Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory:
"Through the golden evening sunshine, this local market closing down for the evening was tinged with a certain feeling of sweet melancholy, as another day winds down. Using the chimes of the bells as a rhythmic centre, locked in time with a piano part, I created this piece to evoke the mood I felt while making the recording.

"And yet in the spacious ambience left between the dominant melodic parts of the track, it felt like there was something missing - like there was a story to be told about the scene and about Oldenburg, but I didn't have the words. Cristina Marras has been contributing her wonderful spoken word storytelling to Cities and Memory for a number of years, so I decided to approach her to see if the piece inspired her to tell that story - and her brilliant work really completes the piece."

Cristina Marras:
"The piece came from the feeling of passing through a foreign city and catching accidental glimpses of other people's lives: a woman at a bus stop, a window seen from a train. Fragments of worlds we enter without being invited, and leave without being noticed."

Oldenburg market reimagined by Cities and Memory and Cristina Marras. 

The local market in Oldenburg, Germany closing down for the day at 6pm on a golden, sunny evening. with stalls closing up and the chatter of stallholders and locals. During the recording, the Lambertikirche bells chime the hour. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

I recorded this sound on the balcony at home. At the very beginning you can hear the sound of my cat named “Count”. The sky was lit up by sunset, very warm and pleasant.

Recorded in Yakutask, Russia by Marina Dragan.

This recording captures a rare early-morning moment on Mt. Nokogiri in June, where multiple Grey-headed woodpeckers drum simultaneously, their distinct rhythms responding to one another and forming an emergent chorus across the forested slopes. 

The mountain’s steep rock faces, softened by light drizzle and humid dawn air, shape the sound through natural reverberation, revealing how weather and topography actively participate in the soundscape.

Recorded in Chiba, Japan by Miduno.

"Yakutsk looks like it's in the middle of nowhere so I wanted the piece to reflect a journey there. I also wanted the original recording to feel like it was a subtle part of the piece without taking over."

Birdsong in Yakutask reimagined by Richard Watts. 

"The recording inspired me by setting me into a more landscape and nature sort of environment. But also being from a place which is a big city, I used synthesizers to make the second part of the track. 

"There's also filter and sequencing of the birds song in the last part, to make it even more unnatural, before going back to the nature landscape again."

Birdsong in Chiba, Japan reimagined by stereopsis.

As one of the world's most famous sacred spaces, Notre Dame in Paris has a very particular effect even on the non-religious, perhaps close to Stendhal Syndrome. But it's not just about the space itself, it's about sharing that awe with thousands of other people concurrently, as an endless snaking line of people enters the space, each to have their own significant experience, whether it's of secular beauty or sacred majesty. 

The drone of shuffling feet and low conversation, amplified by thousands of people in such a huge space, can be sonically overwhelming, however. In this piece, I wanted to transform that hubbub created by the presence of people into something that did greater justice to the majesty of the location, a kind of ambient sonic offering back to the physical space in Notre Dame. 

Here, the background hum of people becomes an ambient pulse that magnifies attention rather than distracting from it, while the periodic reminders to "shhhh" and be silent punctuate the piece as a constant reminder of the presence of control and administration, even as we communally share an all too rare moment of the sacred. The piece is a magnification of the type of attention we only pay when we are shocked out of ourselves by beauty, and by scale. 

Notre Dame cathedral soundscape reimagined by Cities and Memory. 

A full walkthrough of the restored Notre Dame, with the drone of thousands of tourists, the clattering of machines dispensing memorial coin tokens, and the unexpected "shhhhh!" announcements calling everyone to keep quiet in this space that is both sacred, and one of the most popular tourist spots in the world. 

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

"Earth Horns with Electric Drone" (1974), a piece by Yoshi Wada, recorded at the Minimalism exhibition at the Bourse du Commerce, Paris in December 2025.

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"'Untold Story of the Drone' is my reimagined sound of Yoshi Wada’s piece Earth Horns with Electric Drone. The original sound was recorded at the Minimalism exhibition at the Bourse du Commerce, Paris in December 2025

"My piece is built entirely using granular synthesis. This means that every sound, rhythm, and musical phrase you hear is derived exclusively from micro-samples of the original recording. These micro-samples are brought to life through my modular synthesizer setup.

"I was deeply impressed by the original piece. A long, introspective drone that invites deep listening, through which a wide range of emotions can flow.

"Quite quickly, I chose not to compose over the piece, but to compose with it; treating it as an instrument and rearticulating it to arrive at Untold Story of the Drone. The storytelling unfolds through shifting atmospheres of chaos, short and striking phrases, and a structure built on evolving ambiences. One moment of near silence connects the noise and chaos sections, creating space for listening, imagination, and introspection, and inviting each of us into our own untold story.

"I have great respect for the original piece and for the constraint of reimagining it. No additional instruments are used. The original piece, left intact, quickly reappears to support the whole as a foundation. It also allows me to return to this kind of no-sound state, carried by voices from the Paris audience, reinterpreted as glitches, before giving way to the final chaos.

"There is also experimentation with stereo space through the use of tape cassette delay, along with other automated stereo effects and reverb swaps.

"This was an incredible experience. I am very honored to have been able to compose using this sound, thanks to Cities and Memory. I hope it will invite the listener into a deep and introspective listening experience."

Yoshi Wada's Earth Horns with Electric Drone reimagined by Yimèr.

Thank you: Aemi, Sarah, Anaïs, Dimitri, Stuart. | Yimèr