Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • ZD8VR Volcano Radio: May 5, 1979
    "ZD8VR Volcano Radio 1602 AM Closedown 5 May 1979/AFRTS Accession Island signoff. It has end of jazz show, sign off announcement, station ID and incomplete GSTQ by local gender neutral band. Receiver and antenna: 1950's Sierra domestic valve receiver and 20 metre longwire antenna."

    Recorded by Sarah Boucher, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    3 min
  • HF Aviation Traffic (Spirit Airlines 558)
    "Air to ground communications between Spirit 558 and New York.  A phone patch was established to allow the aircraft to talk to a doctor on the ground about a person who had a seizure while on board the flight.

    Date of recording: 5/11/2021
    Frequency: 8.933
    Reciever location: Hugo, MN"

    Recorded by Matt Todd, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    4 min
  • Desert Radio Kuwait
     "My inspiration for the piece was imaging the fragmented sounds of snippets of radio chatter and music crossing the Kuwaiti desert carried by the desert winds. The voices and music fragments forming ghostly echoes as if the listener is acting as a radio tuning in and out to hundreds of unknown transmissions.

    "I used the original recording in a number of ways, firstly to create a number of layered drones, representing the desert emptiness as a well as the idea of a generator for an internal radio receiver. This formed the desert ambience where selections of speech and music were laid out in time for form fragmented voices. Each voice was manipulated from simple panning across the stereo field, to more intense distortions and added glitch/reverberation processing. Some of the vocal snippets were cleaned in Izotope RX to reduce the frequency content to allow for more intense processing without extraneous frequency content. 

    "I picked out sections from the original recording which I felt spoke to me, although hardly speaking any Arabic, I chose phrases and sections which resonated with me and spoke to me."

    Composition by Neil Spencer Bruce.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    11 min
  • The Happy Station Pre Christmas Message (version)
    "A naive re-interpretation completed on an octatrack, which acquired on the day of this submission. All sounds are from the original source material."

    Composition by John Spartacus.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    6 min
  • Wendego in Space
    "While listening to this broadcast by Apollo 8 of the first views of the moon in 1968, I was thematically conflicted with a duality of perspectives tied to space exploration. On one hand, this venture offers new opportunities for human expansion and knowledge we have yet to discover about our universe; yet, it also signifies processes of colonization that transcend earths atmosphere to a cosmic level. While creating this re-imagined composition, I was inspired by my Algonquin heritage to grapple with these conflicting themes.

    "I envisioned the perspectives of colonization as they may emerge between both the explorer and inhabitant as two separate sound worlds. I move between these worlds as I integrate field recordings that I have captured across Vancouver, BC, oscillating back to the sample recording at times to balance these voices. As the composition progresses, I aim to emulate themes of confusion, disorientation, and eventually destruction that accompanies colonization. I have used this recording in numerous ways, such as adjusting the pitch, adding reverb, frequency manipulation, and altering timing. While there are clear audible sections of this piece interwoven, I have also manipulated large sections to create a keynote drone that slowly builds throughout the piece to gradually reduce clarity.

    "I hope this sound art inspires you to consider the intersections of hope and loss tied to space exploration - positioning the listener at a mirror to the past and future. In Algonquin speaking First Nations communities, a Wendego is considered to be a supernatural being. In many legends, this being is driven by gluttony, greed, and a desire to kill. It's important to remember the impact of colonialism as it has existed on our planet, and to tread carefully as we embark on interstellar exploration."

    Composition by Lauren Knight.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave
    3 min
  • Voice of America (Apollo 8): December 24, 1968
    "A broadcast by Apollo 8 of the first views of the moon in 1968. The broadcast was transmitted by the Voice of America, and received in Melbourne, Australia on an AWA CR6A communications receiver. The transmission frequency and exact time are unknown."

    Recorded by Stephen Spicer, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    13 min
  • Happy Christmas from the Netherlands
    "Radio Netherlands, Happy Station Christmas Broadcast (Studio Recording): December 12, 1956."

    Recorded by Walter Santner, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    35 min
  • Radio Kuwait (start of Iraqi invasion): August 2, 1990
    "Recording of Radio Kuwait during the start of the invasion by Iraq. My understanding is that the broadcast originated from the Radio Kuwait transmitter site, which had not yet been occupied by Iraqi forces. Transmission consisted of music and announcements in Arabic."

    Recorded by Tom Gavaras, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    29 min
  • Afghanistan calling Europe
     "I love the randomness of shortwave, the way voices drift in and out of reception, the weird static elements. There is something so mournful about the isolated “Afghanistan calling Europe” that it seemed after a while to be a cry for help - so I included in the background static the morse code for SOS and then sampled and distorted a Taliban interview I found on YouTube to reflect what is happening there at the moment. Inspired by the sounds of the call to prayer I used a detuned synth drone to add to and underpin the whole downbeat nature of the piece."

    Composition by Hans Glib.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    4 min
  • Did I hear me?
    "This is a story of my youth listening to SW radio and playing instruments. The static is the empty space in my mind, the radio is the noise needed to fill the vacuum. The sounds are interrupted and distorted, repeated and flavoured as I try to block out the noise of the world around me. Pulses represent the nagging idea that I should be doing something else, eventually drowned out by the pleasure of the listening."

    Composition by Jon Ogara.

    Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

    13 min

About Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory remixes the world, one sound at a time - a global collaboration between artists and sound recordists all over the world.