Cities And Memory

"This field recording put me in mind of the anxiety and sensory overload one can experience in crowded public spaces like the night market the original captures. The horns of cars, beeping of cars and cacophony of noises from busy stalls are transformed into abstracted noises, barely legible as their original forms, and the voices of workers and customers come in and out of focus, creating their own music detached from the meaning of the actual words being spoken. "My reworking is an attempt to capture and distil those feelings into frozen moments, unnerving and darkly compelling in equal measure. The unease of neurosis and social discomfort can provide its own soothing familiarity for those long-acquainted with its presence." Wuhan night market reimagined by Rowan Allen.

'Since moving to London, I have been continuously tuning myself to the frequency of this city. "Melodies generated by four automatic systems based on different musical scales, field recordings, and my own voice sometimes connect, intersect, conflict, and harmonise. "Lost in different frequencies, I am still searching for a way through." Diana memorial fountain, London reimagined by Miya.

"Field recording of Pipilotti Rist's "Ever Is Over" performance piece deconstructed via various granular processes." Video installation from Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin reimagined by Scott Lawrence Whitman.

"This piece was made from a selection of time-stretched samples of gaps between the rushing water in the original field recording, layered and manipulated to create an ambient soundscape. I have had the pleasure of swimming in the Fairy Pools in the past, and was inspired by the uncanny and liminal nature of sounds and ambience when heard underwater.  "I particularly focused on the pseudo-vocal elements of these stretched samples, leaning into the simulation of ethereal laughter." Skye Fairy Pools reimagined by Helen Hawa-Diggle.

" Boscastle, such a beautiful magical place, set in a deep valley carved out by the river, with jagged cliffs covered in emerald & drifts of Sea Pinks & white Campion, where the sea birds nest. The buildings growing out of the cliffs in slate & killas. The slate slabs & cobbles trodden into forms of memories for hundreds of years.  "I was inspired by the Boscastle field recording because of my deep connection with the sea & the place itself. I lived nearby for many years. I was there at the time of the awful flood. My connection deepened when close friends I’d worked with creatively on the east coast journeyed down to meet me.  "High on the cliff path, a lone bench overlooking the harbour became a sacred meeting place for us for years afterwards. it was a spiritual experience & it felt like a magical circle or spiral of elemental connection. "I added one of my own field recordings of dropping pebbles into the harbour & seagulls on the wind for its haunting quality to complement

Light waves breaking on a stone boat jetty in the very small one-boat Boscastle harbour in Cornwall on a sunny August afternoon. Recorded by Cities and Memory, June 2025. 

"This composition is built from a field recording of a waterfall in the Lake District by Rob Parton. The waterfall has a broad spectrum of frequencies decaying and emerging; a metaphor for autumn: as each droplet’s resonance fades, new ones emerge, echoing nature’s descent into winter, its long sleep and quiet preparation for spring.  "The piece features a vocal sample of Karen McCarthy Woolf reading from her poem Conversations with Water, her contemplative words reverberating through this honouring of water and the transformative season of autumn. "Using the Torso S-4, I gradually transformed the raw waterfall recording into harmonic frequencies, shaping it into a sustained, droning chord that I then mirrored on my harmonium to form an ambient composition. I layered in a guitar motif to introduce a sense of optimism as the seasons shift." Lake District soundscape reimagined by Helen Copnall feat. Karen McCarthy Woolf.

"The original source sound for this piece was from a bat echolocation detection device. So in this sonic interpretation, I aimed to create the feeling of reaching out into a mysterious, dark space of unknown size or location.  "The timbre is meant to be muffled and imprecise while the musical material is deliberate and approaching Baroque. I also bounced the original source sound between various audio and music composition softwares, relaying the message and having it change along the way–similar to a game of telephone. The rhythmic patterns were all taken for the rhythmic patterns of the sonified echolocation." Bat detector in Witney, England reimagined by Janae Jean.

"I was drawn to the call of the Rag and Bone man, and I thought of the man himself, beyond the call - and imagined my own best beloved Great Grandmother and the stories she told me of getting a Donkey Stone from the Rag and Bone man, and scrubbing her step clean.  "It must have been important to her, because she told me about it as though it were a ritual. So I wrote her song, as she might sing to him.  Maybe she called him Donkey Stone.  "Maybe she dreamed of running away and living a life on the road, returning to the ways of her ancestors before her, who were travellers.  "So this song is for Catherine Lightfoot - or Granny Dean as she was to me." Bream rag and bone man reimagined by Subphotic.

