Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

By Cities and MemorySociety & CultureArtsMusicPlaces & Travel
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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 2521: First Sea
    Essaouira beach reimagined by Foto di Gruppo.
    "The creative process started with the formation of a group where we shared feelings and emotions about the project and the audio file. The most used words were: sea, waves, wind. We thought of playing on the seashore, but our sea, although having similar connotations, differs in "geosynchronous". We also thought of a hypothetical trip to Morocco in the place of audio recording, but even this idea was not convincing. We noticed, during the weeks of listening, that the audio track is part of an already completed present, frozen in a recording, but already passed, dead. Just like the memories inside us that, albeit vivid, the only luxury of life that can be granted is the slow unraveling of oblivion.
    We therefore took this audio as a fragment of an accomplished and dead present and let ourselves be pervaded by memory, by remembrance. The process of musical creation was based on the emotions that each of us reflected and communicated musically to the rest of the group during the first session. In those hours of rehearsals of the early evening, childhood emerged, the sweet melancholy, almost caramelized, candied we would say, of our first contact with the sea, of those sounds, waves, wind, sensations on the body and of that horizon that mark with this experience a before and after of human life.
    The feeling of remembrance and distance was not entirely satisfactory and was reflected in the sound of the sessions recorded during the first evening. We do not remember a moment several times in a row, if anything the appearance of a memory is an open door to new roads and sometimes imaginary paths. We therefore left the task of creating the memory of a memory at night, sleep and dreams. The following morning with the same spontaneity of the epiphanic moments we played and recorded what we remembered of our previous expressions. We expressed our being wrapped in the candied memory (candy) that is appreciated in the sound of the guitars. With the rhythmic session we let ourselves be swept away by the motion of the sea that drags the beats of each of us to make them our own and return them pervaded by the impetus and impulse of its waves and (impulsive) movements.
    In the post production process we added part of the audio track for a contrast, assonant? Dissonant? Here the answer we believe is only in each of us.
    Foto di Gruppo is:
    Lucio Bianchi: guitar, effects
    Matteo Manna: guitar, effects
    Marco Migliorisi: drums
    Fabio Palmieri: Bass"
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    5 min
  • 2520: A windy morning in Essaouira
    Essaouira, Morocco is famous for the Atlantic wind that blows through it all year round - here it is on a windy spring morning on the beach. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    3 min
  • 2519: Together in Batwa (tribute by Millie Wissar)
    Ugandan village song reimagined by Millie Wissar.
    "We are currently facing a time when governments around the world understate the importance of indigenous communities, disrespect their ownership of land and threaten their legacy. This piece is inspired by these communities and aims to highlight the degree to which music can empower indigenous peoples worldwide and help preserve their memory, traditions and languages."
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    4 min
  • 2517: Tender lucky fuel
    London beatboxer reimagined by Nimmi Naidoo.
    Tender - a soft angelic choral intro. Lucky - some Feng Shui chimes. Fuel - the beat driving through.
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    4 min
  • 2516: A call to prayer
    Call to prayer reimagined by Lee Clift.
    "The beauty of the voice on Cyprus call to prayer field recording made me think that over complicating the backing was something I had to at all times be careful of. I built the track around the voice and not fit the voice to the track, I used one of the words (unzip) in the context of dissecting the phases of the call, I enjoyed this part very much because it seeped into me and I got to know the feel of the words and it suggested a melody to me, it also hindered me for a while though because I felt it was a very sacred thing that I was dealing with and I was conflicted about ruining its purity but I wanted to present the beauty of the voice in a new context.
    I used the word Prayer in a meditative way on this track, it has gone through many different versions, the repetitive nature of certain phrases really gave this version a trancelike quality that is part of the prayer experience."
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    6 min
  • 2515: Adhan call to prayer, Cyprus
    Recorded by Marcel Gnauk. A beautiful recording of a call to prayer in the Selimiye Mosque, Nicosia, Cyprus.
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    2 min
  • 2514: The White Space
    Rusty chains reimagined by Alan Bleay.
    "The two words I used were "Cribbing" and "Speculates". I tried to create a piece that reflected the claustrophobia of the space, and the transition to break out that leads to nothing but arrives at the acceptance of the space. All sounds used in this piece  were made using the original source audio as a starting point for evolving manipulation."
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    Photo by Mike Alonzo (https://unsplash.com/@mikezo?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/search/photos/chain?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)
    5 min
  • 2513: Rusty chains and metal drums in abandoned mines
    Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.
    Though not particularly old, the rusted structures at these two abandoned mines stand like the modern ghosts of the 6,000-year-old copper industry in Cyprus.
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    Photo by JJ Ying (https://unsplash.com/@jjying?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/search/photos/chain?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)
    3 min
  • 2512: ///deeply.adjusted.perform
    AS Cittadella match reimagined by Dave Santorum.
    "The original recording was edited to remove the rhythms and drums, leaving only voices calling and urging players.
    "One particular rhythm from the recording was sampled and forms the bed upon which all the other drums are played. I wanted to emulate the "Deeply" chest shaking excitement of a football match in an ambient piece. To this end the edited original recording was processed as a carrier for several different vocoders with adjustments causing significant variations to the original sounds.
    "The "Perform" part of the three words was used to create the piece once the first stage of sound design was complete - the piece was played live and recorded into Ableton Live using Push and a Keystep. Bar the drums and bass parts, there are only three MIDI tracks in the whole piece, but each controls a minimum of three more instruments, making it easier to control all parts while being performed. Final stage sound design then took place, deeply adjusted to try to return some clarity to the piece!"
    Part of the Three Words project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/three-words
    13 min

About Cities and Memory - remixing the world

From the publisher's feed

Cities and Memory remixes the world, one sound at a time - a global collaboration between artists and sound recordists all over the world.