Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"A pure sound piece, with something like 80% of it comprising the original field recording, processed, tweaked, reworked etc." 

Djemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakesh musicians reimagined by Nick St George.

"The sound does opt convey a sense of space, but the location informed my choice. I took the original sound of the distribution box, chopped it up and added a modulator to change the pitch of the chops randomly. This gives the piece a rhythmic element that I was able to use as the backbone for a live piano improvisation on top of it. I did not change any notes but look some stuff away in the mix to make it flow better. 

"The title is a nod to the album "Earth" by that quite famous Greek keyboard chap whose name eludes me. The alternate meaning and connection to electricity was a marvellous coincidence that I did not consider until partway through the recording, but it fits nicely."

Greek electrical distribution box reimagined by Gareth Evans.

"Drawn to the drone quality of the Mega Huepfbergenland recording, I made a quiet drone piece with a little 18th century cembalo at the end (ignoring imagined bouncy castles)."

Bouncy castle park in Bremen reimagined by Eva Q Månsson.

"The recording I worked with was from a Ka Faroshi carpet store in Kabul. This consisted of several people chatting in a carpet shop in some language/dialect of Afghanistan. I do not speak the language so picked part of a conversation spoken between 3 men with different pitched voices. I have no idea what they are saying. I hope it's not rude. 

"I formed a repeating pattern of this phrase transformed using comb filtering. Modified sounds of carpet tape and other physical sounds were interjected to add drama. Allusions to hiding in caves could be inferred. The piece ends with an evol treatment of the modified crackling sound."

Kabul carpet store reimagined by Alison Beattie.

A Century of Sounds is a trip through one hundred years of sounds from all over the world, taken from the archives of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

It's a partnership between the museum and Cities and Memory, which is one of the world’s largest sound projects, aiming to remix the world, one sound at a time. 100 artists were invited to each choose one field recording, to be inspired by the stories, the places and the history behind that sound, and to recompose that recording to reflect their own creative and emotional response to the sound.

In this programme, throughout you’ll hear first an excerpt from the field recording, and then the composition that sound inspired. The final collection presents a new way of listening to these recordings and the stories behind them, and suggests new ways of using sound to help us understand humanity, past and present.

You can explore the entire project at https://citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

1. Afternoon beneath a palm shelter (Central African Republic) - recorded by Louis Sarno, 1986
We sing together - micca

2. Natar (song) on conch and musket (Vanuatu) - recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen, 1962
Duet for conch shell and synthesiser - Cities and Memory

3. "Merer Pake": an nDavu trumpet signal (Vanuatu) - recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen, 1962
Drawn to the circle - Ana Habesh

4. "Sapeh (type of three-stringed boat lute) being played (Malaysia) - recorded by Leslie Bennett, 1960
To the land of the hornbills - Daniel Chudley - Le Corre

5. Balonyona playing the geedal (bow harp) (Central African Republic) - recorded by Louis Sarno, 1992
The rainforest - Liboi

6. Instrumentals featuring the hyang piri and hojok (South Korea) - Laurence Rowland and Ernest Picken, 1972
How I learnt to live with ghosts - Tim Saul

7. Bayaka women singing yeyi (polyphonic song) in the forest (Central African Republic) - recorded by Louis Sarno (1993)
Yeyi by Neil Foster

8. Beggars singing for charity (Morocco) - recorded by Audrey Butt, Michael R. Emerson or Ralph Hudson Johnson, 1961
Nothing changes (a begging I will go) by Subphotic

9. Women singing (India) - recorded by Nicholas Justin Allen, 1981
Kinnaur calling - Sonic-Soma

10. Geedal (bow harp) played in the forest with male voices accompanying (Republic of Congo) - recorded by Louis Sarno, 2002
Talea - Sonic Investigation Unit

Cities and Memory x NTS Radio: Sonic Heritage. Originally broadcast on NTS Radio in June 2025.

Sonic Heritage is the first collection of the sounds of the world’s most famous sights.

The project, created by global sound collective Cities and Memory, presents the sounds of 270 UNESCO World Heritage sites and items of intangible heritage – all reimagined by artists from around the world to create a brand new way of experiencing these spaces. In this show, you’ll hear field recordings from 13 World Heritage sites around the world, followed by compositions built from those recordings. There’s everything from iconic spaces like the Sistine Chapel and historic St. Petersburg to natural soundscapes like Te Wahipounamu and traditional Ghanaian textile weaving, with ambient, electronic, spoken word and many other creative approaches to those sounds. 

You can explore the full collection at https://citiesandmemory.com/heritage.

