Cities And Memory

"This piece was an exploration of space and the principle of formlessness. The recording very much inspired me to move away from typical form and structure. Instead exploring space and how form returns to formlessness after having manifested." Wind bells in Ohta Ward reimagined by James Nicholls.

"My first memories of New Orleans were made fifty years ago during a family vacation to the city when I was seven years old. I remember a frenzied evening march down a crowded Bourbon Street holding onto my parent’s hand for safety. In the cacophony emanating from the clubs and bars onto the street one sound stood out to me. It was the plunk of the traditional jazz banjo keeping the beat amongst the chaos.  "I chose to incorporate the sound of the jazz banjo into the New Orleans field recording to add rhythm to the commotion of voices and announcements in the streetcar. Along with adding some banjo strums, I sent the sound of the instrument through an envelope follower and used the generated control voltage to modulate the amplitude of the sound of the field recording to create another rhythmic track. The resultant work reimagines the city through the filter of my sonic memory." Streetcar in New Orleans reimagined by Pierrot Desperes.

Government announcements blast by Cafe Thom, a local hot spot for good coffee next to Tay Ho lake. Recorded in Hanoi, Vietnam by Kit Wilmans Fegradoe.

Let yourself be transported by these Beninese women who sell all kinds of food from 3am on board their pirogues before setting off to fish on Lake Nokoué. Recorded by Pierre Costard.Singing, rowing, shouting selling | I took a brief sample of the sounds of the market & used the granular synth Kaivo to create a repetitive but ever-changing piece, which emulated the repetitive but ever changing nature of the market as captured by the field recording | Tim Coomb

"I took a brief sample of the sounds of the market & used the granular synth Kaivo to create a repetitive but ever-changing piece, which emulated the repetitive but ever changing nature of the market as captured by the field recording." Night market in Ganvier, Benin reimagined by Tim Coomb.

Traditional trajinera boat through Xochimilco canals. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. Recorded in Xochimilo, Mexico by Erick Ruiz Arellano.

This recording captures a profound moment in my field recording journey: witnessing and documenting an ancient Waorani tribal dance beneath a luminous full moon. The Waorani people, indigenous to the Amazon rainforest, have a rich cultural heritage, with traditions that include communal dances performed around fires, accompanied by singing and the application of red achiote face paint. Experiencing their vibrant expressions of community and spirituality was an unforgettable highlight. Recorded in the Ecuadorian Amazon by Rafael Diogo.

This recording captures the haunting ambiance of a long-forgotten olive press nestled in one of Portugal's remote and ghostly regions. The structure, with its collapsing roof and decaying machinery, stands as a testament to a bygone era. Venturing inside, I sought to capture the rich textures and unique sounds that permeate the space. Some of these sounds possess remarkable spectral qualities, embodying the essence of abandonment. Recorded in Benfeita, Portugal by Rafael Diogo.

This recording was made in June 2024 in Sisimiut’s “dogtown,” a designated area on the outskirts of town where most sled dogs are kept. It captures the chaotic energy of 18 dogs at feeding time—their excited barks and yelps, the thud of a plastic food bucket, and the musher’s occasional voice as he moves steadily through his long routine. These are working dogs, not pets. When not in use, they’re chained, and during the summer months, they don’t work at all. As a result, they become especially animated when their owner arrives. Over the course of the recording, that initial frenzy gradually shifts into calm as each dog settles down to eat. Threaded throughout the soundscape are the delicate, high-pitched trills of Snow Buntings, ever-present in Greenland’s summer. As the dogs quiet down, the birdsong rises to the forefront, revealing the deep, enveloping stillness that defines life in remote Arctic communities. This is more than just a recording of animals being fed—it’s a window into an enduring tradition

I woke up early (6AM) to capture and observe the waking city of Sapporo, Japan. I was particularly surprised by the presence of crows, which often sat on the street signs and traffic light poles. Sparse trucks and cars passed along the snowy roads. The calls of the cows echoed off the buildings, yet the city remained quite calm. This recording took place in 2018. Crows in Sapporo recorded by Antek Rutczyński.

A recording of the first call to prayer of the day, from the rooftop of my friend's house. I love the way the vocalisations from different mosques interact with one another, and how noises of the city take over as the calls fade away. Recorded in Tunis by Ben Gale.

