Cities And Memory

A display of two large Tesla coils, which are capable of playing music, including the sounds of several well-known songs created from electricity during the demonstration. In between these loud sounds, we hear an explanation of how the coil works, mostly in Lithuanian with a sprinkling of English. Recorded in the Museum of Energy and Technology.Recorded in Vilnius, October 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

" I worked on the sonic behaviour of the source and the noisy and rhythmic texture of the coil became connected through my electronic piece. Processing the behaviour of the Tesla coil gave rise to diverse sonic entities in my electronic piece."Tesla coil show in Vilnius reimagined by Elnaz Behfar. 

"The field recording was examined at an inn in the west of Sweden, near the border with Norway, and held the quiet of that threshold ground — an apt undercurrent for the piece that formed there. The title is the exact point of the composition's making, which can be found by entering it into What3Words. "Four software synths rest upon the recording: a pad, a drone, and two motifs, the higher one in 5/8, bringing a measured, shifting movement through the stillness."Batan waterfall, Spain reimagined by Trevlad. 

Cascada del Batán - Bogarra, Albacete, Spain. Recorded by Antonio Sarrión (SoundRadar).

"A melancholic multi-layered ambient piece in A based against the backdrop of Paul Wheeler's recording of Hungerford bridge. My object was to intertwine the percussive character of the sample with the melodiousness of my track."Hungerford bridge reimagined by Paul Soto.Image credit: Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded at night beneath this wrought iron railway bridge over the River Thames. The massively loud bangs, clattering and rumbles of trains as they pass overhead contrasts with the sounds of water gently lapping at the bridge supports, and people chatting as they walk along the South Bank.The bridge, over 160 years old, is currently being refurbished, so these sounds may not last for much longer.Recorded in October 2026 by Paul Wheeler.Image credit: Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

"I used a recording of ducks on a Russian lake with a plane flying overhead. It was a 6 minute track and I only used about 1 minute which I chopped up into my sampler. I then played the samples rhythmically using the plane as a drone and the ducks as an instrument. This was treated with delay. Behind this initial track I added two tracks of analog synth and topped it all off with a very simple and repetitive acoustic guitar."Ducks on lake in Samara reimagined by Laurence Lillvik.

A field recording captured at the Voronezhskie Lakes park in Samara, Russia, around 11:00 AM. The recording features ducks quacking and taking off from the water. In the background, you can hear ambient city sounds, distant airplane noise, and people's conversations.Recorded by Vitaly Safarov.

Birds nesting in scaffolding at Kroepcke Passage shopping centre, along with street sweeper sounds. Recorded in Hanover, Germany by Cities and Memory.  

"After a few false starts, I decided to simply improvise a line for flute in my usual notation software while listening to the birdsong file. I then used this to create a line of counterpoint for a second flute, but quickly realized that the piece would be better served by a darker, contrasting instrument, and settled on the cello. Finally, I filled out the texture with a piccolo, reharmonized the whole score bar by bar, shaped the dynamics, and folded the original birdsong in as an overlay."Birds in Kroepcke Passage, Hannover reimagined by David Petersen.

"The presence of science is a huge part of Oxford, but one that's often overlooked in favour of the more traditional side of Oxford University and of the city more widely, but science is hugely important to the city. This piece is a tribute to the scientific side of Oxford, as a reimagined take on the fascinating, huge tanks of liquid nitrogen that sit hissing away between the Department of Earth Sciences and the Pitt Rivers Museum, provoking many a "what if?" fantasy conversation. "The hissing of the tanks forms the underbelly of the track, accompanied by a "sister" sound of the same recording manipulated via a Torso S-4 sampler. Over the top of this, huge waves of distorted, ambient guitars represent clouds of gas and condensation. From here, drum beats and arpeggios make a lively introduction, and represent (and form a tribute) to all the scientific discoveries and innovations coming out of the city, as professors and boffins work all night in the very same labs that neighbour these liquid nitrogen towers

