Cities And Memory

Cicadas at the Portal Lookout in the Blue Mountains, Australia. Recorded by Richard Watts. 

This is a recorded audio of a presentation by a fourth-year female university student in Japan. I became interested in the audio aspects of her powerful and rhythmic delivery, which reflected her confidence in her research. In the contradiction between her confidence and anxiety about her first presentation, I found an intriguing aspect of universities as educational institutions. Recorded by Mahorobi Yumeo. 

Atop the famous Quiraing, after a climb of hundreds of metres, we reach the summit, with incredible views on all sides. Here we record the sound of a small stream, which are frequent across the surface of the plateau at the top of the Quiraing, and contribute to the sometimes-boggy going underfoot.  Recorded on the Isle of Skye, Scotland by Cities and Memory, April 2025.  

A summer morning walking in Udatsu, Wakimachi, Japan. A piano lesson resonating in the empty street under the heat, wind chimes spell some fresh air. I bought an indigo fūrin for my mother. Recorded by Guillaume Piccarreta.

"Recorded deep inside Kichwa territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon, this nocturnal soundscape draws the listener into the forest’s hidden hours - where every sound carries the presence of something living, alert, and unseen. "When darkness settles over the canopy, the rainforest begins its slow transformation. Bats cut swift paths through the night, their wings beating in soft, fleeting pulses. Insects rise all around, casting an electric shimmer into the air, layers of rhythm that flicker, pulse and drift across the forest’s vast acoustic space. "Beneath the leaves, an unseen monkey shifts its weight, each movement swallowed by the murmuring undergrowth - haunting yet delicate, a brief opening into the forest’s deeper mysteries. Under it all, the rainforest breathes to its own pulse through the darkness, grounding the night’s shifting textures. "Within Kichwa Nights is an immersion into the rainforest’s nocturnal life - a living composition shaped by instinct, interdependence, and fragile continuity. These v

"The field recording I started with was the Blue Mountains Portal Lookout in Australia. What I found inspiring about this recording is the pointillist long tones created by the insects. Specifically, the contrast between the theoretically relaxing sounds of nature and the reality of how intense the sounds become.  "I played the original sound, layered with a slowed down and pitch shifted version and a version with a band pass filter. I then added a simple synth loop and a couple of sequenced virtual Buchla tracks. I mixed this base with a binaural recording I made of a protest in October 2025 in Bogota Colombia.  "Monserrate is the mountain that contains the mesa where Bogota is located. I then added a couple of electric piano tracks for contrast." Blue Mountains lookout, Australia reimagined by dssPow.

Inside the Bücherbogen bookshop in Savignyplatz, a fantastic bookshop of art, design and architecture books built under a set of railway arches. A unique soundscape of the quiet of a bookshop, with the flicking of pages, with the deep rumble overhead of periodic passing trains.  Recorded in Berlin, September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

"In Latin, 'Pontis' not only refers to a physical bridge, but also a metaphorical crossing - a psychological parallel between lived reality and its parallel, hyper-real counterpart. My work explores the threshold of human imagination, and the subtle ways our perceived reality changes when consuming art. When reading or listening to material, our psychic perception of reality changes: the environment doesn't disappear, but transforms.  "The piece ends in a rhythmic layered flurry of page-flicks coupled with solo pre-recorded harp material (at Trinity Laban, London), turning the field recording depicting a human action of flicking through a book, into something mechanical, experimental and post-human.  "The Bucherbogen bookstore recording is the perfect vehicle to deliver this auditory palimpsest. The mumbled low rumbling of trains acts as a bridge - a 'pontis' - between the outer reality, and the parallel reality that is being formed inside the bookstore. Berlin is the perfect place for such a sonic crossove

"When I listened to this beautiful recording of the Pharo bells of Marseille, I immediately felt transported to the south of France, which I recently visited and adore. The memories of those places surfaced together with the splendid sound of the different bells ringing over the sea, forming a simple and delicate melody.  "This piece grows from that melody and from the sea itself, symbolising how certain moments in our past come flooding back through the tides of memory." Bells in Le Pharo, Marseille reimagined by Demiurgo.

This recording displays the sounds of a local celebration stumbled upon in the city of Chiang Mai. People of all ages gathered together to play music and dance, at a buddhist temple called Wat Ku Tao. Recorded in Chiang Mai, Thailand by Jake Edwards.

By day, high atop one of the tallest trees in the Waorani tribal territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the forest opens into a vast cathedral of sound. From this canopy — a sacred perch where countless birds pass by — the air vibrates with a living symphony. Wings beat the open sky, calls echo and overlap, and melodies shimmer in constant motion. Each branch becomes a resonant chamber, amplifying the chorus as if the whole canopy were singing.  From this height, the perspective shifts — the forest is no longer an enclosing labyrinth but an endless horizon of green, alive with voices and breath. It is the rainforest breathing in daylight, radiant and unbroken, a reminder that in these heights, life is not only seen but ceaselessly sung. Recorded in the Waorani Indigenous territory, Yasuní biosphere reserve, Ecuador by Rafael Diogo.

"Right from the first listen, I was struck by the sheer variety and strangeness of the natural sounds of the Ecuadorian forest. Some of them already seemed like electronic sounds in their own right. " I therefore approached my processing by keeping the original recording unaltered and superimposing layers of electronic material that respectfully sought to integrate and blend in as much as possible with the original soundscape. "In short, they were minimal, liminal, and camouflaged contributions, disguised as natural sounds." Yasuni biosphere reserve, Ecuador reimagined by David Rossato.

"To create this sound piece, I sampled the rhythms from the field recording and turned them into a loop. I detuned it slightly. I isolated a fragment of the voice from the recording and altered it as well. With these two elements, I added synthesizers with heavy reverb and distortion. The whole piece sits on the edge of the industrial genre; the traditional drums become almost like hammers or hydraulic presses. "Baudelaire writes in Autumn Song: Rocked by this monotonous pounding, I seem to hear Nails driven hurriedly into a coffin somewhere. For whom?—Only yesterday it was summer; now it is autumn! This mysterious sound echoes like a departure."  Wat Ku Tao celebration, Chiang Mai reimagined by Laville.

Recording starting just before 10:00. At 10, the bells of different churches start ringing. Binaural recording with OKM II and Zoom H2n. Recorded in Marseille, France by Patrick Petrossians.

"As I was browsing the Cities and Memory sound library, I had an LFO patch quietly looping in the background. When the field recording Lonely Beach surfaced, it fell into place with the glitchy texture I was shaping, just like the sound of ropes creaking on a sailing boat at night!  "From that accidental pairing, the track began to write itself. I took those two elements and let them drift together, along with scattered sounds of the twinkly stars, eventually becoming this warm, sleepy piece." Lonely Beach, Cambodia reimagined by Trees Can Talk.

"Whenever anyone speaks of Auschwitz, I always picture the iconic Arbeit Macht Frei Gate; an image linked to the atrocities associated with the holocaust. I have never been to Auschwitz, but when I heard the field recording I was instantly transported there. I found the sounds so evocative and tried to imagine how it must have felt for those individuals who were taken there in the 1940’s, although this is ultimately impossible. What thoughts must have been going through their minds as they approached the gate? These were ordinary human beings, and I often wonder how another person could possibly dehumanise in such a brutal way as the Nazis did. "I wanted “The Bird’ to consider these themes and think about the feelings of the people and whether they felt abandoned or simply resigned to their fate as they saw others being beaten or even killed. What must they have thought of the guards who treated them that way? I also wanted to try and represent the futility of such events by using the image of a bird flying,

At Lonely Beach on Koh Rong, the waves reach the shore in soft, unhurried patterns. Each swell rises and falls with calm consistency, a natural rhythm that soothes the mind. The beach is quiet and open, with only the sea’s gentle presence filling the air. It is a place of quiet retreat, where the sound of the ocean encourages rest and relaxation. Recorded by Jake Edwards.

Ambisonics recordings of the sound at the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate to Auschwitz-I.  This soundscape-composition 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. 

Trains passing overhead on a overpass at Savignyplatz on a Sunday morning in Berlin, with light rain clearly audible too. Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

"The trains, from the field recording run, whilst the music represents thoughts of waiting for the next train and run between the train sounds. Some mangles train sounds appear amonst the music." Trains on an overpass at Savignyplatz, Berlin reimagined by Simon Woods.