Cities And Memory

The ravens are one of the most famous features of the Tower of London. Their presence is traditionally believed to protect the Crown and the Tower; a belief holds that "if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it." The earliest known reference to captive ravens at the Tower is an illustration from 1883.  Having spent the afternoon around the Tower trying to capture the calls of the ravens among the thousands of tourists, we finally get lucky. Two of the ravens are perched on a quiet section of wall away from the crowds, and we're able to get up close with the microphone to hear them clucking and cooing, communicating with us and each other for a few special moments.  UNESCO listing: Tower of London Recorded by Cities and Memory. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"The original filed recording by Robert Cole Rizzi is for the most part a rather minimalist recording. We hear a faint breeze, the small rustles of people indistinctly chatting and walking along, all organic sounds lulling us into a peaceful scene. But then we get the eruption of the church bells! Enormous and arrhythmic, they seem to gather the parishioners into the church through sheer volume. There is shuffling and scuffling, the coming together of people, the opening and closing of doors, and then near-silence again. "I wanted to capture this sense of church-going in my composition: the call to sanctuary, the peacefulness sound within, the summoning by bells. Alongside remixing and manipulating the original recording, and inspired by the metallic rapture of the church bells, I worked exclusively with metal percussion: a small bell of my own, singing bowl cymbal, steel tongue drum and wire brushes. I found symmetry in the call of the bell, and the single note chimed from a singing bowl signalling the star

"I came across a legend about the ravens in the Tower of London, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The story says that if the ravens leave, the tower falls along with the kingdom. My composition, Conspiracy of Ravens, simply asks: what if those mischievous ravens are up to no good? What if they were able to pack their bags leading to the destruction of the historic site? "I loved the sound of the vocalizations of the ravens in the tower and so I lightly manipulated their soft coos and clicks in the original recording by Stuart Fowkes. I've added long, ominous strings, dark synth layers, sound effects, and some screeching bells to the uneasy landscape that ends in disaster." Ravens in the Tower of London reimagined by Bill McKenna. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"The first thing that stood out to me about this field recording is that there is no real melodic information. It’s all street noise, most of it not of clearly recognisable origin.  "Even though Dubrovnik is 4,700 miles away from where I live, in another country on another continent across an ocean, the soundscape is very familiar to me. Garbage trucks and ventilation units all speak the same language.  "In her notes on the recording, Ristić describes the noisy Dubrovnik morning with richly evocative phrases like: “textural and multiphonic”; “grinding machinery”; “the town’s growling bowels”; and “a constant percussive development.”  "She writes: “I could not help but be fascinated by how a landscape of such beaming beauty can exist in this hideous soundscape.”  "I kicked around a few ideas but eventually decided to have the work be entirely rhythmic. I wanted to capture that unfocused, only-half-listening state when you become aware of rhythms emerging from the background and soon you begin adding your o

"I tuned into the soundmarks of place, the culturally significant sounds that if heard elsewhere might trigger memories of Obispo Market Havana for those who know it. Drawn to the rhythm of a shaker entering the conversation I wonder if it’s adding flavour to street food being sampled by the passers by.  "While I can’t taste the delights myself I sample this part of the field recording instead and looped it, which also unexpectedly caught a ‘na na na na’ from the background noise. I found myself singing these vocables and imagining street artists performing in a place I have never been, the atmospheric hustle and bustle between the locals and the visitors. Other snippets of voices are heard in passing, I grabbed these and tried to create conversations between people and place, echoing between past and present, a journey between the Old World and the New World." Obispo market, Havana reimagined by Aileen Ogilvie . IMAGE: Paul Mannix, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimed

