Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 3030: The sound of an NHS health worker preparing protective equipment
    Recording of a health service worker in the UK donning protective equipment by Dr. Sarah Whiteside.
    "I’m a GP in a Fulham, London. General Practice is unrecognisable from what is was a month ago. We used to have a waiting room full of patients and now it is deathly silent. We are all still here though, we are all still busy, seeing patients by video, mainly.
    "We still see patients at the practice too but our doors are locked to protect the staff from people just wandering in. The patients buzz in and are immediately handed a mask. We work in teams, some seeing ‘clean’ patients with no Covid symptoms for baby checks, immunisations, back pain etc.
    "The ‘red team’ sees patients with potential Covid symptoms. Some days we are redeployed to the borough hub, seeing the more risky cases or visiting Covid patients at home. 
    "For every patient we have to prepare - a surgical mask, a plastic apron, a pair of goggles, and double latex gloves is all that stands between us and Coronavirus. But the PPE is also there to protect patients from us as we might unwittingly be infectious or carrying the virus on our clothes. 
    "Once the patient examination is over, we must start the decontamination process. Clean every piece of equipment used, every surface touched, even the door handles with disinfectant. Then we decontaminate ourselves - first pair of gloves off, remove apron by ripping it off, rip off face mask carefully so as not to touch our faces, and then the second pair of gloves; all goes to clinical waste. We wash our hands and wrists carefully, singing happy birthday twice as we do so and then disinfect our goggles for next time.
    "Then the next patient comes in or we go to the next house and we do it all over again. The sight of us jumping out of the back of a cab in full PPE is clearly terrifying for the public - we clear entire streets in seconds. But our presence is also reassuring - when the public see us in our scrubs or wearing our lanyards in public without the scary PPE, they wave and say thank you."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    2 min
  • 3029: Sounds next door in Marseilles
    Marseilles lockdown sound recorded by Edouard Monnet.
    "Sounds from my balcony, clearly heard for the first time : Ouvrants, sons domestiques et urbains, pigeons (roucoulements, vols), passereaux dont fauvette à tête noire ("tèk-tèk" et chant), voix de voisines et voisins adultes et enfants, abeilles butinant, volets roulants, perruche à collier, tourterelles (vols, rires), mouches, sirène, etc."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    9 min
  • 3028: Window piano recital excerpt
    London lockdown sound recorded by Ollie Campbell.
    "Sitting at my desk in a basement flat in Soho, I can hear somebody practicing playing the piano. One of the real positives to come out of the COVID-19 lockdown, is the inspiration to learn and practice new skills! 
    "I doubt from this overheard person's playing that they picked up this new hobby in the last few weeks, as they sound like a really accomplished player! It was a pleasure to hear this unexpected sound drifting through my window from somewhere else in my block."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    3 min
  • 3027: The sounds reveal themselves one by one
    Ghent lockdown sound recorded by Stijn Dickel.
    "The first thing that strikes me when I arrive at the market is the noise. I expected it to be super quiet, but nothing could be further from the truth: the sound of striding trams, rogging and snarling structure works, patrolling police cars thundering over the cobblestones ... There is one big difference compared to "normal" times: all sounds reveal themselves one by one, as if they have agreed on a turn role. 
    "Because the sounds appear much more serial instead of parallel, all acoustic reflections are also much more audible. Sounds are doubled by echoes, sometimes giving the impression that not one but two bicycles are passing. Percussive sounds of, for example, a slamming door echo much longer. In other words, there is much more depth and dynamics audible, and the space of the city gives the sound much more breath."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    4 min
  • 3026: The conversations of waterfowl
    Ghent lockdown sound recorded by Stijn Dickel.
    "I hear a lot more details: dogs' tapping nails on concrete tiles, the rustling of bicycle spokes, the rhythmic tapping of mast ropes, the fluttering of a plastic bag in the wind ... 
    "People's conversations are also much more audible: this is how I accidentally participated in an intimate conversation about a breakup (not in the recording) 
    "The “conversations” of waterfowl come more to the sonorous foreground. It must be a special time for them now that they can communicate much more clearly, I thought. Could the bird population in the city increase as a result of these lockdown measures now that they can hear each other's lure better…?"
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    3 min
  • 3025: Corona Pattu or Corona Song
    Kerala lockdown sound provided by Ihsanul Ihthisam.
    "We Mappila Muslims of Malabar are producing Corona songs in our oral tradition of Mappilapattus. These songs offer a general awareness of coronavirus outbreak along with its religious outlook, finding idiosyncratic causes, giving an ideology to counter, and finally seeking the ultimate refuge in God. 
    "I share here one of them sung by a local Mappilapattu artist Vidal K Moidu."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    6 min
  • 3024: Alto-falante sanitário
    Rio de Janeiro lockdown sound recorded by Marcelo da Rocha Wanderley.
    "From my window I can hear now every day a car with a speaker that has been circulating on the streets of my city ever since the Covid-19 lockdown started. 
    "It is a government initiative that asks every citizen to please stay at home, follow the WHO instructions to remain safe and beware of the lethal virus. 
    "Even though Brazil's president has been ambiguous and contradictory on his statements about the virus, Brazilians have acted responsibly using their own judgement and maintaining social distance. "
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    2 min
  • 3023: "Stay at home" ambulance message, Milan
    Milan lockdown sound recorded by Sara Passoni.
    "Milano, Lombardy, Italy, March 29th: the local police is driving around the neighborhood, urging the population to stay at home by means of a recorded message on behalf of the city mayor, which is played through a loudspeaker. 
    "Meanwhile, one of the countless ambulances is running for the next emergency. No traffic: only birds and ambulances can be heard in a normally very busy and loud city. 
    "Lombardy has paid the highest death toll in Italy. We've sung together from our balconies, we've made friends with our neighbors: I drink aperitifs with them at dusk, each of us from our balcony, and we have a chat together. It helps feeling we're not alone, that we care for each other."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    1 min
  • 3022: Scops owl call in the city
    Thessaloniki lockdown sound recorded by Chrysoula Athanasiou.
    "I do not know if the scops owl was there before and we could not hear it due to the noise of the city! In the silence of coronavirus we discover new things!"
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    1 min
  • 3020: Sewer symphony #4
    Santa Rosa, USA lockdown sound recorded by Joe Winkler.
    "Our home and 2,900 others nearby were destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in Oct of 2017. We rebuilt on our lot and moved in last July. The housing construction sounds that we hear on a daily basis have now been overwhelmed by the sounds of sewer installation work. Recording and photo taken from our front porch.
    "We have been sheltering in place for the past three weeks. We are in our mid 70's with added risk factors so we act as responsible as possible.
    "We were about 10 minutes ahead of the fire, leaving with the clothes on our backs and our two dogs (who, by the way, love the fact that we now almost never leave home). Our fire experience has taught us that the only way is through. Our partially rebuilt community is stronger in every way with a big emphasis on caring for one another borne of our shared loss.
    "We hope and expect that as we get on the other side of this crisis a similar coming together will occur in communities around the globe.Please, all take care."
    Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds
    4 min

About Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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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.