Cities And Memory

"Jamie House's field recording, Rotterdam Bridge, reflects the impact of civilisation. There are endless noises of traffic in different tonalities and volumes. The sound of the bridge itself can be heard, as well as the sounds of nature — birds, water and the sea beneath the bridge. "The track "Rotterdam Dystopia" attempts to translate this complex system into music. Everything in this world is based on the sea, which therefore appears in the track. "The rhythm of modern life is played by percussion instruments derived from snippets of sound from the field recording, which are sometimes transformed. The musical content is also completely derived from the recording — chord progressions and notes were extracted and only adapted to fit the musical scales. "The track was built using these materials with the aim of conveying the disturbing and sometimes dystopian feelings already present in the field recording of the modern world." Rotterdam bridge reimagined by RabMusicLab.

The composition is a series of relentless sequences played over the field recording of the chanting. The sequences change over the course of the piece occasionally pausing (player injured?) before, like the chanting, continuing on its relentless journey.  The percussion sequences are made up from samples of the crowd mangled and chopped. Hannover fans at Hannover 96 vs. Greuther Fuerth reimagined by Simon Woods. 

At Hannover 96 vs. Greuther Fuerth, 11 May 2025 (final score: 1-1). Songs and chanting from the Hannover ultras throughout a significant chunk of the first half.  Recorded at the Heinz von Heiden Arena in Hannover, Germany by Cities and Memory.

"I spend a lot of time walking in the Scottish hills and associate certain sounds with my experiences of the landscape. There is one specific sound which I feel is synonymous with the Highlands; the roar of rutting deer. This evokes strong memories of mornings spent sitting on loch side rocks of a small Island called Carna whilst looking over to the hills of the Morvern Peninsula. As the sun rises, the distinctive sound begins, and I scan the horizon with my binoculars to search for silhouettes of stags on the mountain ridges.  "The recording of the rutting deer was probably the clearest and most powerful I had ever listened to, and I was instantly drawn to it. I imagined the societal structure of the herd, the etiquette of being allowed to participate in these ritualistic ruts and the point at which the young stags reach adulthood and are deemed worthy opponents for the alpha male.  "I wanted ‘Come of Age’ to tell the story of the rut by introducing the older dominant alpha male and the younger maturing ri

This recording captures the Red Deer Rut (Brame de Cerf) recorded in the heart of the Orleans Forest, the largest forest in France. This was the second year I recorded the deer rut at this location, and I had a good understanding of where the deer were active.  For this recording I had set up my mics and was standing in complete darkness about 30 metres away from my equipment when a very large red deer stag walked out in front of me. It stopped to look at me before continuing a few more metres, then began bellowing loudly.  Recorded by Colin Hunter. 

A walk along the Greenwich foot tunnel right underneath the River Thames. We descend in the lift, hearing the announcements, and walk the length of the long concrete tunnel, hearing cyclists whizz past and catching snippets of conversation from passing pedestrians, before emerging at the exit at the other end.  Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"Taking the underground announcements and creating the echoing effects that you often hear in the tunnels of the underground using dub techniques." Greenwich tunnel, London reimagined by Dubberrookie.

In the summer of 2019, while sitting beside a small unnamed lake/pond, which friends and I called Crater Lake (because it looked like a crater), I was attempting to record loons in the late afternoon/early evening. Instead, a beaver swam around circling and splashing about near the nest of a pair of loons and their loonlets, messing with them far as I could tell. Thus, we get no loon sounds but some reverberating beaver tail whips.  The lake itself was situated where I was sat several meters from the shore nestled in an almost amphitheater type setting, and the recording reflects as much (especially when listening with headphones or a good pair of speakers). The frogs, songbirds set the stage for a sound rich environment, and the beaver tail led the way, so to speak, or at the very least, punctuated the recording with deep bass resonance.  Hence, the playful title I attributed to the recording. I find the tail whip sounds especially unique and felt serendipitous I was able to capture it - sounds of the nort

"We travel through many sonic landscapes. Lately, I’ve been flying back and forth from Massachusetts to Wisconsin to help my elderly parents. I selected this field recording from from the north woods of WI (a shared past) paired with my own similar recordings from the deep forest in MA/VT (a shared present), and a nearby pond at the Clark Art Institute.  "In a sense this becomes an ambient travelogue. As we age and travel, there are many delights and familiarities, but also many unknowns, so I composed this piece to be both lovely and a little ominous, performing bowed bells, percussion, and modular synthesizer in addition to the field recordings." Chequamegon Nicolet national forest, Iron River USA reimagined by Gregory Scheckler.

