Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 2471: Orbital
    Kepler Star reimagined by Jeff Dungfelder.
    “Any world that I'm welcome to, is better than the one I come from.” – Steely Dan
    The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets; gas giants, hot-super-Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets, especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water might exist on the surface of the planet.
    The Kepler Space Telescope Mission was specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.
    After nine years in deep space collecting data that revealed our night sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope ran out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA retired the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler discovered more than 2,600 planets from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
     With “Orbital” I have tried to imagine what one might experience outside our solar system. Outer space = inner space. Put on your headphones and let the journey begin!
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    6 min
  • 2469: Blue Dot
    Test centre sounds reimagined by Matt Rose.
    Blue Dot uses a very low frequency sound sample of the European Space Agency’s IXV spaceplane being exposed to the severe vibration experienced during take-off, simulated by ESA ESTEC Test Centre's shaker tables. I added shortwave radio signals and sounds generated from fuzzySynths gear to suggest travelling through the ionosphere and on into space. fuzzySynths create PCBs for Eurorack modules, using microcontrollers for maximum functionality behind small panels. 
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    5 min
  • 2470: We have lift-off - From Sputnik to launch
    Reimagined by Sherman and Field.
    This project captures the story leading up to the Apollo 11 lift-off, featuring the Cities and Memory original NASA recording of the launch on July 16 1969. A field recording of National Geographic’s "Sounds of the Space Age - from Sputnik to lunar landing" was captured via mobile phone as the record played in our lounge room. The piece, released in December 1969 and narrated by astronaut Colonel Frank Borman, was placed in front of the Apollo 11 lift-off recording. Accompanying the recordings is a section of improvised beats and sound manipulations from various devices. This was recorded late one night in a Northern New South Wales barn under a starlit country sky…
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    9 min
  • 2468: The Computer has Control
    "Computer has control" sound by NASA, reimagined by Karhide.
    "This started as a very short audio clip and I wanted to create the feeling of floating in space with the human voice sample drifting in towards the end of the track."
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    6 min
  • 2467: Star Gazer ISS
    "I wanted to try and create a hallucinatory sense of floating through a star field - having just been jettisoned from a malfunctioning and disintegrating ISS in a space suit with little oxygen. The last sound running through your mind as your air runs low is the ISS alarm. As you slowly sink into sleep the alarm appears and re-appears, sometimes morphing beyond recognition. I use the sample pretty much unprocessed at both the beginning and end of the track - then heavily process it across the central section of the piece, randomly and quickly transposing sections of it and applying effects. I used a generative modular patch to create a sense of a star field and combined this with epic yet melancholic melodies. The tempo slows across the final quarter of the track as our unfortunate space explorer falls asleep and floats off into the stars."
    Reimagined by Echaskech.
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    4 min
  • 2466: That's The Kind Of Information We Like To Have
    I started the track with a looped piece of radio static from the very end of the sample to create a hypnotic loop, and slowly faded in my main track, an acoustic guitar riff. I edited the original 8min long satellite conversation down into smaller samples to place within the track, but still maintaining a coherent conversation. I added strings and piano parts to add to the repetition, and to make the piece a little moody.
    Reimagined by Things Being Various.
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    4 min
  • 2465: Big band rain solo
    Have you ever listened to rain pounding against a roof or another hard surface and heard rhythmic patterns emerging at random, as if the rain were playing its own form of drum solo?
    That was on our mind as we reimagined this sound of rain in an alleyway in Bucharest, as the rhythmic drops of rain form themselves together into a rhythm until they become an incredible drum solo from Buddy Rich.
    The rain drops continue to act as augmenting percussion throughout, adding to the drum solo, while the cheering of the crowd blends with the softer sounds of rainfall until they too are indistinguishable from one another.
    Bucharest rain in an alley reimagined by Cities and Memory.
    Photo by reza shayestehpour (https://unsplash.com/@r_shayesrehpour?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/search/photos/rain?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)
    3 min
  • 2464: Enceladus
    Saturn moon reimagined by Andy Lyon.
    "Enceladus is a mysterious place, it is the only body beyond Earth with the basic requirements for life. Previously simple organic molecules have been detected but very recently, large organic molecules have also been discovered there. This piece tries to capture the intrigue and mystery of travelling there and what we might find on our arrival.
    I've processed the recording in Sensomusic Usine Hollyhock 3 using the Grain cloud player with Fracture XT (Glitchmachines) and H949 Dual Harmoniser (Eventide) and two instances of Palindrome (Glitchmachines), one with Ultratap and the other with H3000 Factory (Eventide).  These recordings were then layered in Mulab 7 with the addition of the sample processed in Cumulus (Loomer), drums and pad, keys and bass (eDNA Earth -  Spitfire Audio). A variety of reverbs were used - SP2016 and Blackhole (Eventide) and RP-Verb 2 (Rob Papen).  It was mastered using Magnetite (Black Rooster Audio), Stage (Fiedler Audio), Elevate (Newfangled Audio) and Youlean Loudness Meter."
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    8 min
  • 2463: We choose the Moon
    JFK speech reimagined by Michael McDermott.
    "My space sound was the voice of President John F. Kennedy and the liftoff sequence of a Nasa Operator. I decided to make a simple piece that uses these sounds as a springboard and a transition in perspective. After this initial adventure into space, humanity's perspective on what is reality has forever shifted. I used simple synthesizers and spacial effects to gradually shift the sonic perspective of the spoken word sample."
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    2 min
  • 2462: Sputnik Farewell
    Sputnik beep reimagined by Primitive Acoustics.
    "This piece includes a sound sample of the Sputnik audio signal, both unaltered and processed with Thermae, Fabrikat, Count to Five and Dark World effects pedals. I also played guitar with Ebow through these same effects for the drone and other sounds with the exception of the shortwave transmission sample.
    Sputnik was the first artificial satellite and launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.
    It was a 23 inch diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. It orbited the earth for three weeks broadcasting radio pulses with the propagation of its signals providing data about the ionosphere.
    The signals lasted for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out. Sputnik then orbited silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere and burning up upon re-entry. This is my audio interpretation of the final 8 minutes of Sputnik’s audio transmission during that journey. How the sounds and echos may have waxed and waned, stuttered, sputtered and morphed as the batteries slowly died."
    Part of the Space is the Place project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/space
    9 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.