Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"The tranquil atmosphere of the field recording, the birdsong and the soft cooing of the pigeons in the background immediately appealed to me.

"First, I spectrally cleaned the recording in an attempt to distil its acoustic essence. The next step was to isolate individual distinctive sounds and rearrange them in time. These form the intro and outro of the piece.

"Secondly, I was faced with the question: what actually defines the location of the recording, Mayenne in France? The answer to this, spoken in French (which was, of course, only rudimentary), forms the three vocal sections of the piece.

"As a third element, I felt I still needed instrumental music to symbolise the rural and tranquil atmosphere of the place. For this, a lively, folk-inspired song featuring acoustic instruments (guitar, accordion, bass and subtle percussion) seemed the most fitting.

"I hope the people of Mayenne like this piece and see it as a tribute to their town."

Mayenne soundscape reimagined by Martin Juenke.

We can hear the "noises" coming from the garden of the house. This house is located at the entrance to the city, right behind a commercial area.

It is around 10:30 this Saturday, February 22, 2025.

The sun emerging from the gray morning mass, birds, light and other small elements are taking possession of the place.

The walls cut off the sounds coming from the commercial area, the garden extends to the edge of the river below.

In the distance, we can hear the sounds of the city.

Nature is right next to this area of ​​activity, free and strong. No one pays attention to it. It evolves and sings at its own pace.

Recorded in Mayenne, France by Philippe Neau.

| This recording captures the Maasai people living in one of the most remote regions of Kenya, near the invisible borders with Tanzania in the Loita Hills. It focuses on various Maasai widows as they work, their movements intertwined with the melodic songs they sing in their native language. 

Their voices carry the weight of experience, tradition, and resilience, echoing across the village and surrounding landscape.

The environment unfolds through subtle layers of sound. The rhythm of daily work, sweeping, grinding, and tending to tasks, blends naturally with their singing, creating a living soundscape where life and culture are inseparable. The melodies and words of the Maasai language reveal a deep connection to land, custom, and communal identity.

The soundscape is immersive yet delicate. Each word and each note carries meaning, telling stories of history, survival, and belonging. There is no single focal point, allowing the listener to enter the world of the Maasai women as they experience it, a fully inhabited environment where work, song, and life coexist seamlessly.

This recording is not simply of women singing while they work. It is a living portrait of a remote culture, capturing the endurance, traditions, and rhythms of the Maasai people in a region shaped by both visible and invisible boundaries. It preserves a rare acoustic glimpse into a way of life increasingly under pressure, offering a valuable record of human and environmental heritage.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"The moment I received the sound file, I was pretty assured I knew exactly what I was going to do. While the words of the tribal song change, the melody alongside the call & response from the widows of the Maasai tribe of Kenya spoke to me in its repetitious, looped like fashion, and as such, I wanted to treat the file a bit like how Reich did his seminal minimalist "Come Out" (1966) composition, and as such I looped, layered, delayed, and effected layers upon layers of the widows singing, slowly introducing further layers and effects as the composition's time goes on. 

"It has long been my understanding that African tribal songs are rooted in a deep spiritual connection with our planet, and the cosmos, and as such, I crafted an ambient drone from the NASA Sonifications of Galaxy M94, which by absolute serendipity paired perfectly with the song of the widows. 

"I've added an additional Roland SH2 synth layer, a slow attack and release sub bass, and a random arp on a Yamaha DS55 Music Box patch with some effects in tow to round things out. 

"The idea is for the music to supplement the layered, effected, and looped song of the tribe, but to never fully take over, allowing the backdrop of our universe to be the canvas the song of the tribe is painted upon."

Maasai tribal song reimagined by Akira Film Script (Ryan Watts).

"The original sound recording immediately reminded me of peaceful moments spent watching light glinting on the water. I improvised to the birds, the sound of the water lapping against the dock and what I imagined to be the sunlight shimmering on the water. 

"Each time I sat at the piano, I listened out for a different element to respond to and then played around with the sound of each part. I wanted to place myself on that dock, dipping my feet into the cool water, surrounded by all these blissful elements."

Floating dock at Lake Chiusi reimagined by Jess Bryant.

The recording is from April 7, 2025 and was made at Lake Chiusi located in the Val di Chiana in the province of Siena, Tuscany. A small floating dock was chosen as the audio recording point. The banging of the dock accompanies the listening of the lake soundscape. It is the lake itself that, with its movement, 'plays' this dock. The random rhythm generated is grafted onto the very rich acoustic environment of the lake.

Recorded by Nicola Fumo Frattegiani.

The day is coming to an end for the small port town of Cabusao, with most bamboo boats securely tied to the seawall bordering the makeshift and cement homes of the people to restless horizon of the San Miguel Bay. High tide approaches, so two biologists take a battered old tricycle to catch their boat home before the waves get too strong for their ride to dock safely for boarding. From the guttural sputtering of the old motorcycle to the bendy creaking of the rusty carriage, imagine the fish port moving past you all while sitting still. 

Recorded in the Philippines by Timothy Romero.

"The recording I chose was quite full on, noise-wise, but also incredibly evocative. It felt like a travelogue, and inspired by this and an old audio montage technique used by 'Bomb The Bass' on their debut album 'Into The Dragon', I decided to create a kind of jangling, noisy audio travelogue, featuring localised Filipino radio broadcasts, classical Filipino music, youth-oriented TV interviews, and a sampled, looped, heavily treated rhythm; all anchored by the fluctuating, almost synth-like drone sounds of the original sound recording."

Cabusao tricycle ride, Philippines reimagined by Tazer McFictionzap.

"For this project, I've chosen a recording that was - very appropriately- named "Loud morning walkers on quiet street". Between other choices, this was the only recording, that made me pause to think about human nature. I became interested in its sonic layers, that oscillated between serenity and chaos. 

"My idea was to study this interplay, to dissect the parts and to re-imagine a new sonic landscape, where different rhythm patterns represented different textures of the human activity. I've used parts of the original recording as a background layer and, based on the flow of this layer, I've built four different patterns. The final track was played and recorded live with a digital eight track recorder."

Vancouver morning walkers reimagined by Rin Kaseya.

The random summer sounds include bird song, dog walkers, a truck, a garden sprinkler and a cough. However, the event (7:28) is the loud Cantonese-speaking group of woman passing by on their daily walk – always around 9:30 am and always very animated! I do not know what they say to one another. 

Recorded in Vancouver, Canada by Emiko Morita.