"Ahuexote is an acousmatic work that explores the sounds of the waterways of Xochimilco (Mexico), the oar of the trajinera, the breathing of the tree, and the heartbeat of the ecosystem. In the still mirror of its waters, an ancestral pulse beats in Xochimilco: its canals are the arteries of this land, where axolotls murmur and the liquid, silent memory of flowers is preserved. "The soundscape is disassembled into distinct acoustic components, each projecting its own timbral and temporal trajectory. Like the ahuexote, a sacred tree of the Nahua peoples and a natural inhabitant of water bodies, the work unfolds sonic dimensions that evoke its spiritual anatomy and, also, its territorial resonance: "The tree that hears and mutates water, — the one that walks with its arm like an oar, — the one that breathes downwind, — and the filigree of birds upwind. "The work was created through various spectral processes, dismantling the soundscape into timbral, tonal, and noise components. Each of these elements has bee

"Decided to give the inspiring piece some ambience without being too invasive." Waorani dance from Ecuador reimagined by Elaine Silva.

"Processed using the MakeNoise Tape and Microsound Machine. The work abstracts the sounds of the olive press while retaining its original acoustic character and suggestion of utility — transforming obsolete machinery into a resonant source of sonic potential, an acoustic residue."  Abandoned olive press in Benfeita, Portugal reimagined by Alan Cook.

"A team of 18 sled dogs at the Sisimiut observatory station in Greenland howls in a rising and falling chorus at feeding time. While a human can typically hear high-frequency sounds up to 20,000 Hz, dogs can hear up to 60,000 Hz or above and are highly attuned to pitch differences as small as 1/8 tone. Here the dogs' cries are slowed down and lowered in pitch, revealing melodies that appear to be ultrasonic frequencies not normally audible to the human ear.  "A woman's voice is encoded on a 2.5" micro-floppy disk drive and triggered by a 1980s 12-bit sampler, double-tracked by a metallophone and raised in pitch, glissing upward toward the dogs' high-frequency hearing range. In combination, the hungry dogs' cries and the singing woman's voice each take on some of the other's acoustic morphology. The rising tones of the singing woman cross and merge with the falling pitches of the howling dogs, which are further lowered and slowed down until they produce quasi-linguistic sounding utterances. "The sled dogs si

"I liked the sound of the crows, you hear them everywhere. I manipulated the original sound and improvised over it and then reworked the whole. By accident the sound became like a pulse which created a tension. I just followed that impulse." Crows in Sapporo, Japan reimagined by Patrick Bridge.

"The original sound file is the core of the piece, having taken shorter bits of the  audio and collaged them with audio from synthesizers to form the whole. Hardware used was Apple Mac MINI, Roland Seaboard M; Software used was Logic, Audacity, and Equator II. "The piece evolved from the environmental non-human sounds in the original recording." Fajr call to prayer in Tunis reimagined by Dennis Moser.

"I really liked the 'ka-chunk' sounds the ski lift makes as it goes over the uneven parts in the wires, kind of like the sounds trains make going over certain parts of the rails. I pulled one of these sounds out and built it into a longer, compound sound, then used it as one of the beats throughout the piece.  "I also used a lower-volume version of the entire long sample from Seceda Mountain, capturing occasional ski lift noises, but more, the air in the mountains — you can barely hear the air, but you can easily imagine that crisp, snowy, high-altitude feeling, so perhaps it comes though subconsciously!  "Otherwise, the other sounds were created with guitars and midi instruments, with a big influence of shoegaze and 80-90s shimmery etherial music."  Ortisei ski lift reimagined by Annie Smidt.

"The field recording I worked with was of an everyday moment; the beeps and clicks of a traffic light, and as soon as I heard it I was singing along, exploring the sounds - it took me away to a place of implied melodies, textures and rhythms - much like incidental sounds sometimes do that in 'real life', whether it's birdsong, a snatch of a melody or the hum of jet engines. It's all inspiration and invitation." Tallinn pedestrian crossing reimagined by de Velden.

The distinctive ticking of a pedestrian crossing on a busy road in Tallinn, which gets quicker to let you know it's time to cross, and slower when it's time to wait.  Recorded in September 2024 by Cities and Memory.