Cities and Memory - remixing the world

In a pasture high up in the Dolomites in Trentino, Italy, we walk into the middle of a group of feeding cows, all wearing the traditional mountain cow bells. In this recording, you can hear the bells on all sides as the cows carry on with their day, oblivious to our presence. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Tuk tuk ride in Bangkok reimagined by June Lopez.

"I find that exploring sounds like this opens up my creativity and allows me to composed to different environments that is free, spontaneous and also captures the emotional side of that journey.  The sound of the truck ride reminded me of my experience with cancer and my journey towards recovery.  I embraced its presences and it was the constant reminder that I am very much alive. Accepting that we coexist and the road to full recovery was near. 

"When I heard this recording, it brought back memories of the time that I was being transported to the hospital from a scare and I can hear everything around me. The medics, the sounds of the ambulance horn and finally the sound of the motor as it roared through the streets of Philadelphia. I thought it was the last time I will hear sound. This was simply my journey within and If anything was gong to keep me aware it was something that I was passionate about. “SOUND”  As a sound artist, I really like to investigate the use of the material and see what ways I can incorporate what I am feeling that moment."

Singapore street car racing reimagined by David Henckel.

"Bass line duet with the sounds of racing cars in the distance. I wanted to move from being separate from the car to a feeling of being inside the car in the race."

Singapore skate park reimagine by Luis Antero.

"I live in the countryside, in the interior of Portugal, in an area we call Beira Serra, located between the mountains of Estrela and Açor. As a sound artist, I am used to working with hi-fi sounds, that is, where we can distinguish sounds very easily, unlike cities where the sound is presented to us as lo-fi, an amalgamation of sounds that even being part of city identities, make them acoustically unsustainable. 

"This sound piece, which I created from an original recording made in a skate park in Singapore, tries to mirror this reality and at the same time create a reflection on the acoustic ecology and on the role of sound in the life of the city and its inhabitants.

"Can we have less acoustic fatalism in our cities? What sounds do we want to hear? Is it possible to have acoustically ecological cities? How does sound influence our behaviours? These and other issues, being increasingly on the agenda, deserve serious and careful reflection. This sound piece, not being an answer, proposes an aesthetic, a contribution."

A daytime ride on a tuk tuk, Bangkok's iconic - and in no way unsafe - way of getting around the city. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Racing car trials taking place around the streets of Singapore past the Hotel Marina Mandarin - high-speed car flypasts are the order of the day. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Singapore racing trials reimagined by Ollie Campbell.

"To start off with, I chopped out some of the car passes. I knew that I wanted to use binaural panning to make them sound like they were passing in front of the listener. I originally intended to create a kind of soundscape based on the original recording, but pitching down the original sounded kind of sinister and post-apocalyptic, which then inspired me to write a slow melancholy piece of music. I was listening a lot to a band called Calexico at the time which inspired the kind of Mariachi-style trumpet, and also the name of the piece."

A unique recording capturing the sounds of both high-performance racing cars zipping around a circuit in Singapore, followed by a large-scale fireworks display. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

The sound of skateboarders practising and performing tricks at a Singapore skate park. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

High Line reimagined by Colette Aliman.

"This soundscape was very familiar to me, as I have walked the High Line many times. When strolling, I would feel a need to coalesce the numerous sound events in context with the location. 

"The sonic information was conflicting, nature vs. machine, for the ideas of tranquility and escape that was initially implemented for the High Line experience. Thus I created a piece true to the recorded frequencies but composed in an ambient fashion. 

"Layers of sound are created by dividing the field recording into multiple Hz spectrums to be recomposed and mutated. As a result, a soundscape that allows one to shift into another way strolling is formed—a new sonic unity of the High Line."