Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 2322: Sounding Nature on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
    Feature on our Sounding Nature project from BBC Radio 3's flagship experimental and avant-garde music show, Late Junction. Features a field recording of a water blowhole in Croatia by Tim Shaw, and a reimagined version of that sound by Cities and Memory. Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 9 January 2018.
    5 min
  • 2321: Game of Drones
    Waves at the Sqala du port d'Essaouira in Morocco reimagined by Cities and Memory. The Sqala is made famous (apparently) by having a prominent role in the TV show Game of Thrones, hence the title of this piece, which drowns the waves in squalls of feedback until they cannot be heard, and slowly peels back the synthetic layers to reveal the beauty of the pure wave sounds by the end of the piece.
    5 min
  • 2319: “In a snow-white field near Moscow, I want you above all to hear how sad my living voice is”
    “In a snow-white field near Moscow, I want you above all to hear how sad my living voice is.” 
    ― Emma Richler, Be My Wolff
    Riverboat announcements reimagined by Cities and Memory. A soundscape attempting to depict the frozen chill of a windswept River Moskva in winter. The riverboat announcements take on a sinister, almost propaganda-ish edge when buried under heavy distortion and minor chords.
    4 min
  • 2318: Riverboat cruises at the Church of Christ the Saviour, Moscow
    Recorded by Cities and Memory - automated promotional recordings advertising riverboat cruises along the Moskva River play on the bridge leading up to Moscow's famous Church of Christ the Saviour. The weird enunciations and flow of the language give the announcements a strange, disembodied quality, punctuated by the recorded "dings" of a riverboat bell.
    3 min
  • 2317: Crosby Men
    ‘Crosby Men’By Simon Woods 
    The men at ‘Another Place’ stand silently watching the shipping come in and out of the Mersey Channel. They are still and silent until you are not looking. At this point they break into dance – returning motionless when being watched! This is my imagined inspiration for the ‘Crosby Men’ piece. Every sound, in the piece, is from a single sample of a piece of driftwood hitting one of the men. Sampled on an incredibly windy and cold day. The sample was cleaned up using Izotope RX6 before being crushed, echoed, pitched and generally mangled using Melodyne, Waves Codex and numerous filters and other devices.
    Part of our Sound Photography project.
    4 min
  • 2316: Cities of the Red Light
    By Andy Billington - part of the Sound Photography project.
    "Light saturation. Red. Yellow. Cities of the Red Light. Signage details the future? "Detour" "Hope Street"... 
    Sample packs made from city noises ripped from YouTube then manipulated and reversed. Re-recorded to 80s cassette tapes over and over again and saturated in reverse reverb. Melodies emerge. More warping and odd frequency removal. Somewhere the remains of a helicopter sound effect from a keyboard I had as a kid. Choral pads breath life into the track. Finished."
    6 min
  • 2315: Space monsters (Peru)
    Recorded by Tenali Hrenak.
    While wondering the cobblestone streets in Ollantaytambo, Peru, I passed by a small barn with a young boy and his guinea pigs. 
    I was on my way to record the afternoon birds on the outskirts of the village that I previously came upon, but I was so intrigued by the otherworldly sounds (hence the title of the recording) that I asked him if I could record. 
    I enjoyed the mashup of squeaky and rustle sounds, his whispered whooshes, and the distant music from a radio(?). It's a short recording - interrupted by a visitor - but there's just enough strangeness and delight to make it my favorite of the year. 
    Photo by Jack Catalano on Unsplash
    1 min
  • 2314: Elephant Drama in Mweya, Uganda, July 2018
    Recorded by Daan Hendricks.
    While in technical terms I don't consider this my "best" recording, it is one of my favourites of the last year due to the intense emotions conveyed by this elephant herd.
    It was recorded during an overnight session in the Mweya peninsula of Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, July 2018\. I had tracked this herd during the day in my car as far as I could until they disappeared into the bush, after which I set up a microphone rig in the general direction of the river where they were presumably heading. I left this mic behind as it recorded throughout the rest of the day, night and the next morning.
    There was a real intensity in the air that night, with the frog chorus going at full strength, insects stridulating feverishly, occasional strong wind gusts and regularly barking hippos. I am not sure what caused distress to this elephant herd but they vocalised all night, continuously rumbling and often screaming and trumpeting loudly. 
    The overall result was a night that conveyed a really wild and primeval soundscape, and for that reason I love this recording quite a bit. 
    Photo by alexia ellesse on Unsplash
    6 min
  • 2313: Dusk chorus in the Congo rainforest
    Recorded by George Vlad.
    This is a recording I made on our last night in the rainforest in November. 
    It was one of the best-sounding locations that we visited, with plenty of Turacos, Hornbills, Parrots and many other bird species. The best part is the sound of the hornbills flying and gliding in the canopy.
    Photo by Paulius Dragunas on Unsplash
    5 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.