Beaver & Krause

Beaver & Krause

Company type	Partnership
Industry	Music, Electronic music
Founded	1966
Founder	Paul Beaver, Bernie Krause
Defunct	1975
Headquarters	United States
Products	Electronic music albums, Moog synthesizer sales and demonstrations

Beaver & Krause comprised the American electronic music pioneers Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause. Their 1967 release, The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music, stands as a landmark album within the electronic music field. Acting as sales agents for Robert Moog on the U.S. West Coast, they played an instrumental role in advancing the popularity of the Moog synthesizer throughout the late 1960s. During the early 1970s, under Warner Bros. Records, they issued critically praised albums including In a Wild Sanctuary and Gandharva.

Advocates for Moog technology

The partnership of Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause began in 1966 following their meeting during session work, united by a shared enthusiasm for the innovative possibilities of electronic instruments.

Their introduction of the Moog synthesizer took place at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, where they represented Moog on the West Coast. They leveraged an increasing demand among rock and pop musicians eager to incorporate synthesizer sounds, driven by shifting musical styles and enhanced record label support. Beaver and Krause facilitated sales of Moog synthesizers to many prominent American pop and rock performers, notably introducing Micky Dolenz from the Monkees to the device, which was featured on their 1967 album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. Beaver contributed performance on the track "Star Collector" and led instructional sessions attended by film composers and session keyboardists.

Among other influential musicians they introduced to the Moog were the Byrds, the Doors, and Simon & Garfunkel. Krause arranged sales of a Moog III unit to George Martin, famed producer for the Beatles, as well as another to George Harrison during his 1968 California stay while producing Apple Records artist Jackie Lomax. Harrison incorporated it into his 1969 solo project Electronic Sound, which included an edited excerpt of Krause’s original Moog demonstration.

As sought-after contributors to film and television soundtracks, the duo provided Moog-based compositions for numerous films: The Graduate, In Cold Blood, Point Blank, and Cool Hand Luke (all released in 1967); Rosemary's Baby, Candy, and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (all from 1968); They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969); along with Catch-22, Performance, and Love Story (1970). Their work typically involved adapting compositions by other artists. Their first principal film score credit came with The Final Programme in 1973.

Recording career

Beaver & Krause’s 1968 album Ragnarok was released through Mercury Records’ Limelight label. Following their role in popularizing the Moog synthesizer, they secured a contract with Warner Bros. Records, producing three albums: In a Wild Sanctuary (1970), Gandharva (1971), and All Good Men (1972). Critic Ellen Sandler of Saturday Review characterized In a Wild Sanctuary as "a powerful ecological statement in movement and sound." The album Gandharva, partially recorded within San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, featured performances by Gerry Mulligan, Bud Shank, Mike Bloomfield, and Ronnie Montrose. Marketed as "the score to a non-existent film," it drew inspiration from Hindu mythology.

Authors Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco highlight that the sound design technique used on the track "Spaced" from In a Wild Sanctuary—where a single tone gradually approaches before resolving into an emphatic chord—was later adopted by a Marin County film company for its cinematic presentations. In his 1998 memoir, Krause recounts how this signature audio motif resembles "Spaced": beginning with a sustained G pedal tone, evolving into an eight-note glissando with four tones ascending and four descending, before resolving on a D Major chord.

Beaver's passing and subsequent developments

The partnership concluded with Beaver's untimely death in January 1975 when he was 49 years old. At that moment, he was working on revisions for The Nonesuch Guide and had already released a solo project titled Perchance to Dream. Following this, Krause produced two individual albums: Citadels of Mystery (1979) and Gorillas in the Mix (1988), in addition to composing synthesizer scores for films such as Apocalypse Now.

Krause then dedicated his efforts to capturing and preserving natural sound environments across the globe, becoming a pioneering figure in bioacoustics, soundscape ecology, and ecoacoustics. In 2014, he partnered with composer Richard Blackford to create The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony for Orchestra and Wild Soundscapes, a work commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. This symphony blended live orchestral performance with recordings of natural soundscapes, extending the ecological acoustic vision initiated by Beaver & Krause.

Tragically, Krause’s vast collection of original nature sound recordings was lost during the 2017 North Bay wildfires; nevertheless, thousands of hours of digitized audio were stored off-site and thus survived. Although original tapes, equipment, and memorabilia were destroyed, the preserved digital archive remains intact.

Sources

• Brend, Mark. The Sound of Tomorrow: How Electronic Music Was Smuggled into the Mainstream. Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8264-2452-5
• Holmes, Thom. Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture. 4th ed., Routledge, New York, NY, 2012. ISBN 978-0-415-89636-8
• Pinch, Trevor, and Frank Trocco. Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002. ISBN 0-674-01617-3
• Prendergast, Mark. The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby – The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury, New York, NY, 2003. ISBN 1-58234-323-3