"This piece is a personal journey through the experiences of being born and growing up on an island with complex cultural, political, and historical roots. I felt strong connections and disconnections between where I grew up and where I lived afterwards, realising that identity and belonging can continue to evolve in subtle ways. Making every moment of interaction with the space and culture dynamic, as the individual affects the space, and in turn, it affects the individual.  "I primarily used the recording allocated to me for this project for rhythmic and timbral purposes. In a sense, the selection of the recording was both informed by and, in turn, informed the piece that I was composing. It helped bridge the metal and soundscape genres with its natural timbre and rhythmic qualities." Fez medina work sounds reimagined by Berk Yagli.

This was recorded in Fez Medina in Morocco in 2008, I feel that this sound sums up not only the sense of place that one feels when inside the Medina, but it is seemingly a sound which defines temporal definition.  One might hear this sound at any point in the last 2,000 years, a unique soundmark, which also personally resonates with my own memories of that time in my life, the time in Morocco and also the feelings of hope and optimism for the future which seemingly seem distant in 2025. Recorded by Neil Spencer Bruce.

This recording captures the "Isha" call to prayer in the medina of Nabeul, Tunisia. "Isha" is the night prayer, and is announced after dark.  Nabeul has two main mosques in the medina, plus other call to prayers can be heard in the distance. The presence of space is well recognisable due to the various distances of the different Isha calls. Recorded by Colin Hunter.

The recording is made sitting on a pier by the Kukkia lake. One can hear waves under the pier and sounds coming across the lake but also insects. The contact microphone was placed on a floating metal plate on water and animals smaller than the eye could see were walking on it and made sounds. Recorded by Sirpa Jokinen.

"The piece was about seeking answers or at least a response and receiving silence. There is a resignation or even frustration that is represented with the ebbing and flowing of the instruments.  "Harmonium, guitar, saxophone, and Mellotron alongside a field recording of a call to prayer. Every time a melody would emerge, I would intentionally pull back as if the melody was an answer to the pleas from the instruments. It was challenging and somewhat frustrating, but I would audibly say “refrain” when things started to flow and bring that instrument to rest. This is a topic touched upon in Ingmar Bergman films: faith and silence." Nabeul call to prayer reimagined by Jeff Brown.

"Blossoming Wake was inspired by the field recording “By The Kukkia Lake” by Sirpa Jokinen. I was drawn to this field recording, which was made with a contact microphone, simply because I too have been using contact microphones to record outdoors.  "My sound sources consist of contact microphones placed in dead hollow trees (Clark Reservation, Jamesville, NY) and on a creaking gate (Three Falls Woods, Manlius, NY).  "Additional sound sources (made with a shotgun microphone) include rubber balls rubbed against a wooden sculpture (Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY) and various water sounds (Crystal Lake, Benzie County, MI). All audio files used to create this “blended landscape” have been edited and processed in the studio using Cubase and Ableton." Kukkia lake, Finland reimagined by Edward Ruchalski.

Hydrophones at the bottom of a seasonal pond, in the ecologically rich Orchard St Marsh and Forest which is threatened by a developer who wants to build condos. Recorded by Matt Rogalsky.

"Like so many other areas, time is running out for the wetlands at Orchard Street Marsh, Canada. Development decisions are under review. To reflect this in my piece, I have kept the sound of the hydrophone from the original recording as a time clock.  "Accompanying, I have played layers of tenor recorder to represent the harmony of breath beneath the water. You will also hear the natural sounds of the wetland in real time; the fluid movements of carbon storage, flood control and biodiversity." Wetland in Kingston, Canada reimagined by Cheryl Beer.

This recording captures the sferic sounds from an electrical storm that occurred on 30.03.2025. The fizzes, crackles and zaps are from natural electrical phenomena, specifically broadband electromagnetic (EM) impulses caused by lightning discharges, that were detected via a homemade receiver I adapted from the Shortwave Collective’s Open Wave-Receiver.  There are 3 recordings, the first half is prior to a power blackout, the second half is after - showcasing the atmospheric sounds without human-made EM noise. The third recording was taken with an ultrasonic mic capturing the rumblings and movements which provides the base notes of this piece. Recorded by Aliesha King.

In the Chocó jungle near Capurganá, Colombia, the natural soundscape is interrupted by the hum of generators. This recording captures the morning interplay between the haunting calls of howler monkeys and the mechanical drone of generators, creating a unique, chaotic harmony. Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

The selected recording was made at a roadside metal cross surrounded by a fence, marking the burial place of cholera epidemic victims. Behind the cross, a short distance from the road, the old burial plot has turned into a wild pond covered with duckweed. You can hear a flock of tits flying over the water surface, dragonflies interested in the microphones, and at one point, a raven appears on a tall tree. Only three cars pass by.  This recording is a part of the Funereal project, an artistic and research project based on the practice of field recordings in old cemeteries. It is set in the broad context of death studies and considerations on memorial sites and deathscapes. It focuses on the soundscapes related to the heterotopic space of old, forgotten cemeteries. In its considerations, it combines seemingly distant threads, regarding memory, sound ecology and the parascientific EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomena. https://soundcloud.com/user-685437514 The recording has not been modified. The project assumes a