Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"I shared the quiet, non-mechanical sounds from old town Shanghai with Ruth Tsang to prompt her childhood memories of leaving the city in May 1949. Rhythmic patterns extracted from the field recording were used to shape a loose structure for the oral history." 

Shanghai street soundscape reimagined by Emiko Morita.

"When I heard the field recording of people milling around Gloucester Cathedral, the choir rehearsing with the organist, I liked to think of the many ghosts that (probably) reside in the cathedral and them weaving in and out of the congregation and choir, possibly into the organ as well, unbeknownst to anyone but themselves. 

"The organ samples have been retuned/detuned against an waltz time drum beat playing against a common time baseline."

Gloucester Cathedral soundscape reimagined by Moray Newlands.

"The clanking of the flagpole was what piqued my interest initially. Being from a smallish town in England originally, it's a sound I am very familiar with - this was then compounded with the pigeons and the bin trucks; again, all very familiar sounds, and ones that are mostly missing in my current home of New Zealand. 

"With the approach of the memories this triggered in me, I also wanted to include a nod to the 'Englishness' of it all. To this end, I have layered strings and choral voices across the original sounds to give it something of an Elgarian feel. At least in my head.

"In terms of processing, all the percussion is derived from the flagpole or other sounds within the original piece. I've also processed most of the strings and the bass through snippets of the original to give it a more coherent and gritty feel. And finally, there are a couple of synths that use samples of the pigeon and the bin truck. 

Holbrook village green reimagined by maff (Matt George).

IMAGE: Ovingham Village Green by Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

This is the sound of a master glassblower, Marcin Czepiga at The World of Glass. He is blowing and shaping glass for the museum shop after the visitors have left. The sound is unique as usually, only the glassblowers at the museum will hear the process as it is in the recording. During public glassblowing demonstrations, there would be talking therefore a different sound to what is heard here. 

St Helens is world famous for glass and the story of an industry entwined there is being kept alive in this recording. The Hot Glass Studio is one of the largest in the UK.

The recording was taken in 2025.

Recorded by Rebecca Ainsworth. 

The chosen location of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, signifies the opening of the Welland Canal in late March of 2025. The constant hum of the freighters and lakers, which ply these waters on the Lake Erie coast, are mixed with those of a nearby playground, gulls, Canada Geese and Red-wing blackbirds. As the ice on the coast is partially frozen, there are few sounds of water along the shoreline.

Recorded by Troy Ouellette.

Kongjia Nong Lane may be the last patch of lilong old district in Shanghai’s city center, with its iconic passageway buildings—a classic snapshot of the city’s past—recently demolished. One resident returned to their old home to gather final belongings, murmuring to themselves. 

In summers past, they might have set out small tables and bamboo chairs at the doorstep for cooling off, dining, or ga sanhu (chatting). Without the muffled clamour of neighbours, their murmurs grow clear, the room’s reverberation spilling into the alley, amplified again. 

This hollow, resonant echo is etched into the temporal lobes of the residents—a soundscape shared across generations. After moving to new homes, will it take them long to adjust?

Recorded in Shanghai, China by Digimonk.

 | A congregation waits in Gloucester Cathedral on Good Friday for the Easter liturgy to begin. The hubbub of voices echoes in the vast space of the nave. Then the Cathedral choir and organ begins to practice before the service.

Recorded by Paul Stephens-Wood.

Home to both the village hall and quoits club, the Holbrook village green sits almost slap bang in the centre of the village. With the COOP supermarket, Methodist Hall, Swan public house and an independent butcher all nearby, this area of the village is the central hub of village life. 

What interests me sonically about the the present day village green is its flagpole, upon which the union flag is raised and lowered daily (like many other villages across the country). Even the gentlest breath of wind can cause the rope to clang and vibrate against the hollow metal pole. On a breezy day in August 2024, I set up my recording equipment in the late morning and sat back to listen. There was a palpable hum of activity as people came to run errands or shop. And, as always, a pigeon could be heard cooing away.

Whilst I was recording, the sound of the dustbin lorry approaching could be heard. This sound is one of the regular sounds of any community and the hissing and clanking of the heavy lorry can often jar your focus from whatever task you are currently doing, to run out and check that your bin is ready for collection (as missing it would mean a lengthy period of time until they would return).

I love the sounds of a bin collection: the hissing of air brakes, pneumatic lifting, the drones of an emptied wheely bin wheels on concrete, the slamming of lids and occasional shouts from the workers, and (if you are lucky) the beeping warning sound of the vehicle reversing.

(Holbrook is a small village located 6 miles from the town of Ipswich, England.)

Recorded by Matthew Shenton.

IMAGE: Ovingham Village Green by Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Inside Gare du Nord, an unusual sonic addition - the fake sounds of birdsong piped in from speakers in the ceiling. The intention, I'm sure, is to bring a little nature into the station and to help travellers feel more relaxed. 

However, the combination of the huge station space, the volume of the bird calls and the speaker position leads 90% of travellers to ignore the sounds, 5% to look extremely confused at what's going on, and about another 5% to listen, notice and smile. 

The birdsong also blends into the beeping of the ticket gate - nature and machinery together in sound. 

Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

At the famous "animal hole" in Bremen, a drain cover with a difference! Pop a coin in and the sounds of animals from the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Town Musicians of Bremen" play in turn - first the cockerel, then the cat, then the dog, then the donkey. 

This binaural recording was late at night when the square was deserted, meaning the sound travelled clearly out into the night air, instead of being obscured by the usual bustling sounds of the evening.

Recorded in May 2025 in Bremen, Germany by Cities and Memory.