"The silence and absence was what inspired me deeply, like the resonance of air in space. It led me to some points where I was feeling the empty space as a non-temporal era, so I tried to add and compose some small scenes within the sound. "I was practising a bit of what's called a kind of archaeoacoustics, a way of imagining spaces from a historical perspective and with a bit of imagination. We can listen to a soundscape, a sound recreation of collective work, developed in collaboration with the Cães do Mar theatre company, with seven actors on stage, thinking of sound as a strange physics in which we can inhabit spaces, from different periods of time. We can also listen to some field recordings from different locations, such as birds and crickets from the island of Flores. "I used sound collage, field recording, my voice and a home made instrument that I called escuadra. "The approach of this work is that it opens from a night of time in which the cricket indicates the time of day, crossing the threshing

There is a little window, in the attic of a Dalmatian villa from the early middle ages, overlooking the dreamy cascade landscape of downtown Dubrovnik. It's early June, 8 am. A melody of old Mediterranean terracotta roofs plunging into each other is nursing a soft morning light. The polyphony of ages embedded in the stone makes the town glow from its neutron core. No corners are mislaid, and the fortress is keeping us safe. The window is slightly recessed, almost on the corner with Stradun, and a person with fine jumping skills could easily reach the roof of the church across the narrow street. It's Sunday, and the bells from the various towers across town are spilling their gongs. I needed to sleep a bit more. But the grinding machinery of tourism has its own agenda. Savagely squeaking swallows and the morning congregations of seagulls sound like a pastorale compared to the town’s growling bowels. Air conditioning units, pumps, kitchen ventilation, garbage trucks, delivery vehicles, wheels, and trolleys o

The absence of noise becomes as striking as the sounds themselves. The deep silence within the remains and caves offers a rare moment of solitude - one that is increasingly hard to find in today's busy world. The stones, worn by centuries of history, hold the echoes of lives long past, but the quietness of the caves offers a rare moment of solitude, allowing for reflection. The recording evokes the feeling of standing in the center of history, where the reverence of the site and the silence it holds invite introspection. It’s a place where the past is never fully gone but exists in the quiet spaces, waiting to be felt in the stillness. In this soundscape, the calm of the caves becomes the foundation for the ancient world, offering a moment of reflection amid time’s steady march. UNESCO listing: Kato Paphos Archaeological Park Recorded by Serge Bulat. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole proje

Market soundscape from Obispo in Old Havana.  UNESCO listing: Old Havana and its Fortification System Recorded by Jack Hyde. IMAGE: Paul Mannix, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"I based my composition upon the 5 note motif from the original field recording incorporated at the beginning of the piece and repeated throughout using predominantly Asian instruments." Musical instrument on the Great Wall of China reimagined by Scott Lawrence Whitman. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage IMAGE: Prince Roy, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

"I enjoy feeling disorientated sometimes; being exposed to sound worlds which don’t reveal their inner logic. The bamboo recording felt like one of those moments.  "I wanted to take the rhythms of the creaking bamboo & weave something around it, thinking about nature, preservation and the encroachment of technology, as well as Brazil’s immense percussive heritage & influence. "The piece of music which has emerged is darker than I anticipated, perhaps reflecting the times we’re living through. "The main components were put together on a train, which may have informed its repetitive nature. Some serendipitous equipment malfunctions; digital distortion, timing inaccuracies, also made their way in, and have been retained. "Initial work was done using segments of the recording as samples in a Polyend Tracker Mini, then supplemented by Logic Pro running various plugins, some analogue outboard distortion, and a Dreadbox Nymphes synthesizer. "Off-kilter rhythms, and a sense that everything might fall ove

"By integrating electronic elements with the historic sound of the cathedral organ, the piece highlights the tension and synergy between the old and the new, a dichotomy central to Vienna's identity.  "The composition also speaks to the theme of sound preservation by emphasising how culturally significant sounds - such as the timeless resonance of the organ - serve not only as historical artefacts but as living, evolving expressions of cultural identity." St. Stephen's, Vienna reimagined by Nimbostrata. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

