Cities And Memory

I. Ocean furrows II. The liquid skin of story  III. Island protecting waves "What are the living sonic expressions inherited from our ancestors? This question came to me when I read the definition of ‘intangible cultural heritage’ on the UNESCO website. The field recording I chose from the Fisherman’s Wharf in Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands, is, in the words of Josué Jaramillo, ‘a unique polyphony, where work, culture and wildlife converge in an imperfect but very human harmony’. Listening to the recording, I was mesmerised by the sound of the ‘knives sliding on whetstones’, as well as the daily conversations and the flowing of sounds into each other. Watching videos of the wharf online, I was transfixed by the seabirds, iguanas and sea lions that waited patiently for -or simply took- their fair share of the fish meat.  "Researching Ecuadorian folk music, I came across ‘Taita Quishpe’, a song about the love felt by an indigenous agriculturalist towards their ‘chakrita’, the small plot of land which pro