Cities And Memory

"There are so many extraordinary moments in Claude Lanzmann’s nine hour documentary, Shoah but it’s the interviews with the railway workers and the train drivers that helped facilitate the horrors of the holocaust (some of them still working those same lines when the movie was made in the 70’s and 80’s) and those with the farmers and local people who bore witness to the trains that have the most impact. The sheer matter-of-factness of their recounting; the lack of compassion, the smiles and shoulder shrugging. The banality of genocide. "After I’d watched Shoah, I felt as though something inside of me had been broken. From childhood I had grown up with the idea of this as the worst of human crimes, the word holocaust, alone, meant to pause for breath. Now here was the shock of seeing people involved with and witness to it writing it off as just another thing that happened in the course of a day of work. It was a shock, though, that came accompanied by an uncomfortable realisation that of course that’s how it

Ambisonics recording of the special acoustics and environmental sound inside the gate to Auschwitz II, Birkenau. Recorded by Anders Vinjar. 

"The source sound is open to interpretation but to me it sounds like I'm in the woods. I used a quote from Dante’s Inferno in it as spoken word whilst maintaining the original source sound in the background. It's about expecting things that should be in place by midlife but the realisation they're not; you’re lost in the woods (metaphorically); there are many paths to go by, and what one might think and hope is permanent is not. "All things are temporary and transitory in nature, and the realisation of that (usually in mid to late life) is something we all face, whether it be bereavment or failed relationships/friendships for example. I have personally felt this way many times - like I’m lost in the woods. I decided to shift to a more dubstep genre, which represents moments of anger & frustration amidst the quieter sections, which are more contemplative. "Dawn chorus in Antipolo City, Philippines reimagined by Jaspal Bhogal.

"The feel of the song was inspired by the slow joy of the ambient sounds in the field recording, and the rhythmic sound of the waves. Praia Vermelha is at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain, and after researching the place, it also became important to the song. "The lyrics include a line about Henrietta Carstairs, the first known person to climb the mountain in 1817. The field recording continues throughout, connecting the present moment with the history of the area and all the mountain has seen."Praia Vermelha, Rio de Janeiro reimagined by Sairie.

A five minute recording is all it takes to tell what time day and year it is at home. Natural sounds like backyard native birds like Collared Kingfisher, Philippines Pied Fantail, Zebra doves, and Yellow-vented Bulbuls are busy asserting their territory and finding food in the morning before it gets too hot. Migratory birds like Gray Wagtail, Arctic Warbler, and Ashy Minivet mean that it's sometime during their busy winter migration. Human sounds also provide great clues. People sweep streets by hand with a local broom called walis tingting before it gets too hot and motorcycles rev past during the busy rush hour.Recorded in Antipolo City, Philippines by Janina Castro. 

This is the second edition of a recording I've made in the 2024 summer afternoon at the beach. It was made at Praia Vermelha (Red Beach), Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was a hot weather, the beach was crowded: children, families, young and elder people, vendors selling drinks and refreshments (water, cold mate, coconut water, popsicle, and so on). People are talking, laughing, shouting. Waves are breaking continuously on the sand. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by Marcelo Carneiro de Lima.

"I steered safely around the lions only featuring a loop of a growl buried towards the end of the piece. I was more intrigued by the sound of insects and cracking undergrowth, moving noises. These were sampled and re pitched. I added kalimba played through a granular effects pedal and it skittered around the mix. Percussion shakes were found sounds of beads brushed on a contact mic. "Finally I added a free form melody via the tocante phashi. This is a solar powered touch synth that has a very esoteric playing style ( live circuit bending) and strange tuning structure. It added a haunting feel as modular synth emulated insect noises and something prowled just out of sight."Serengeti soundscape reimagined by Andy Billington.

A powerful night recording from the heart of Serengeti Central. Listen as a lion pride roars close by—their calls echoing across the plains for up to eight kilometers 4 . Hyenas whoop and cackle in response, while insects create a steady rhythm and night birds call softly. This is the African night at its most raw and wild. Perfect for immersion, study, sleep, or experiencing the true voice of the Serengeti.Recorded in Tanzania by David Joseph.

9.43pm, and by night the Jemaa el-Fnaa square turns into a musical paradise - gone are the grim snake charmers and animal handlers, and in their place circles of musicians fill the south end of the square, playing various forms of amazing Moroccan music. This recording moves back and forth between several groups, enjoying the music. Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

"Ambience sounds inside a carpet store in Kabul's famous Ka Faroshi market, people talking in the dampened acoustics of the carpets, shielded from a very busy market outside. Post 45 years of disastrous war. This recording is part of the HEYR project, presenting 3-dimensional soundscapes from special locations, connected to special events. Find out more by visiting https://www.heyr.no."Recorded by Anders Vinjar in 2025.

