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

  • Monet's Orange Garden
    "This piece is unusual in that it does not contain the original field recording, but attempts to reconstruct it as accurately as possible using field recordings from our own database, a technique of "reconstructed field recording".

    Thus we have recordings of planes flying overhead in Oxford, walking on stones in Sicily, church bells in Italy, fountains in Seville, car alarms from somewhere else in Rome, crowds of tourists in Venice - and the addition of Elvis himself to provide the song vocals.

    The piece is the same length as the original, with the different sounds coming in at the same time, to create a kind of impressionist painting of the original recording, built from other field recordings."

    Piece by Cities and Memory as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    7 min
  • Tagliatelle all’arancia
    "When I think of Italy I think of pasta: I’d made noodles by hand the previous night for a classic Italian dish so I thought of treating the audio as dough. 

    Stretched the sound four times its original length, flattened it with compression and equalization, then folded it so the first layer and third layers are heard forward and the second and fourth layers are heard reversed. Named the work for flat noodles of tagliatelle and acknowledging the orange of the source recording."

    Piece by Steve Burnett as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    6 min
  • When I heard you there
    "A beautiful spot invites me in, sounds of birdsong, and waterfall, and a voice drifts across, drawing me in,  his voice welcomes mine and we meet for a few minutes before drifting off to our respective worlds. An organ coda echoes what just took place and we are back to experiencing the beauty and natural sounds of this place."

    Piece by Michelle Breslin as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    6 min
  • Tessuti organici
    "Music and sound as ultimate tools for creating and modeling reality.

    The moments and spaces are chosen, sculpted and assembled to create infinite new images. In this period of maximum closure and containment, music is the tool to unhinge the bars of everyday life  and get closer to sounds and visions now denied."

    Piece by Marco Marongiu as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    9 min
  • Aranciata/Persephone awakes
    "Aranciata is one of my favourite words, with the years it has expanded to encompass many personal things besides orange drink. Aranciata, arancia, orange, naranja, naranjada. The sun, the light, traces of the past, a spring long ago in a city that, as mine, also grows in layers. The Orange Garden recording made me think about the phantasmagoric, evocative dimension of sound. 

    Ghosts, memories that make us resonate. 

    This winter in lockdown has been too long and, paraphrasing Michael Marder, we wait on the verge for the arrival of spring. For this soundscape, I took the bells, the guitar and the rumor of water and mixed them in different frequencies with the vibration of a wine glass and my own voice (which in these times of social distancing has become subject of study). Here I continue exploring how cacophony and noise may produce for brief, elusive moments, strange beautiful harmonies.  

    All gardens have something of chaos."

    Piece by Martha Riva Palacio Obón as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    3 min
  • Drowned in waves
    "As I played this track on loop, I fell in love with the busker's weird voice, with the general atmosphere, with spontaneity...

    For almost a year now, I've been experimenting with the sound art form of "audio dreams". This magical atmosphere seemed like perfect material for a dream. Sounds in dreams are often not memorable, they are muffled, distorted, distanced - much like our everyday life right now. 

    I decided to use the whole track, part by part. Using various effects and techniques of processing I made drones and loops, crushed the audio or extracted some interesting harmonics, all to create an ensemble of sounds that resonates.

    This is probably not a track for active listening. Rather one should use it for sound bathing and discover its potential healing and spiritual value."

    Piece by Domagoj Obadić as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    14 min
  • Karhide Descending Orange Glitch Machine
    "This started with cutting up lots of the audio from the Orange Garden sample and then creating loops from it to create the initial track.  This was then chopped up more and added to a new project where I came up with a chord progression and bass line. 

    This is the first track I have finished in Ableton 11 and makes use of the new Spectral Resonator and delay to warp the original sample."

    Piece by Karhide as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    5 min
  • A musical afternoon in the Orange Garden
    "Busking is very similar the world over. In most large cities you can find Peruvian flute players, Chinese erhu players, groups of drummers etc., besides the inevitable solo guitarists and violinists. 

    This version of The Orange Garden suggests that we not be lulled into ignoring the forces around us: forces of war, forces of all-pervasive surveillance cameras and drones (although maybe the cameras aren’t hiding in the trees just yet). 

    But also, if we persevere and stay aware, we will find new delights while walking through our poor old world, like the cellist beautifully playing the children’s classic song Pure Imagination. Special thanks to my wife Su for suggesting it!"

    Piece by John Tenney as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    4 min
  • Evol ni
    "I wanted the piece to reflect a walk through a garden and I have used various treated samples and synth sounds in it."

    Piece by Richard Watts as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    5 min
  • Grovewalk
    "Grovewalk focuses on some of the more ambient sounds found in latter part of the source recording to make mix that moves between acoustic and electronic space. 

    This section of the recording has both myriad detailed sounds and one large one - the plane - and it makes for a good shift in focus between them. The recording was processed so that the sounds are present while they shift in and out of easy legibility."

    Piece by Ed Osborn as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
    4 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.