Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 3519: The Falsifiers
    Falsifiers created by Richard Watts. 

    ""In the tenth and final bolgia are punished those who are falsifiers of various kinds. These sinners are punished with various illnesses. This is as it should be, for sin is a kind of illness or disease.

    "Dante saw two sinners, each leaning against the other’s back. They were scratching themselves, trying to kill a never-ending itch. Their skin was covered with scabs, and as they scratched the scabs collected under their fingernails.

    "The piece has lots distorted sounds representing disease and screams representing the suffering. I used samples of me mumbling and screaming and then processed them in Logic."

    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
  • 3510: The Giants
    The Giants created by Xopher.tm.

    "Natural sounds were recorded around Devils Lake, Oregon manipulated and mixed to simulate the cold and loneliness of Hell."

    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

    11 min
  • 3508: That well dream, again
    The Well created by Graeme Rose.

    "The Well part of The Inferno inspired my piece by allowing the idea of other sounds to drift upwards from the depths of the well. I 'field recorded' sounds of water and other kitchen noises to manipulate into a Hell Well ambient bed, then created an  off-scale for 'musical' decoration. Before deciding to add 'sprinkles' of horror-ish sound FX.

    "It's trying to aim for the dream-like feel of the early 1911 movie version filtered through late 1990s J-Horror soundtracks and images. The way something you read, watched, caught out the corner of your eye crawls into your dreams. 

    "The audience is advised to lean in while sitting on the edge of the well to catch the echos below, is it the sounds of water swirling around? The crys of the damned souls trapped there? Fragments of memories of battles fought? Who is that breathing? You? Something watching you sitting there? Beware the Well doesn't catch sight of you and roar your name to call you into the depths. Are those giant statues or... did that one just move a bit?"

    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
  • 3513: Permafrost; or, Ice, Ice, Dante
    Caina created by Midmight.

    "To quote the Longfellow translation of Canto 32 (Caïna: Traitors to Kindred), “ ’Tis no enterprise to take in jest, to sketch the bottom of all the universe.” Like Dante, I called on the Muses to help compose “rhymes both rough and stridulous . . . appropriate to the dismal hole” that is the Ninth Circle. I was inspired by Dante’s choice of this hell circle as a place of brutal cold—instead of the typical burning fire—for the worst of the worst sinners. 

    "As Dante walks on thick ice, he at first doesn’t see the thousands of traitors’ bodies frozen up to their necks, their heads sticking out, eyes crying, teeth chattering, “shivering in the eternal shade”—much as how family turmoil can be hidden under the surface. But once he does, the scene turns savage, with Dante spotting brothers, fathers, nephews, who have killed their own family members. So in the midst of this frigid, deathly scene, and this piece, are harsh rhythms and flashes of raging unfrozen hearts, whether hatred or even memories of familial love. 

    "The ice stores and reflects and emits a feedback loop of the betrayals and ties passed down through generations and amassed in a violent collective history. 

    "I used field recordings (from San Francisco, Naoshima, and wintry Buffalo, NY), a MicoKorg, Sirkuit SNB, Jomox Resonator Neuronium, 4ms Noise Swash, and BugBrand PT Delay to create the icy hellscape."

    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
  • 3512: Frost, ice, snow
    Caina created by Nigh Infernal.

    "We tried to really tap into the icy atmosphere of Caina by utilizing vibrating treble tones and wide reverb to evoke a vast, arctic plain.  Listeners will be comforted by the lushness of the sounds but listen for how the chords shift to mimic the ever fickle ice winds."

    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
  • 3511: Giants
    The Giants created by Jon Nicholls.

    "The three giants exist in a perpetual stasis, and I felt the piece should be a snapshot of a situation rather than something which evolved dynamically.

    "The canto opens with a blast on an impossibly loud horn belonging to the first giant, Nimrod; the piece imagines entering the scene the instant after the horn has sounded, leaving only its echoes.

    "The sound material is a recording of the only words spoken by any of the giants: ‘Raphel may amech zabi almi’, and the processed sounds of a trumpet."

    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
  • 3509: The Well
    The Well created by Thomas Haighton. 

    "The original source material used to create the sounds was an audio recording of a chunk of ice being thrown into a deep hole - reminding of the well and the field of ice in Dantes inferno. 

    "The source material is processed in different ways to create a noisy soundscape. The piece sounds ominous and meditative at the same time. The piece gets more distorted as time passes which make it feel like a journey getting tougher."

    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
  • 3507: Judecca
    Judecca created by Whalthisney.

    "My inspiration for this music was transforming a simple pastoral impressionist piano music into something a bit hellish by distorting and glitching the whole composition. The deconstructed aural atmosphere of the music has also a resonance with today's world dystopic times."

    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
  • 3506: Judecca
    Judecca created by Paul Collins.

    "The deepest zone of the ninth and final circle of Hell is called Judecca. 
    Here Satan is painfully encased in an ice of his own, unwitting making. He has three faces, and in each his of three mouths he gnaws on one of history’s three great traitors. In his middle set of jaws, the most nefarious of these criminals is being endlessly chewed and devoured head-first:  Judas, who betrayed Christ with a kiss. 

    “The name Judecca reflects the unfortunate but prevalent anti-Semitism of 13th century. Christian Europeans viewed Jews as the assassins of Christ, a view that led most European countries to restrict Jews to living in specific areas away from the Christian majority. “ (Stephen Holliday)

    "The first line of this Cantos, “Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni," (The banners of the king of Hell draw closer), spoken by Virgil, references an oft-sung hymn from the 6th century. Here, the hymn is played in its entirety, double-tracked on the piano. The murmur that we hear in the background, is the poem itself, Cantos XXXIV, being read in Italian, digitized, and the resultant MIDI notes assigned to a bass. 

    "The gurgling that we hear at the end of the piece, is a recording of my stomach. I placed the digital recorder on my tummy during a particularly noisy case of “digestion difficile.” The sound perhaps references Satan’s perpetual meal, or Hell being in the bowels of the earth. It also brings to mind a famous Jewish joke, which describes the premise of all Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!”

    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
  • 3505: Ptolomea
    Ptolomea created by RPLKTR.

    "The Ninth Circle, Ptolomea - those who betrayed friends or guests. Their souls descend immediately to hell and their living bodies are possessed by demons when they commit these acts. The sinners cannot weep because the tears freeze in their eyes. Their grief has no outlet and turns inward. This increases their agony.

    "Ptolomea is a section of a frozen river in the underworld. My soundtrack illustrates this cold and damp. I used synthesizers instead of going for natural sounds to deepen the sense of desolation. There's a feel of dread but there are no audible screams or cries as the grief and agony of the sinners frozen in the river is internal. Occasionally the viewer's attention is turned to a particular detail in sight but ultimately there is no end to the anguish. The song ends abruptly as the viewers notice the banners of Lucifer and move onto the last section of Hell."

    ### Gear
    Piano by Pianoteq 6, Steinway D with strings elongated to 6.66m.
    Eerie chords by a pair of Moog Mother-32s.
    Rhythmic bass by Moog Subharmonicon.
    Melodic bass by Novation Circuit Mono Station.
    Drums by Polyplex, bit crushed to 4 bits.
    Reverbs by Raum.
    Recorded and produced in Ableton Live.

    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

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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.