Beaver & Krause
Beaver & Krause were a musical duo made up of Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause. Their 1966 album The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music was a pioneering work in the electronic music genre.
Beaver introduced Monkees singer-drummer Micky Dolenz to the Moog, which became a featured instrument on the fourth Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., and Beaver himself performed on one track, "Star Collector" in 1966.
In June 1967, Beaver and Krause set up a booth at the Monterey Pop Festival, demonstrating their newly purchased electronic synthesiser, one of the first constructed by Bob Moog.
Thanks to their demonstrations of the Moog at Monterey, Beaver and Krause also introduced the instrument to a number of other leading American pop acts including The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds, helping to create the vogue for the Moog that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Krause introduced the instrument to George Harrison during Harrison's 1967 visit to California, who then used it to produce his 1968 free-form solo Electronic Sound album for Apple Records' spinoff label Zapple.
In 1968, Beaver and Krause released an album for Mercury Records imprint Limelight Records, Ragnarok, then released a series of three albums for Warner Brothers Records, In a Wild Sanctuary (1970), Gandharva (1971) and All Good Men (1972), effectively creating both the electronica and New Age musical movements.
A variation of the end of their track "Spaced" from the Wild Sanctuary album became the dual gliding synthesizer soundtrack for the original THX Sound Logo in movie theaters.
Both Mike Bloomfield and Ronnie Montrose played guitar on the Beaver & Krause song "Saga Of The Blue Beaver".
The duo ended with Beaver's premature death in 1975, at age 49.
Krause released at least two more solo albums: Citadels in 1979 and Gorillas in the Mix in 1988, plus several movie soundtracks, and now specializes in recording naturalistic sounds, combining them with synthesizers.
