Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • The bells that sound at the bottom of the world
    Punta Arenas bells reimagined by Cities and Memory.

    These bells have a particular emotional resonance, sounding out in the most southerly place I've ever visited on a particularly special trip - to me at the time, these bells were an opening up onto a world of promise and adventure, as they are for so many other Patagonian visitors. 

    The reimagined piece, then, opens with the pealing of the bells, and they're used as an opening to a vista of potential, with the music that follows representing the feelings I was having when listening to these bells chime - listening back now, I'm transported back to that moment and that place instantly.
    5 min
  • Church bells in Punta Arenas
    Church bells ringing out at 7pm in the town centre of Punta Arenas in Patagonia, southern Chile, as heard from the balcony of a nearby hotel. 

    Punta Arenas is the most southerly airport in South America, and the town is the gateway to Chilean Patagonia. 

    Recorded by Cities and Memory.
    3 min
  • Tegel hexagon waiting
    Tegel airport reimagined by Clelia Ciardulli.

    "Until we travel,
    we are waiting,
    remembering the time warp
    of airports with their echoing announcements
    of lockdowns, with the merging of what we had hoped
    and what we hope anew,
    the clicking ticking and slipping and sliding of clocks,
    until we travel,
    the travels are inwards,
    waiting to cross, to lift off, to meet,
    to leave, to arrive.
    Until we travel."

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    6 min
  • Inside Tegel airport
    This sound was recorded in the waiting room of the flight that was going to take me to Chile in January 2015. Listening to this recording you can perceive the classic acoustics that are produced in airports, a lot of reverberation and little intelligibility. So far nothing very new. However, the history of this sound is related to the place where it was recorded.

    The basic architectural motif of Tegel Airport is the hexagon. Not only is the terminal building designed as a hexagon, but this figure is also found in the tower and other ancillary buildings, in the staircases and even in the design of bus stops. Smaller design elements also occupy the motif and are often characterised by 60-degree angles.

    This type of construction exemplifies the classic architecture of the 1960 and continues to have a formative effect today, partly because its architecture required little space. In West Berlin, which was closed at the time, this was an important factor.

    In addition to its aesthetic function, the hexagon also has a very practical one: Its organic ring shape makes it easier for passengers to find their way around the terminal building and no matter which direction they take, they always return to their starting point.

    The hexagonal shape also reflects what many consider to be the airport's greatest advantage: the short distances and speed of check-in. There were 20 metres from the taxi rank to the check-in counter, and another 15 metres from the check-in counter, through the waiting area, to the aircraft door. For this reason the Tegel Airport was considered to be one of the most efficient airports.

    With the construction of Berlin's new international airport, "Willy Brandt", Tegel closed its doors on 15 June. However, its architecture (and this recording) still exists. For the future a new district and a technology centre for more than 1000 companies is planned.

    Recorded by Edgardo Gomez.

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    6 min
  • Cais do Sodre ferry
    Cais do Sodre ferry in Lisbon, Portugal recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    5 min
  • Freight train (Ohio remix)
    Freight trains passing reimagined by David Cowlard.

    "The remix extends the timing and mood of the original recording into a cinematically imagined time and space, one where the antagonist is identified amidst a landscape of graffitied concrete rail bridges, underpasses and sodium vapour lighting.

    "Samples are stretched and looped to provide the basis for this, while the visceral experience of the trains passing is extended and layered to emphasise the crashing rhythms. A vintage recording provides a link to the past while further shifting the mood to one of a more ominous tone."

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    3 min
  • Dawn smoke on distant seas
    Hong Kong ferry reimagined by Owen Sennitt.

    "I had great fun playing with the original recording and coming up with this piece. I didn't necessarily have any particular ideas in mind when I started out, instead it just developed as I gathered different sounds and manipulated them before then putting them together. In the end, the engine chugging in the recording reminded me of being out on the water on an old launch, enveloped by the early dawn sea smoke, with only the blinking of channel markers to keep you on course.

    "I suppose that peaceful eeriness is what is imagined in my mind when listening to the track.  I wanted to keep the original recording in the piece as is, alongside the sounds I explored during the composition that drift in and out, keeping it as a reference. Aside from one pad, all the sounds were created from samples of the original recording, which was taken at a Hong Kong fish market."

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    5 min
  • Embarcation
    Lisbon tram reimagined by Andy Lyon.

    "The ferry in the recording departs from a terminal that is typically used for commuter journeys rather than tourist journeys. This got me thinking about how journeys to work have changed drastically in the past year, reflecting on rare moments of calm, daydreams and the more usual urgency in our former routines and whether we really want or need a return to that way of life."

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    7 min
  • The sense of Mayura Raksha
    Colombo train trip reimagined by Ali Mohajer.

    "Due to my researches about Sri Lankan culture, I got a lot of wonderful points about the simple lives and rich culture; however, the one, which was the most attractive to me, was their symbols of different Gods that each brings a different thing in life.

    "The most interesting one was "Mayura Raksha", which brings peace, harmony and wealth to our lives. And exactly these are the three factors nowadays all of us around the world need most. So I have created this piece inspired by the god Mayura Raksha."

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    8 min
  • Passing freight trains
    "Waiting for a definitive UK freight train, late at night, many cancellations  etc. Then two come along at once! Tempsford, 40 miles north of London, heading south..." Recorded by Rob Godman.

    Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.
    3 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.