Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 3551: Third Circle - The Gluttonous
    Gluttonous created by Alex Hawthorn.

    "Through my research, I learned that the souls of the Third Circle, guarded by Cerberus, were punished by laying in a freezing-cold slush for eternity, pelted by icy rain.  

    "I'd always heard that Cerberus was a three-headed dog, but apparently in Dante's Inferno, Cerberus is a worm-monster.  I used elements of weather - cold winds, icy rain, some hail - and low tones to create a base atmosphere, then layering on multiple layers of recordings of people gurgling, choking, calling out for help (the recordings are of myself and two of my friends), and finally doing some creature creation for Cerberus, with rough heavy breathing, a few elongated screams, and some scrapes and slithers for the body movement.  

    "The piece is an atmospheric one, a duration - it doesn't have an arc, there is no "ending" for these souls trapped for all eternity."

    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

    9 min
  • 3550: The gluttonous muck
    Gluttonous created by Joseph Hoffman.

    "Dante describes this circle of hell as a wet and cold place. I created this piece by recording several different scenarios of water dripping and pouring. I layered the sounds of water pouring onto leaves, muck, and towels to create the sounds. I further manipulated them by slowing them down and adding effects. I also recording my family and pets eating meals for several weeks. There is one sound that represents Cerberus that fades in and out, it is a brooding, heavy breathing."

    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

    6 min
  • 3549: Divine Comedy: Hoarders
    Hoarders created by Jase Warner.

    "‘Divine Comedy: Hoarders’ is a composition for the Cities and Memory ‘Inferno’ project, celebrating the 700th anniversary of the completion of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’.

    "My composition is made up of several original unfinished pieces, some are snippets of near-complete arrangements, others are ideas in the form of short sonic sketches. The one thing that each piece has in common is that they were, until now, abandoned, some as far back as 3 years ago.

    "Tackling hoarding as a theme gave me the chance to delve into my archive. It genuinely has always felt like a little sin to hold on to all of those incomplete creations, so listening to the work again and remoulding each one to fit with the feel of this new composition was a wholly cathartic experience."

    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

    5 min
  • 3548: Akrasia
    Hoarders created by will sōderberg.

    "Hoarders and spendthrifts are souls gripped by opposing sins, who move towards each other along two halves of one circle pushing weights, when they meet they hurl opposing insults at each other. The tones used depict this construction, using stereo processing to represent thus... 'so did they move around the sorry circle / from left and right to the opposing point...' 

    "Tools used include iOS apps Hexaglyphics and Borderlands."

    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

    5 min
  • 3547: Wrathfulness
    Wrathful created by David Webb.

    "They see souls squatting in the riverbank, covered in mud, biting at each other. These are the Wrathful souls. The composition is made from treated voice and running tap sounds."

    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

    7 min
  • 3546: Wrath (castelli de Sabbia, Castelli di Rabbia)
    Wrathful created by Patrick Bridge.

    "I was recently reading Alisdair Gray's translation of Dantes Hell so it was one of those coincidences that Cities and Memories chose it as your next theme. 

    "The section on the Wrathful appealed to me as we are in times of great upheaval and great rage. The words incorporated in my piece 'Castelli de Sabbia, Castelli de Rabbia' which translate as 'Castles of Sand, Castles of Rage' and are actually taken from a punk song I was involved in for a band of mine. 

    "The voice is my partner's (who  happens to be Italian) taken down an octave to add a supernatural tone to what is a scream of anger and despair. Although it's a tour de force of angry expression I like the reference to 'the sullen' in Dantes Wrathful circle and I wanted to get that into the track somehow. The castles that we build and look up to are fragile and impermanent. Hell is powerlessness and loss."

    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

    5 min
  • 3545: Charon crossing the Styx
    Styx created by Mike Tupling. 

    "Inspired by Joachim Patinir's painting 'Charon crossing the Stxy', the composition is an image in sound constructed from field recordings and synthesizers."

    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

    8 min
  • 3544: Last train
    Styx created by Emmy Tither.

    "Whatever happens after death is the last conscious journey, right? Or may well be. That made me think of a train station located at the end of the known world, with trains going off to unnamed stations. All you get is a ticket with your name on it as the world fades away."

    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

    3 min
  • 3543: Angel of Dis
    City of Dis created by Heather Andrews.

    "I find this section of the written piece interesting  - the dynamic between Virgil and Dante is interesting here, where Virgil demonstrates his devotion to Dante's cause, to the point that he shields Dante's eyes with his own hands from Medusa. I also love the part where the heavenly messenger appears with the noise of a hurricane. 

    "I've attempted to emulate this in the middle of the piece and add that tension of the gates slowly opening at the end, the noise of the heretics sizzling. That happens to be a hot iron in this piece. 

    "The musician Bell Lungs has also contributed some screechy violin parts as a duet to my wire fence bowing. We are currently working on a live scoring of Haxan and so of course I had to get her to make a cameo on here!"

    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
    6 min
  • 3542: La Città di Dite
    City of Dis created by Valerio Orlandini.

    "I read Canti IX and X multiple times to try to feel what Dante was experiencing when he was there. The walls of the city are like a fire belt around a well-kept secret. 

    "They are rendered in the composition with the noisy and powerful sections at the beginning and at the end of the track, while in the centre mysterious lower sounds symbolise the sins and the feelings that each damned soul brought there forever. The listener should look for these contrasts, preferably while reading the corresponding part of Dante's masterpiece."

    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

    8 min

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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.