As I entered Vienna's iconic St. Stephen's Cathedral in the heart of the historic centre, a service was just finishing and the organist was playing a triumphant piece of music. I particularly enjoyed the long sustain held on the last chord. UNESCO listing: Historic City of Vienna Recorded by Colin Hunter. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"In this piece, the monk's chanting runs throughout, initially heavily processed by various layers of granular synthesis, and very gradually revealing itself as the composition progresses, so that by the end all we hear is the naked simplicity of the original recording. "The composition represents how we often experience the beauty of World Heritage sites, at first overcome by a feeling of their "importance" at having this status bequeathed upon them, and that perhaps we ought to feel a certain way or experience certain emotions simply by virtue of being there.  "The slow reveal of the monk's chanting represents the stripping away of the initial awe of experiencing some of the world's most amazing sights. Through spending more time in these spaces, engaging more deeply not as a tourist but simply as a respectful human being, those places have even more beauty to reveal to us than we could have imagined with a fleeting interaction, a quick photo and then heading off on our way, another sight ticked off the

An early morning at the San Agustin Church is far from quiet. Street sweepers tidying old cobblestone paths, the chapel staff routine inspections and preparations, vendors beckoning passerbys their taho or knick knacks, and local guides gleefully offering their services to wandering tourists.  The bells of the Manila Cathedral toll and people crossing the plaza are natural accompaniments like thunder to rain. Such sounds reminisce since the early days of the oldest stone church in the Philippines. Now the modern world has crept in with its own lieu of society with revving engines and busy construction from several blocks down. UNESCO listing: San Agustin Church Recorded by Janina Castro & Timothy Romero. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

Monk chanting at Luang Prabang. Stereo 44kHz 16bit. UNESCO listing: Town of Luang Prabang Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"This composition is intended to hiss out of speakers in a similar manner to the liquid nitrogen hissing from the storage tanks outside the Department of Earth Sciences. It's a sonic reflection on standing in this small street, being surrounded on every side by the sounds of humming machinery, coolant and air conditioning, the administrative machinery that underpins and helps to make possible Oxford University's scientific research. This machinery is the unsung hero of our piece.  "A tribute to the sounds of science here in our home city, layers of the liquid nitrogen field recording are delayed and granular synthesis is applied, over which huge, steady waves of ambient guitar wash, and a synth made from the sounds of metals provides an ambient pad undercurrent." Liquid nitrogen tanks at Oxford University reimagined by Cities and Memory. 

Outside the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, there are several gigantic, almost-building height tanks of liquid nitrogen behind a fence, encrusted with ice and with vapour hissing out from the pipes at the bottom. The sounds of hissing liquid nitrogen vapours mix with the industrial drones of other nearby scientific machinery and air conditioning devices coming from science labs, a sonic reminder of all the fantastic research taking place behind closed doors in these advanced university research facilities.  Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"There has been a fascinating wave of experimental and drone music in recent years placing the organ as the centrepiece of a meditative experience, expanding out and stretching the sound into a deep listening experience.  "This piece is in that tradition, taking four sampled layers of the organ and building a slowly-changing, contemplative ten minutes in which perhaps religious contemplation driven by the pure organ sound is augmented, or replaced, by a more spatial, bodily contemplation as that sound is exploded, fragmented, slowed and smeared all around the listening field.  "Every sound in the composition is derived from a manipulated version of the organ recording, and the piece was composed and mixed on a Torso S-4 sampler." Se Velha organ, Coimbra reimagined by Cities and Memory.  ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

The field recording takes us from tour group to tour group inside the world-famous Colosseum, with each guide bringing their own style and their own facts and anecdotal stories about the incredible history of this space. This composition imagines standing at the back of one of these tour groups, half-listening to what the guide is saying, but then allowing the eyes to drift upwards, allowing the attention to drift outwards, and a pure sensation of the beauty, importance and history of this space to be felt directly throughout the body. The piece is about direct, unmediated experience of an iconic, important site, without the need for further explanation, for tour guides, or for anything else, and how a simple and pure connection between the individual and the space is more challenging than ever in today's age of overtourism.  Colosseum in Rome, reimagined by Cities and Memory. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more