Annual "palio" games are common across Italy, in which the town divides itself up into different quarters, which then compete in a series of games over several nights - here, we listen to the first event, the tug of war, with several rounds between different teams all named after animals. We can also hear the nightly "campana della sera" evening bells at 9.00pm midway through the recording.  Recorded in Villa del Conte, Italy, June 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

"|Using SpectralLayers, I isolated the background noise and PA voice into distinct layers that were shortened and pitch-shifted with various effects to create a bed for the track. Then samples of the voice and background were chopped up and woven into a chilled-out ambient composition." Villa del Conte palio games reimagined by Karhide.

Every now and then a Rag ‘n' Bone man (scrap metal man) drives his van round my village in the Forest of Dean picking up scrap metal. It has been difficult to record him. By the time I’ve got the recorder out he’s gone. This time I was lucky. The recording captures him passing down my lane, then the strident chatter of sparrows and the gentle hum of bees in the garden before we hear him again calling in the distance. Recorded by Paul Stephens-Wood.

The sounds of a bat detector converting bat echolocation calls into audible frequencies on a bat behaviour/nesting site survey in Oxfordshire.  Recorded by Giulia Biasibetti.

Finding a spot in Wuhu’s city center that fit this recording project’s theme was nearly impossible, but a sentimental taxi driver pointed me to Yuncao, a small town on the Yangtze’s north bank. Water transport (caoyun) is the origin of Wuhu’s name, hinting at stories embedded in the town’s identity. Recently turned into a tourist spot, it was still free of visitors, with shops and residents all locals, unhurried and unprepared for tourists—perfect for my experience and recording.  I arrived during breakfast time, with few vehicles around. Shopkeepers sauntered to open their stores, and kids were nudged to school. Local women spoke loudly, sounding like they were arguing, but were just chatting about daily life. Without the hum of scooters, this scene could belong to any era past. Recorded by Digimonk.

Mountain Waters captures the sound of water flowing along the Stickle Tarn trail in the Lake District, near Stickle Tarn at the heart of the Langdale Pikes. The water moves over rocks and drops, creating a rhythmic, textured sound that reflects the natural processes shaping this landscape. The Lake District, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is defined by its lakes and mountains, and this recording highlights the water that connects them. It provides a sense of place, transporting the listener to a key element of this heritage site. The sound was recorded using a Zoom H3-VR Ambisonic microphone and decoded to stereo. Ambisonic or binaural versions are also available for a more immersive experience. Recorded by Rob Parton.

Protest outside SOAS in support of Haya Adam - 26th September 2025. A Palestine-related protest outside SOAS, UoL, Bloomsbury, London. Haya Adam is a student who has led Palestine protests and was expelled from SOAS this summer. The first half of the recording has protest chants, the second half is a speech from Haya Adam. Recorded by James Errington.

A recording capturing the energised nature of Cape Town, complicated by the historic struggles that have defined the country. This was an autumn day, blue skies and bright sunshine. This was during my first trip to South Africa, where I had started visiting to uncover information about my South African family and dad, who died when I was very young. Recorded by Daniel Mackenzie.

Recorded on a summer morning in the middle of a beautiful rice field stretching as far as the eye can see. It felt like a magnificent sound installation, with crows and insects singing. Recorded in Niigata, Japan by Miyu Hosoi.

"This piece emerged kind of organically out of itself. It was rather hard to start to manipulate the original recording of Digimonk, because it was so beautifull in itself, technically and naratologically speaking.  "It turned out to become some kind of radiophonic storytelling piece." Wuhu old town soundscape reimagined by Sebastian Dingens.

"The heavy drumming and urgent voices in the recording immediately captured my attention. Following the rhythm of the recorded percussion I built sounds, that felt poignant and appropriate, around the initial groove and pitches inherent in the chanting voices. As a 'protest song' I felt that Dub and Reggae influences were relevant, and added charisma to the piece. I hope that I have captured something of the feelings of justified anger, sadness and hope that I drew from the source recording." SOAS protest in London reimagined by dead kousin.