Cities and Memory - remixing the world

In January 2020 we attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

For one week every year, this high-end ski resort in the Swiss Alps transforms from a peaceful haven in the mountains to the global focus, as world and business leaders descend on the town in private jets and helicopters to discuss the biggest issues in the world. The town is cordoned off with military-grade security, all the shops are transformed into marketing popups for global brands like Philip Morris and Cisco, and the peace in the Alpine air is disturbed every few minutes by a helicopter flying in yet another leader. 

We took a lift up to the mountainside above the town to record the soundscapes, as you can hear the normally-tranquil scene being disrupted by a helicopter descending into Davos. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Ashram bells reimagined by Mark Taylor. 

"As always with C&M projects, I did a lot of background reading into the social and cultural context of the original field recording before beginning to re-imagine it. I won't explain the significance of Arunachala...those who are interested can easily research it! 

"The piece itself was created entirely within the confines of KONTAKT 6 sampler using SONAR X3 as my DAW.

"The opening washes of sound are entirely taken from the original recording - 3 separate instances woven together after being pulled 'kicking and screaming'  through some granular synthesis / sampling techniques.

"The bell loop that fades in at around the 2 minute mark is also 100% from the  field recording - various short audio snippets were cut out, processed and then put back together using Kontakt.

"Also in my reimagined version you can hear:
1) A gentle acoustic and electric guitar loop
2) A mysterious female vocal line or two - all reversed and swamped with reverb / delay.
3) Improvised Rhodes Piano
4) Tabla and Tampura.
5) A rhythmic synth loop.

Abbazia Pisani bells reimagined by Marc van de Griendt.

"Started by slicing together the not-quite-silences and random noises that lay between and around the bells in the original recording, then (slightly, and with apologies to the ringers) restructured elements of the peal, after which a piano melody wove itself through and around both."

The traditional morning bells ring out across every town in Italy on New Year's Day, as every individual campanile chimes in its own distinctive way. Here, we've recorded the New Year bells in the small town of Abbazia Pisani in Veneto.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Tamil Nadu, India recording by Gianni Siccardi.

"Puja in Ramana ashram, I was fascinated by the sound of bells and by the connections with bells in western churches"

Pitt Rivers sound installation reimagined by Xqui.

"I loved the "theremin" sound over the field recording of voices and bustle. I added a field recording of my own whilst manipulating the original piece."

Recorded at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford as part of the Oxford Light Festival in November 2015. 

Across the lawn in front of the museum, dozens of poles with tiny windmills were installed, with the windmills attached  to sound generators that responded in different ways to the passing wind. 

Monterrey, Mexico lockdown sound reimagined by Tilla Martin.

"From Mexico, I received a bird singing. In California voices in the air were rising, from silence, both became sounds of resistance."
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

Upon visiting an ancient historical site more than 5,000 years old in rural England, the Rollright Stones, we stumbled across a pagan May ritual being performed. The site consists of the evocatively-named King's Men stone circle, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights, each dating from a different historical era from 3,800 to 1,500 BC. 

The ritual involved hand drums, clapping and dancing, and friendly exhortations to all of the passers-by to get involved and join in. We politely declined, but recorded the sounds for you. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Rollright Stones pagan ritual reimagined by Andy Billington. 

"I wanted to keep the energy of the original recording and got somewhat transfixed with how the drums might sound resonating through the ground and surrounding stones. 

"I cut up the original audio, added some basic organ, fed through a ring modulator and then put the whole track into a chase bliss audio blooper pedal. The final track was then layered and reversed. I really like the ghosting of the drums that seem to haunt the background anchoring the remix and pushing forwards the track."