Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"A constantly shifting atmospheric track that interplays with a wildlife field recording of grunting hippos. The intention behind this track was to layer gently microtonal hypnotic sounds with the insects as a rhythmic underlay and the hippos' growls blended in as if they were sniggering."

Hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda reimagined by Michael Agar.

 Jeff: "My intent was to create a dreamy walk down a street of an unfamiliar city in an unfamiliar part of the world. Working with yamo is a collaboration in spirals and poetry; she filters the world through a soft daydream. I put textures and incidental events inside her world that are like a radio broadcast from an open doorway or from a busker on the sidewalk as you wander around."

yamo: "Regarding the inspiration behind this piece: although I have never actually visited Thailand, listening to this audio track evoked such a vivid image that I felt as if I were standing alone amidst the streets of a Thai city. Drawing upon that sensation, I created a collage of sounds—incorporating the exotic resonance of bells and the lyrical whisper of the wind as it drifts through narrow alleyways."

Golden Triangle, Ban Sop Ruak, Thailand reimagined by Jeff Brown and yamo.

Four or five people work with lawnmowers and strimmers around the restoration of a cabin in the Dolomites - the sound travels wide and far, and reverberates off the rock faces to give a very particular mountain soundscape of work.

Recorded in the Dolomites, July 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

Locals in Chongqing call these steep stairways “long ladder steps.” This recording captures one such corridor, still tread by “bangbang” porters. It’s morning school rush: vendors hawk, footsteps echo, delivery station chatter booms, and schoolkids’ jabber rings from afar—all swirling in a hundred-step passage. Cities with Z-axis terrain stack buildings vertically, weaving complex, layered echoes with distinct character.

(“Bangbang” refers to porters who use a metre-long, wrist-thick bamboo stick to carry goods, climbing hundreds of steps to haul cargo from riverboats to upland warehouses. Only a few dozen remain today.)

Recorded in Chongqing, China by Digimonk.

This sound is a field recording taken a public transport bus, on the "Huipulco - Six Flags" bus line, in Ajusco, Mexico City. The recording features a clown who boarded the bus and gave a performance for its passengers. Also audible is a traditional Mexican song, featuring instruments and vocals, played by the bus driver on the bus's speaker. 

Noises from the transport and passengers can be heard at various points, including the driver honking at another bus, brakes squeaking, and the bus doors opening to pick up more passengers. The entire performance lasted about 5 minutes, but the recording captures 1 minute and 46 seconds. 

Recorded in Tlalpan, Mexico by Claire Babbott-Bryan. 

"In the original field recording, I was drawn to the acoustic space of the vendor's calls, and decided that was enough of a springboard to create a piece. Other than that, I was going in blind with no preconceptions. I began by adding edits of percussion recordings from my archive, some of which were processed. 

"The piece developed as I added enough elements and it found its form by a process of various edits in the mix, intensive listening and dropping out of the original field recording at certain points as the percussion stood more centre stage, with the field recording weaving in and out in a mixture of interacting acoustic spaces that made sense in terms of good dynamic and structural coherence."

Chongqing street vendor calls reimagined by Fergus Kelly.

"I was drawn to the recording because the sound of the mowers felt like spring. I enjoyed the noise of the mowers and wanted to work with it. The mowers cut in an out, processed by my modular synth, with a noisy drone in the background from the synth. Some tape noise shows up too. Recorded in Ottawa, May 30 2026 (Drone Day!). Mixed and mastered the next day. Pls wear headphones, there's some funky stereo stuff going on." 

Strimmers in the Dolomites reimagined by Josh Yazbeck.

"My piece imagines the clown beyond his public role. The piece is divided into two parts: the first focuses on his life in the street — moments of joy, chaos, conversations, advice to strangers, and the strange energy of constantly being surrounded by people. In the second part the clown is alone, the noise of the street fades, and sadness and an angry kind of nostalgia begin to surface. 

"Using granular synthesis and musique concrète techniques, I transformed sounds from the original field recording into musical material. The real voice of the clown remains present throughout the piece, but in the second part it gradually transforms into music itself, becoming the main musical theme, as if his voice continues speaking after words are no longer there."

Clown in Tlalpan, Mexico reimagined by 42.

"It was strange and daunting to select a church service as my starting point, but I was drawn to it. My main focus thematically was on struggle and renewal, and how we try to explain the inexplicable."

Oslo Domkirke reimagined by Eulipion Corps.

A liturgy service in Norwegian, taking place in Oslo's Domkirke cathedral, featuring service readings, hymns sung by the congregation and passages of organ playing. This service takes place at 5pm every Friday afternoon. 

Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory.