Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

By Cities and MemorySociety & CultureArtsMusicPlaces & Travel
Download on the App Store

Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • Maestro de Espias (Spy Master)
    "An original 1960s tape recording of shortwave Spanish language numbers stations is cryptically woven into this original musical composition of a reimagined spy network broadcast. 

    In addition to the numbers broadcast, you are listening to musical Morse code-like transmissions, and bursts of shortwave static.

    The frenetic changes in musical passages occur as spymasters discover their codes are compromised and the realization dawns that they may have to eventually face the music."

    Composition by Tom Thompson.

    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
    5 min
  • Privet conversation
    Hedge sparrows in Maltby, UK reimagined by CuSi Sound (Alan Jackson).

    "Hearing the sparrows chattering away in the hedge with traffic passing by reminded me of people gathering outside cafés to chat as others pass by going about their business. I recorded a sample of the sparrows and traffic as a tape loop then used this in a live studio performance with my Project XII modular analogue synth."
    8 min
  • Impact studies
    Crossbow competition in Volterra, Italy reimagined by de Velden.

    "The setting of the original recording felt bathed in dappled sunlight, so I started with a piano accompaniment that played, flitted and drifted across and around the voices, the sounds of the crossbow competition and bells. The rest of the track grew from there."
    5 min
  • Tuscan crossbow competition
    Wandering around the medieval city of Volterra in Tuscany, what could be more appropriate than entering the main piazza to the sounds of an authentic crossbow competition taking place? Here you can hear the practice session ahead of the main competition, with the thwack of bolts hitting the target on the other side of the piazza, and the sound reverberating off every wall. Midway through, the bells from the campanile start to chime to bring even more interest and atmosphere to the recording.

    Binaural recording by Cities and Memory.
    10 min
  • Gondolas at rest in Venice
    Looking out from Piazza San Marco in Venice across the lagoon, there is a regular mooring spot for many of the city's iconic gondolas, and they rock back and forth, sloshing gently along as motor boat traffic stirs the waters nearby. Here we can hear the gondolas knocking into one another and riding the waves, as motorboats pass on one side, and passers-by walk behind us from another angle. Binaural recording by Cities and Memory.
    5 min
  • Listening to Dante 1477
    Moored gondolas in Venice reimagined by Guyda Armstrong.

    "This re-imagined sound is centred on an object from Venice’s past, a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy printed in the city by Wendolin of Spira in 1477. It begins with present-day sounds  which could have been heard at the time of the book’s making half a millennium ago, and then moves into the present day and to another city, with field recordings of the place where it now lives, deep in the climate-controlled stacks of the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library. The original field recording of the gondolas was made on the Grand Canal, just outside the windows of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana's rare books reading room."

    "Books (and not just Venetian books) are made in water as part of their paper-making process, and this is a particularly watery book, which has seen significant water damage in its long life. Subterranean and watery sounds tie the piece together, as it moves from the splashing of the canals of Venice, into the ambient sounds of the underground library book stacks, and up through the back stairs of the building as the book is taken to the photography studio. 

    "We capture various other noises along the way: the winding of the moveable shelves to access the book; the hum of the server fans and climate conditioning units; the intermittent beeps and thuds of the door alarms and studio equipment. Sounds from the original field recording are slowed down and resampled to provide a constant sonic undertow. The book itself can be heard as its pages are turned and photographed, and the piece closes at the end of its brief trip up into the world, as we switch off the equipment and prepare to return it to the depths."
    4 min
  • Global warning
    San Gimignano sound installation reimagined by Scott Lawrence Whitman.

    "The original field recording was a fervent spoken word performance about climate change from San Gimignano, Italy. I attempted to convey the urgency of the matter by manipulating the dialog and reinforcing the message with music."
    2 min
  • Sound art in San Gimignano
    A sound art installation pumps out of a large speaker cone-like structure into the Piazza del Duomo, San Gimignano. The subject matter is around climate change and the impact it's having globally, with impassioned speeches from Italian activists mixed in with soundscapes. 

    Recorded by Cities and Memory.  
    6 min
  • A beautiful song in Padova
    A busker of west African origin sings under the porticos in Padova, Italy - this particular singer always chooses this spot for the excellent reverb it offers, as well as the healthy number of passers-by. He has a beautiful voice, and often sings what appear to be exrtemely heartfelt songs in what we assume is his mother tongue - this is an excerpt of one such lovely song. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
    2 min

About Cities and Memory - remixing the world

From the publisher's feed

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