Cities and Memory - remixing the world

The sound of warping and weaving on a traditional Canarian loom, alongside the voice of Herminia Pimentel Tejera and the weaving of Jennyfer Cabrera Guerra. A living testimony of the linen cultivation and textile traditions of Gran Canaria, preserved by the Asociación Amigos del Linolillo. Part of the participatory sound mapping project "Voices and Sounds of the Sacred Mountains", by the Union of Associations of the Biosphere Reserve of Gran Canaria.

Recorded in Barranco Hondo (Juncalillo), Spain by Jenny Guerra Hernandez.

Closing my eyes and listening to the original sound transported me to another place in my mind... a sunny, warm area with a family enjoying a day out. So in this composition, I tried to transport the listener to another dimension - one that felt dreamy with a hint of uncertainty. Created in Bitwig Studio.

San Marino cable car reimagined by Tracy Cox.

Koh Samui's fisherman village comes to life at night when the market opens. Here one can buy many trinkets, and enjoy tasty food. 

Recorded in Thailand by Jake Edwards.

"My approach to the piece involved a lot of processing. A number of times. And then, at some point, recording a couple of sessions, improvising with the pieces made up to then. This piece is half of the slightly edited and pruned output of those two sessions.

"Part of my process involved finding some videos on YouTube of the market where the recording was made, and then running a couple of pieces of that video footage through a Max MSP patch I had made which turns video into midi - this in turn was routed into the DAW to play back bits of the original. There were also a couple of sessions with results pitched up and down and through effects and some plugins too, and then that whole process happened again a few times with the bits produced too....

"When going through the video footage, I spent some time thinking about what it was showing. You could see it was a busy market, with lots of stalls, lots of colour, stalls with all sorts of delicious tasty treats, and stalls selling bright and gaudy stuff for the tourists too. The videos I found were also mainly shot by Australian tourists, so there was probably a certain amount of selectivity going on in what was being shown. The field recording has a nice gentle feel - murmurings, bits of background radio and music, low chatter, there's a nice relaxed slow feel about things, but the market seems very much for the tourists, who are wandering around with their cameras. The two bits of footage I used included one showing a lovely smiling lady preparing and selling some tasty-looking food - care, hospitality, nurture, love - quiet and kind, but an exchange. And in the background of another bit I spotted a local chap - a man - down the side of a stall flipping through and counting a wad of money. It felt like two ends of a spectrum. Thought this all quite revealing about the place and its dynamics. Made me realise that there were obviously layers that could be peeled back.

"The pieces were and weren't made with these thoughts in mind (mainly I was just playing with, and having fun with the sounds), but they did serve to shape the arrangement and shape of the final whole afterwards, moving through sections reflecting these types of thoughts."

Koh Samui night market reimagined by Sum Crossings.

"Using Audacity I added some effects to the recordinf to make it sound more organic so the swishing now could be a moving branch. I was making the effects as if from the natural world here in particular, where I am in rural New Zealand, as if to give an 'air' to the mechanical sounds of the loom."

Traditional loom weaving in Juncalillo reimagined by Sonja von Kerkhoff. 

By day, the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa is a tourist trap, filled with food stalls, trinket stands but most unfortunately there are all kinds of mistreated animals. Snake charmers' trumpets and movements keep the serpents in a high state of distress, there are miserable looking monkeys posing for photos in football shirts, chained birds of prey and so on. No question it's a fascinating soundscape, but a depressing sight. 

Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

Soundscape composition created from 3D Ambisonics recording at this site. 5 youths were murdered here, shot at close range by Anders Behring Breivik 22nd July 2011. The sound of the waves towards the shore are the same today as when they tried to hide in 2011.

This soundscape-composition is part of the HEYR project, presenting 3-dimensional soundscapes from special locations, connected to special events. Find out more by visiting https://www.heyr.no

Recorded in Utoya, Norway by Anders Vinjar, 2025.

Ticking pedestrian crossings at a four-way junction in Oslo, with the sound getting louder and quieter as we approach and move away from them, and a passing fire engine siren and tram.

Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

Exploring the Nordic Pixel Forest, an attraction in the Ekebergparken sculpture park, in which many ropes of lights hang from the trees, creating a grove of lights, and a sound installation blends birdsong and gentle ambient music, which mixes in with the sounds of actual birdsong from the real trees surrounding the grove. 

Recorded in Oslo, September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

On a quiet beach in the Oslo fjord on Hovedoya island, with very gentle lapping waves, a distant boat passing, the occasional couple walking past. A calm, relaxing soundscape from one of the islands in Oslo's fjord. 

Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory.