (Nature Company, 1989),
Gorilla (Nature Company, 1989),
Woodland Journey (Rykodisc, 1989),
Natural Voices/ African Song (Wild Sanctuary, 1989),
Tropical Jungle (Rykodisc, 1989),
Ocean Wonders (Rykodisc, 1994),
Notes From The Wild (Ellipsis, 1996),
Green Meadow Stream (Rykodisc, 1998),
Amazon Days/ Amazon Nights (Rykodisc, 1998),
Dawn At Trout Lake (Rykodisc, 2002),
etc.
He is also the author of books such as: "The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places", "Voices of the Wild", and "Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World".
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