Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Skateboarders in Shenzen reimagined by Andy Lyon. 

"My idea was to use the recording in its entirety, building layered rhythmic elements using parts of the recording.  I've used synths sparsely, firstly to release to an ambient glitchy feel, then increasing the urgency releasing to the field recording to end."

Shenzen, China recording by Simon James - "a group of people skateboarding in Shenzhen, China."

Thessaloniki lockdown sound by Sophia Tolika. 

"During the lockdown in Thessaloniki, I made some field recordings mostly from the balcony of my apartment, but also from other places at my neighborhood like the park, the streets and the seafront of Thessaloniki.

"Among the sounds that I recorded, were also the celebrations during the evening of Resurrection at Easter and the  day of the Orthodox Easter which all took place at the balconies of the flats.

"As I live by a very noisy and busy avenue, I recorded this huge change of the soundscape, as the sounds of cars and horns gradually were replaced by the songs of the birds and an extended silence. The busy urban soundscape of my neighborhood started reminding me of a tropical forest."

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

HMM Algeciras reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"The world's largest ship may well be an awesome feat of engineering, but it is also a stark warning of the level of pollution with which we're filling the oceans - and it's about sound pollution as well as the better-known pollutants.

"Sound pollution is a major issue for marine life - marine and shipping noise can damage or even kill marine life such as whales, crabs or squid, and  dolphins are being forced to simplify their calls due to undersea shipping and drilling noise. Whales have been reported to have been lost far from their breeding grounds, disorientated by noise from the shipping lanes.

"This piece moves from above the surface to below and back again, dipping up and down to show on the one hand the excitement of spectators checking out the ship's arrival - and beneath the surface, the synth lines represent the whales and other marine life being disorientated and devastated by our shipping noise. 

"The synth lines are built largely from whale song, and some underwater hydrophone recordings from beneath the River Elbe in Germany are blended into the undersea sections."

After completing its maiden voyage during June 2020, the world's largest ship, the HMM Algeciras docks in Essex in the UK to unload cargo. 
The ship is, unbelievably, 400m long and 61m wide - which is longer than the height of London skyscraper The Shard (310m). The ship's arrival into the UK was a major news story, and all along the route people were lining the coast to catch a glimpse of the vessel. Recorded by Gina Clark.

Tunisian soundwalk reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"In the original field recording, we're following a soundwalk around a local neighbourhood in Ben Arous, and there's an intriguing snippet of local musicians performing - I really wanted the recorder to move closer and take in more of the music, but it frustratingly walks on by. 

"So for the reimagined piece, I've created my own fake musicians, and slotted their performance into the soundscape. I loaded a cleaned-up snippet of the original into an audio to MIDI converter - I love how unreliable these things are, and how they generate melodic chaos by a happy accident, with piles of extra notes on top of the original melody. 

"These MIDI lines are then fed into a range of instruments like djembe, sitar, guitar and harmonium, creating a fake lineup of musicians whose chaotic jamming accompanies us on our hyper-real soundwalk through Ben Arous."

Geiko performance in Kyoto recorded by Giulia Biasibetti.  

"As a Westerner, it is rare to see a performance by authentic Kyoto Geiko as only a few groups remain who still train and perform traditionally - so it was a real privilege to be able to watch their show. 

"Geisha and Geiko are quite misunderstood in the Western world - they study for years to be able to entertain their clients with music, singing, dancing and poetry. It's an extraordinarily skilled performance.

"In the recording you'll hear the Geiko enter the hall and walk around clacking traditional sticks together - a very eerie atmosphere to Western ears. They proceed to the stage and begin a full performance with singing, dancing and musical instruments."

Ben Arous, Tunisia soundwalk recorded by Mohsen Ben Hadj Salem.

"A soundwalk in the courtyards and plots of my residence, spying on neighbours by walking slowly to next to their windows."

Kyoto Geiko performance reimagined by Nick St. George.

"OK Geiko is another step along my road towards more abstract composition, moving away from narrative and the use of spoken word. 

"This is an exercise in pure sound (dare one even say "music"?!) and features a new piece of software (for me) which I learnt about via the Cities & Memory website. Cherry Audio's oddly-named 'Voltage Modular" (Modulator, surely?) has provided me with a whole host of synth sounds for the first time, and you will hear some of them in this piece. 

"The starting point was the percussive sequence that came from the Geiko performance  - the field recording then reappears throughout with samples from the vocal elements of the show. A couple of Japanese instrumental 'flavours' and beds from our old friend Apple Loops were also added to the mix."

Sao Paulo apartment lockdown sound reimagined by Keith de Mendonca.

"I selected a recording made by Rafael Bezzon in an apartment in Sao Paolo. It captures the unremarkable sounds of dropped items, footsteps, air conditioning , passing car horns and domestic ambience. These are the routine sounds that we have all heard over the last few months and which have mostly been ignored by us all as we think and worry about far more important things in our lives.

"My remix focuses on the rhythms of the dropped items and what I think are computer keyboard sounds. In my mind's ear, I  imagine Rafael leaning back in his chair and slowly discovering a hidden miniature rhythmic world around him within his apartment."

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