Cities And Memory

A walkthrough of Berlin's main station, with announcements drenched in the huge reverb of the station hall, then the classic sounds of trolley bags, escalators, passengers as we explore this vast station and make our way underground to the U-bahn.  Recorded in Berlin by Cities and Memory, September 2025. 

"A captivating field recording of fog machines in an outdoor setting was fed into a number of granular synth engines. This resulted in crackles, reverb shadow and drift. Different colours and movement ( fog drift) in the reimagined track emerged.  "I built and recorded a number of different passages settling on a drifting, arpeggiated loop which allowed the field recording to move in and out of focus. Layered and distressed the track finally was completed." Fog installation in the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin reimagined by Andy Billington. 

A remarkable fog installation in the sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, by Fujiko Nakaya. This site-specific installation activates once per hour, and fills the garden with vaporous fog, playing with the architecture of Mies van der Rohe. Fog formations emerge from different sides of the garden, blending with the trees and permanent sculptures, before slowly dissolving into the sky.  The moving fog appears at various densities, at times at a nearly tangible volume, at others as a translucent veil. And it's an interesting sonic experience too - and fascinating to be the only person there focusing on the sounds, instead of the remarkable sights.  Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Inside the Boros Collection bunker, listening to a sound installation of distorted bells on a speaker suspended by chains, made by Eliza Douglas. The space has a fascinating past as a shelter, a prison for political prisoners, and a techno and sex club - and now it hosts a conceptual art exhibition. The sound captures both the muffled sounds of museum-goers on one side, and the passage of air and the sounds from Berlin outside on the other. Recorded in Berlin by Cities and Memory, September 2025.

"I have a long history with Berlin, and this contemporary art bunker represents very well everything the city means for me. It's deep, dark, yet lively and hopeful. This is my love letter to Berlin." Boros Collection sound installation in Berlin reimagined by the figurehead.

"The sound of calling to prayers from mosques is featured in the original field recording; it's a very vague and distant call accompanied by street sound and people chatter, but it's still breathtaking. It's even more fascinating that the exact timings of this chant vary daily based on astronomical calculations. I've never been to Turkey and not religious either, but I am still deeply drawn to the epic like spectacle that the chant can create in a simple recording.  "My composition is based on the call and it's a re-imagination of how this chant works its power to connect all beings, locations, landscapes and senses in a wider field. To echo this, and reflect on Istanbul's geographic position connecting two continents and two seas, I have merged elements of mosque soundscape, Turkish Saz, drone, and ship horns from the sea in the composition. It's the music that is born from the location and departs from the location." Call to prayer in Istanbul reimagined by Shan Lyu.

Visiting Istanbul for the purpose of recording was fascinating because one could find locations in the city without too much car sounds. This was in 2013. I wanted to go to the Asian side of Istanbul to Kadiköy. There I found a small side street and recorded. I am not religious in any way but still always enjoyed the call for the prayers.  Recorded by Sirpa Jokinen.

"I’ve always viewed and listened to the ocean in a special way, and the sounds of the field recording inspired me to create this piece. I called it Impermanence for a couple of reasons… just like our lives and our consciousness, the waves are both individual and part of the ocean at the same time - all and one. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as is said in Buddhism. "At my mother’s funeral a couple of years back, as is part of our culture, we scattered her ashes into a river, which flows into the ocean. So I always think of her when I look out into the sea, wherever I am in the world, as she's now a part of it. I managed to get some sampled recordings of her, from an old video recorder my brother had playing with my niece some 20 odd years ago, which I've placed in the middle of the piece… hopefully conveying my memories of her within the sounds of the ocean waves. "We all have different beliefs which of course should be respected, but I believe we as humans are both temporary (in conscious existence)

The sunsets on Malapascua Island in the Philippines feel like explosions in the sky — wild, breathtaking, and almost unreal. But beneath that blaze of colour, it’s the sound of the waves that holds you — soft laps against the shoreline, repeating like a forgotten lullaby. I stayed there alone, wrapped in the rhythm of the sea, as if time had unraveled and tomorrow didn’t exist. The sky burned in hues I didn’t know names for, and the ocean spoke in its slow, endless tongue. In that moment, sound and color were equal — and both were everything. Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"A woman writes a message during her daily tram commute to work. Seemingly insignificant details, like selling a table or a couch, hide a deeply personal story about love, and the fragility of the hope for new beginnings." Melbourne tram journey reimagined by Cristina Marras.

This recording from 2025 captures a short commute using Melbourne's iconic trams in the city centre. It's not unusual for trams to be packed and this afternoon was no exception as many people were also heading to a football game.  The clatter of the trams mingle with conversations and crosswalks, bringing the Melbourne CBD to life. Recorded in Melbourne, Australia by Janina Castro.

"Invisible Anchor is a downtempo ambient track centred around a seismic field recording of an electricity pylon, this served as the primary background pad. The field recording was tuned to the track's key using Temperance Pro from Eventide and it matched the track length precisely. For the overall character, the master mix was run through Air Music Tech's FlavorPro with a tweaked cassette tape preset to introduce a lo-fi vibe. All music elements originated from Sonic Charge's Synplant II and the Air Music Tech DrumSynth." Electricity pylon in Wytham Woods, England reimagined by Karhide.

This is a recording made with a seismic microphone attached to an electricity pylon in the English countryside in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire.  The sounds come from the wind vibrating the entire structure, as captured by this specialist microphone. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"Thinking about the ascent and the vastness of Gran Sasso Park I stretched sounds to hold the sound of the water and this suggested voices so Caruso takes a trip to the park." Gran Sasso park in Italy reimagined by Stuart Wilding.

Living with an isolated Shipibo indigenous family in the Peruvian Amazon, this recording features an ícaro titled "Yoi Jacon" ("another world") by curandera Ronin Mea. The chant speaks of a realm beyond our own, filled with ancient wisdom, amidst the backdrop of a disappearing way of life due to deforestation and modernization. Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

The gentle tinkling of cowbells in a field among the Dolomites at the end of a long summer afternoon. Recorded in Colmean, Italy by Cities and Memory, June 2025.  

"The field recording is a completed song, sung to the backdrop of a symphony of sounds apparently arising from the Peruvian Amazon setting where the performance and recoding took place. The chant/song repeats and winds upwards in tonal centre as it journeys through a call and response form.  "My composition takes shape as a tribute to the eternal, calm yet elegant and alive feeling and state of mind that I experienced with the field recording. The oud is performed as a single extended gesture of surprise and awe, playfully speaking to the song’s landscape with juxtaposing textures and rhythms." Shipibo icaro in Peru reimagined by Mastaneh Nazarian.

"I liked the tonal qualities of this recording. There is a constantly varying pattern of sound: the cars, trucks and buses never pass over in the same configuration so the tones will always combine differently. Each time I improvised this musical re-creation was also unique. The different patterns of sound could have gone on for eternity, but here I have just reimagined it twice." Hawthorne bridge, Portland reimagined by Philip Gibbs. 

The Hawthorne Bridge, built in 1910 is the oldest vertical lift bridge in the USA and the oldest highway bridge in Portland, Oregon. I stood beneath it one sunny summer day, as the traffic passed over the open steel grills of the carriageway creating the rushing tones in this recording. Recorded by Paul Stephens-Wood.

"I thought about the cows maybe wanting someone else to jam along with in the Dolomites, and then a bunch of choristers turn up with a wannabe DJ in tow, and they end up getting it together just in time for milking." Cowbells in Colmean, the Dolomites reimagined by Rod Dykeman.