Timecode, tracklisting and credits

01.10 Tallinn, Estonia 

UNESCO listing: Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn

Field recording: Raekoja Square at 10pm by Cities and Memory

Composition: The bell of Reval by Penelope Trappes

04.17 Bonwire, Ghana

UNESCO listing: Craftsmanship of traditional woven textile Kente

Field recording: Asante Kente weaving by Emmanuel Baffoe

Composition: Warp and weft #4 by Formolo

07.31 Avignon, France

UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Avignon

Field recording: New Year's Day bells by Colin Hunter

Composition: Beautiful iron friend by Simon Holmes

12.28 Okarito, New Zealand

UNESCO listing: Te Wahipounamu

Field recording: Dawn chorus at Okarito by Janina Castro

Composition: The place of greenstone by Cities and Memory 

18.09 St. Petersburg, Russia

UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments

Field recording: Peter and Paul Fortress carillon by Masha Sha 

Composition: Russian house by Dermot Fitzsimons

21.52 Tikal, Guatemala

UNESCO listing: Tikal National Park

Field recording: Dry leaves falling by Erick Ruiz Arellano

Composition: Yum Kaax by Laura Hills

25.20 Cornwall, England

UNESCO listing: Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

Field recording: Head gear, Geevor mine by Paul Lewin

Composition: Resonances - in the depths by Elissa Goodrich

30.20 Venice, Italy

UNESCO listing: Venice and its Lagoon

Field recording: Glass-making demonstration in Murano by Cities and Memory 

Composition: Glass factory by The Leaf Library

35.48 Rome, Italy

UNESCO listing: Vatican City

Field recording: Inside the Sistine Chapel by Cities and Memory 

Composition: Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow by Cities and Memory 

39.33 Kraków, Poland

UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Kraków

Field recording: Wieża Ratuszowa by Serge Bulat 

Composition: Wieża by Ross Reilly

43.47 Nara, Japan

UNESCO listing: Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

Field recording: Morning prayer at Kasuga Taisha shrine by Lisa Germany

Composition: Morning incantation by Jaspal Singh Bhogal

48.56 Morelia, Mexico

UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Morelia

Field recording: Cathedral bells at Morelia by Erick Ruiz Arellano

Composition: Ultimo sueno by Kamala Sankaram

54.06 Edinburgh, Scotland

UNESCO listing: The Forth Bridge

Field recording: Trains crossing the Forth Bridge by Simon Holmes

Composition: The soft entrance by glacis 

"The field recording of a pedestrian crossing signal at Savignyplatz, Berlin, triggered immediately the memory of myself, in my twenties, living not far from Savignyplatz, learning to ride a bike as an adult. Terrified. Because I never had a bike as a child, my parents couldn’t afford one and where I grew up, bikes were for boys anyway."

Translation of the text in the piece:

Leaving the house, on Niebuhrstrasse, I turn right. I cross Leibnitz, Wieland and Schlüter. I reach Bleitreustrasse, turn left and keep going.

I've repeated the route to myself several times. Not to learn the names of the streets that cross mine, but to keep my mind occupied. And not to think about the atavistic fear that makes me feel a hole in my stomach and makes me tremble all over.

Because learning to ride a bike as an adult, at 25, is a frightening thing.

Once you're moving it's almost easy. But there's the beginning and the end, and there are the cars and the car doors, and the dogs and the children and the stones and the pavements and the traffic lights.

From Niebuhrstrasse to Savignyplatz. I just need to get to Savignyplatz, then I can get off and walk home, it's close, not even 500 metres.

Learning to ride a bike as an adult.

Because as a child I never had a bike. My parents wouldn't have had the money to buy me one, even if I'd asked. And a bike is something for boys anyway.

And then an aunt of mine, who worked as a housemaid, had brought along an old broken bike that her employers' children had thrown away. My father took it to the workshop where he worked, welded the fork and the bike was as good as new.

Boy's thing, that's just how it was. So: the bike belonged to my brother.

I used it only once, in the lane near the house, to try it out on my own. But then Giuseppe had come along, a couple of years older than me, and had told me not to be afraid and had held the saddle to help me keep my balance.

Two hours aren't enough to learn to ride a bike. But two hours are too many to spend alone with Giuseppe, and so when my mother found out she was very angry with me.
That was the first and only time I tried to ride a bicycle.

Now, many years later, I live in a city far from all the things that kept me bound.

Now I have my own bike and nobody can tell me what to do anymore.

But it's hard to learn to ride a bike at 25, when there's no one there to hold the saddle and tell you not to be afraid.

I just need to make it to Savignyplatz. Then I'll get off and push.

Pedestrian crossing in Savignyplatz, Berlin reimagined by Cristina Marras.

A ticking pedestrian crossing (with the iconic "Ampelmann" light) at a road on Savignyplatz, Berlin, with just a few passing individual cars. 

Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

"The street ambience was fairly intense and in Ableton Live I chopped and processed the traffic noises and played about with the pitch and timbres. A kick drum was used to give a primal rhythm to the piece and Absynth 6 was added, acting as a sonic glue. My idea was to create a soup of a soundscape."

Traffic in Guayaquil reimagined by FFRWD. 

Traffic in the centre of Guayaquil (Chile y Aguirre), Ecuador. Rush hour traffic. Hot day. 

Recorded by Jean-Jacques Martinod.