On 17 June 2026, the Oxford Union debating society invited extreme right wing agitators Tommy Robinson and Laurence Fox to take part in an inflammatory debate titled "This house believe the West is right to be suspicious of Islam". The response was mass protests in the city centre, with up to 1,000 anti-fascist demonstrators surrounding the Oxford Union (and about 30 pro-Tommy Robinson supporters showing up). This recording is from the much smaller group of 25-30 pro-Tommy Robinson supporters, who mostly seem to be there to get drunk - this recording is much quieter than the other protest recordings, with just a few half-hearted chants and shouts from these far right supporters. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"I listened to the original recording a few times to pick out some focal points I could use, notable the "Tommy Tommy" chant at the beginning and the "refugees are welcome" chant at the end. I also picked out some profanity used by a member of the protest directed at a female member of the opposition and pitch shifted a few other bits to use more as textures."It's quite an experimental piece, lots of synths, big reverb drums, metal guitars and hard auto tuned vocals and the song as a whole is a bit tongue in cheek but overall it is meant to be uplifting."Tommy Robinson protest in Oxford reimagined by Gary Pitt. 

Cities and Memory: "A special recording like this needed special treatment, so I had a collaboration in mind from the outset when starting on the music. Thinking about that, I set out to create a track that evoked the feeling of the dusk skies and the mellow heat of the African savannah. The field recording was full of different voices and tones, so using it as a bed for the track required some careful splicing and placement so that those voices appeared in the track in the right moments, complementing but not intruding. And of course, there's a buildup towards the entrance of the star of the show, the lion, the track building up towards its appearance near the end."Having created this ambient track with a collaboration - and specifically with some vocals - in mind, I approached micca, as I've been a huge fan of all her contributions to Cities and Memory so far. Together we worked on the concept of the lion's gate portal as the way into the track. Once the vocals were in place, I remixed and re-edited the tr

The microphones were set metres away from the lions as the light dropped off and the temperature shifted. The lions are close. This is by far the most dangerous recording I have ever done. Their voices hold weight, spreading slowly across the savannah, overlapping in uneven intervals. There is a sense of space in the gaps between each call. What carries first is distance, low frequency calls moving across open ground, travelling further than expected in the cooling air.This was not a controlled recording. The position was exposed, visibility was low, and movement nearby could not always be placed. The decision was deliberate but dangerous, but the outcome was worth it.If you listen beyond the foreground, there are secondary layers: hyenas further out, thinner and more erratic in pitch, and closer still, intermittent movement from baboons, short, nervous gestures in the mid range.Well, the sound of a savannah at its best.Recorded in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania by Rafael Diogo. Photo by Keyur Nandaniya o

Broadcast on BBC 6music, Sunday 26 July 2026. Cerys Matthews talks to Cities and Memory creator Stuart Fowkes about disappearing and obsolete sounds, and introduces the project.Includes musical selections by Stuart from Can, Broadcast, Stuart Dempster, William Basinski & Janek Schaefer and The For Carnation.  

Woodland birds recorded during daytime in Nottinghamshire, England. Blue tits are very prominent in the recording.Recorded by Tim Hills.

"I took a pice of birdsong I had recorded and played around with the Flextime function in Logic. I added stereo echo and then a couple of synth parts from Alchemy and this is the result.:Birdsong in Bestwood, England reimagined by Tim Hills.

A few old men play a game of dice at the outskirts of the sprawling Osh Bazaar. They slap down small bills before rolling the dice on a wooden board and chain smoke cheap cigarettes. The smoke drifts into the pharmacy next door. They seemingly sell flooring at some point too. While bustling, the bazaar is more calm here; everyone is relaxed and kind.Recorded by wwjd.

"A mix of the casual tumbling dice in their cup and the majestically remote mountains that cover the land outside of Bishkek."Dice game at Osh Bazaar, Bishkek reimagined by wwjd.