Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 3591: A final taxi ride
    Part of the Cities and Memory x Kit Monteith: Audio-Cartographic Experiments project, January 2021. More information at www.citiesandmemory.com/audio-cartographic-experiments 

    This is the new work by Liverpool based artist Kit Monteith, presented on Cities and Memory as part of a new collaboration. Recorded entirely on an iPhone 6s, the album is designed to be listened to in a single sitting, it’s 23 tracks blending continuously to unfurl the story of a unique journey around the world. 

    Monteith performs as a percussionist with the band Foals and he composed and recorded this album during their 2019 world tour. In each of the cities the band performed he would make field recordings of the spaces and streets they visited, whilst on each flight composing musical pieces on his phone. 

    When ordered together these two elements conspire to form an Audio-Cartographic record of an extraordinary journey. A world tour with one of the biggest modern bands, sonically reimagined to capture and explain its strange blur of sensations; the aches, pains, exhilaration and loneliness of endless travel along with the glimmers of truth & euphoria found hidden amongst it all. 
    4 min
  • 3590: Aldeburgh beach during lockdown
    "This seascape is iconic, not least because of the link with Benjamin Britten, but also because of the nature of the pebble and shape of the beach.

    "I’ve made several attempts at recording this location in the past, but the lockdown enabled me to record without noise pollution. An unexpected bonus that night were three planets rising across the horizon and a comet!"

    Recorded 21st July 2020 02.00hrs by Rob Godman.

    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds


    13 min
  • 3589: Salt tears
    Cannaregio boat and street works in Venice reimagined by Moana McReynolds.

    "I was inspired to research the neighborhood of my sample and was interested to learn that this was the site of the world’s first Jewish Ghetto. From this starting point I was led to the story of “Sarra Copia Sulam (d. 1641) , renowned for having written a Manifesto in which she upholds the principle of the immortality of the soul as applicable both to Christians and to Jews. With this work Copia enters the annals of one of the most heated controversies of her age and secures a unique place for herself within Italian literature.”

    "Learning about her life, courage and struggles led me to her writings. I found a sonnet that reads as a prayer to god to silence the tongues of those who are causing her anguish by their malice and false words. I was inspired to loop the water and construction noises from your sample into a steady rhythm along with drum in 3/4 time. 

    "The water and construction sounds could symbolize the water of time and the hard work that women have had to do to gain and retain their voices throughout history. In the age of social media and fake news I found her sonnet especially relevant.

    "These are the lyrics I sang and recorded. 

    Sonnet
    By Sara Copia Sullam

    O LORD, Thou know’st my inmost hope and thought,
    Thou know’st whene’er before Thy judgment throne
    I shed salt tears, and uttered many a moan.
    ’Twas not for vanities that I besought.
    O turn on me Thy look with mercy fraught,
    And see how envious malice makes me groan!
    The pall upon my heart by error thrown,
    Remove; illume me with Thy radiant thought.
    At truth let not the wicked scorner mock,
    O Thou, that breath’dst in me a spark divine.      
    The lying tongue’s deceit with silence blight,  
    Protect me from its venom, Thou, my Rock, 
    And show the spiteful sland’rer by this sign
    That Thou dost shield me with Thy endless might."

    3 min
  • 3588: Pavement works in Cannaregio, Venice
    Walk around Venice on a regular weekday and you'll hear the sounds of construction and repair, as you would in any other city. 

    Here in Cannaregio, at the northern end of Venice's main island, workmen are maintaining the canalside pavements, while boat after boat comes in and out of Venice from the lagoon to the north.

    Recorded by Cities and Memory.
    6 min
  • 3584: Old streetcar, Russia
    "An old streetcar is slowly moving through streets of Ulyanovsk. Announcements from loudspeakers, rattling of broken doors, squeaks of brakes." Recorded by Alëna Korolëva.
    3 min
  • 3585: Tatra T3
    Streetcar in Ulyanovsk reimagined by Alëna Korolëva.

    "I tried to give a voice to a dying streetcar, to hear music behind its rattling and squeaks. I used a notch filter and layered some tones, and this tune appeared a bit sad. 

    "A few old streetcars with the model Tatra T3 were made in between the 60s and 90s in Czechoslovakia and are still operating in Ulyanovsk, Russia. I grew up in this city and commuted to school using this type of streetcar every day."
    3 min
  • 3587: Facade
    Lenin's memorial facade deconstruction in Ulyanovks, Russia reimagined by Alëna Korolëva.

    "I added some filters and mixed it with the sounds from a train sorting station."
    3 min
  • 3583: Spend the most, the best, the greatest
    Hoarders created by Michelle Breslin (Sick Little Slinky).

    "Amplifying the love of money and things that was bearing down on us during this Fall of 2020."

    Part of the Inferno project to imagine and compose the sounds of Dante’s Hell, marking the 700th anniversary of The Divine Comedy. To find out more, visit http://www.citiesandmemory.com/inferno

    4 min
  • 3582: Murano bells reimagined
    Bells in Murano, Venice reimagined by Alex Hehir.

    "I loved the sonic mixture of the bells and the boats hitting each other. There are also some voices that make it into the final piece. Much of the sound design came from the original recording and was heavily processed using various techniques within Ableton."
    6 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.