In one of the indoor markets in Marrakesh's medina, olives are being wrapped, packed up and sold to passing customers, as we hear shouting traders, Arabic conversations and background music. Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

Mega Huepfbergenland is a fun park for children, with 50 bouncy castles in one place, just being set up with no customers there having fun yet. What this means for sound recordists today is rows and rows of generators along the path by the river, allowing us to get close-up recordings of multiple generators as we walk past - an interesting industrial machinery soundscape coming from a children's play attraction.Recorded in Bremen, Germany by Cities and Memory. 

Electrical outdoor distribution box. Steady electrical hum, cars passing, car engine.Recorded in Agios Dimitrios, Greece by Konstantinos Staikos.

"An original composition created from a field recording of an Olive stand in the medina in Marrakech, Morocco."I was initially drawn to this recording as Marrakech has been on my “to visit” list for some time and yet I still haven’t made it there. Anyway, I enjoyed the energy of the recording and the fact that there were people having conversations included in it. Usually, when recording, I tend to avoid anthrophony where possible but I do like the rhythm of Arabic language so it felt like a good fit for the project."The track itself examines the changes that are happening in Morocco, such as the “Gen Z 212” protests which have focussed on better education and employment opportunities for young people in the country. Symbolically the piece seeks to explore how direct action has repercussions that develop over time but sometimes space is needed for energy to build."I approached the composition using my typical workflow when using field recordings, preferring to listen through several times before creating dis

"A pure sound piece, with something like 80% of it comprising the original field recording, processed, tweaked, reworked etc." Djemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakesh musicians reimagined by Nick St George.

"The sound does opt convey a sense of space, but the location informed my choice. I took the original sound of the distribution box, chopped it up and added a modulator to change the pitch of the chops randomly. This gives the piece a rhythmic element that I was able to use as the backbone for a live piano improvisation on top of it. I did not change any notes but look some stuff away in the mix to make it flow better. "The title is a nod to the album "Earth" by that quite famous Greek keyboard chap whose name eludes me. The alternate meaning and connection to electricity was a marvellous coincidence that I did not consider until partway through the recording, but it fits nicely."Greek electrical distribution box reimagined by Gareth Evans.

"Drawn to the drone quality of the Mega Huepfbergenland recording, I made a quiet drone piece with a little 18th century cembalo at the end (ignoring imagined bouncy castles)."Bouncy castle park in Bremen reimagined by Eva Q Månsson.

"The recording I worked with was from a Ka Faroshi carpet store in Kabul. This consisted of several people chatting in a carpet shop in some language/dialect of Afghanistan. I do not speak the language so picked part of a conversation spoken between 3 men with different pitched voices. I have no idea what they are saying. I hope it's not rude. "I formed a repeating pattern of this phrase transformed using comb filtering. Modified sounds of carpet tape and other physical sounds were interjected to add drama. Allusions to hiding in caves could be inferred. The piece ends with an evol treatment of the modified crackling sound."Kabul carpet store reimagined by Alison Beattie.

A Century of Sounds is a trip through one hundred years of sounds from all over the world, taken from the archives of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.It's a partnership between the museum and Cities and Memory, which is one of the world’s largest sound projects, aiming to remix the world, one sound at a time. 100 artists were invited to each choose one field recording, to be inspired by the stories, the places and the history behind that sound, and to recompose that recording to reflect their own creative and emotional response to the sound.In this programme, throughout you’ll hear first an excerpt from the field recording, and then the composition that sound inspired. The final collection presents a new way of listening to these recordings and the stories behind them, and suggests new ways of using sound to help us understand humanity, past and present.You can explore the entire project at https://citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds1. Afternoon beneath a palm shelter (Central African Republic) - recorded by

Cities and Memory x NTS Radio: Sonic Heritage. Originally broadcast on NTS Radio in June 2025.Sonic Heritage is the first collection of the sounds of the world’s most famous sights.The project, created by global sound collective Cities and Memory, presents the sounds of 270 UNESCO World Heritage sites and items of intangible heritage – all reimagined by artists from around the world to create a brand new way of experiencing these spaces. In this show, you’ll hear field recordings from 13 World Heritage sites around the world, followed by compositions built from those recordings. There’s everything from iconic spaces like the Sistine Chapel and historic St. Petersburg to natural soundscapes like Te Wahipounamu and traditional Ghanaian textile weaving, with ambient, electronic, spoken word and many other creative approaches to those sounds. You can explore the full collection at https://citiesandmemory.com/heritage.Timecode, tracklisting and credits01.10 Tallinn, Estonia UNESCO listing: Historic Centre (Old To