Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

By Cities and MemorySociety & CultureArtsMusicPlaces & Travel
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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • Tsim Sha Shui Star ferry, Hong Kong
    Tsim Sha Shui Star ferry in Hong Kong 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.
    2 min
  • Train to Colombo
    "Recorded during the train journey from Hikkaduwa to Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2013. A busker plays a flute as the train pulls into the station. Numerous buskers and food sellers with baskets of homemade snacks pass through the carriages. When the train gets up to speed you can hear the differences in the sound of the tracks as the train passes over bridges and crossings."

    Recorded by Mark Vernon.

    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
  • The last train from Liverpool to Bangkok
    Bangkok metro reimagined by Rebecca Ainsworth.

    As soon as I heard the original recording, I wanted to work with the ambient sounds in it. Inspired by this and The KLF's Chill Out album and my love of ambient music, soundscapes & field recordings, I started to work with the sounds in  the original and overlaid a recording from near the train station in my town, taken in a cone shaped building which adds it's own unique acoustics. The soundscape plays with the idea of trying to make the last train from Liverpool to Bangkok (the train doesn't exist)."

    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.
    4 min
  • Dream of Moscow, envy the moths
    Moscow escalators reimagined by Meg Walker.

    "Like so many of us I've been missing travelling in this last year. The desire to see new places, feel new music, taste new spices, is a lifelong one. I've also been very grateful that I haven't had to travel.

    "While listening to the mesmerizing escalator sounds recorded in the Moscow metro Ploshchad Revolyutsii, I thought of the endless, and equally mesmerizing, rhythms of wind in trees. I also began thinking about beings who need to travel to live.

    "That list is long, and includes the small wind-lifted fliers like butterflies and moths. Until we travel, maybe we can spend more time watching delicate beings like those, and learn from their softer ecological ways."

    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
  • Finland (untitled)
    Helsinki airport train reimagined by Ghislain Gabrelle.

    "It is a three-part composition, using the recording alone and declining the same materials in different ways. Three listening "plans", representing the three states of contemplation that I enjoy experiencing while traveling.

    "A distant, diffuse shot, punctuated by almost scattered projections - like a journey - playing on the frames and the articulations, rhythmic then sustained, recalling this mechanical movement specific to trains, with attacks and frank cuts as well as the end of the extract proposed as a close-up.

    "Ce trajet là, en train, laisse vaquer notre esprit à son imaginaire. L’oreille près de la fenêtre en regardant le paysage, observant les couleurs et les formes se mélanger à toute vitesse, ainsi que temps changer."

    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.
    4 min
  • Travelling into Helsinki
    The super-slick and efficient airport transit trains from Helsinki airport into the city centre. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

    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
  • Moscow's escalators
    The sound from the long, slow escalators in the Ploshchad Revolyutsii station on the impressive Moscow metro network.

    Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

    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.
    2 min
  • All aboard the Bangkok metro
    "This recording captures a ride on the MRT Blue Line from Lumpini Station to Hua Lumpong station and includes the station atmosphere before the train arrives, and walking out through the ticket barriers after I got off the train." Recorded by Colin Hunter.

    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.
    4 min
  • Music for waiting rooms
    Paris Charles de Gaulle reimagined by Janae Jean.

    "Listening to aural ambience of train station at Charles de Gaulle Airport brought me right into the sticky vinyl seats or unfriendly wooden benches of any transport waiting area anywhere on Earth. I had a sense of sentimentality and familiarity with the process of travel, recognizing that even the waiting or stationary times are part of the journey. Even though most of us are not traveling and have not been for more than one year, we are currently in the middle of a journey. We don't need to take off on a plane or hop on a train, we are on the journey right now. There's a beauty in each step.

    "Musically, I was originally planning on making an ambient sound collage with analog synthesizers, effects, and the train station ambience recording. I created synth patches that float and morph like clouds and others that buzz like engines. I chose the home tonality of B flat with a lot of suspended ninths because it feels like it's about to "take off" or "land". As I worked on it, I moved away from an ambience-only approach and started playing the 70s-ish piano ballad riff and topped it off with a "flutey," swung lead that feels a bit like "elevator music." This music feels at home in the waiting room."

    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
  • Paris departure board daydream
    Paris departure board reimagined by Robert Kellough.

    "I very much enjoyed working with this sound. The voices of a bustling train station and the syncopation of the boards immediately drew me to this recording.  One of my last trips abroad was to the Pyrenees and I did take the train from Toulouse to Paris as part of that trip. I imagine I heard similar sounds at the station and completely took them for granted. I dream of traveling again and treated this sound as a daydream of visiting the train station. A daydream suddenly interrupted. I am hopeful for travel in 2021.  I'd like to hear those boards again for myself."

    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.
    2 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.