Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Reimagined by Jonathan Mathieu.

"An abstract choir in which the cathedral bells of Aquileia and construction workers from the coast of Maine join the cicadas of Villa Sibilla in an ode to repetition."

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Reimagined by Alison Hight.

"I wanted to capture the holistic sense of the ebb and flow of the crickets’ song: the pauses, the shifts, the call and response; while also capturing the intersection of external stimuli with the crickets’ world. The steady drone of the cricket song was a central building block, with various tones pulled out to recreate some of the polyrhythms that naturally evolve from the chorus of crickets singing their own individual rhythms. Something fascinating about the source material is the fact that the very act of being there to record the audio shapes the sounds of the environment – the crickets were at some point singing about the presence of the human threat that came to visit them. There’s something really interesting about the fact that my response to the cricket audio is a response to their response to another person – it’s impossible to not simultaneously affect and be affected by everything in the environment. When putting this piece together I treated it like a conversation between the crickets and me; ostensibly between me, the crickets, and this other person somewhere out there who recorded it; and ultimately, between the whole lot of us and anyone who might listen to it. I wanted to champion the voice of the crickets so that in this piece they’re as much a part of the conversation as anyone else who joins in."

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Heiko Haller on Unsplash

Crickets and cicadas at the River Trebbia in Bobbio (PC), Italy - Recording with Jecklin disk & Neumann microphones by Ricky Milano.

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Heiko Haller on Unsplash

Cicadas compete for attention in the heat of an August afternoon at Villa Sibilla, in the Monte Conero nature reserve, Italy. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Roadside crickets chirp on a hillside in northern Italy, 24 April 2014\. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Maik Jonietz on Unsplash

Reimagined by Gagarin - Graham Dowdall.

"I'd just come back from Sicily myself when I head about the project and had some really good cicada recordings. When I went through he available sounds I was drawn to 038 due to it's subject matter but also when I listen to the range of sounds available to work with. I added some of my own cicadas, used the audio straight and treated via Samplr on the iPad and some internal plug-ins. The only non field recording sound is a single simple synth line that was drawn to as a complementary sound."

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Maik Jonietz on Unsplash

Reimagined by Nicolo Scolieri.

"This piece explores intentional white noise - internal or external, synthetic or natural. 

Its huge and calming, the sound of waves crashing. We interface with wide spectrum noise often - as street hum, as blood in our ears. 

The website myNoise has a feature that allows the user to manufacture and manipulate their own discrete frequency noise, ranging from rumbles to hushes - and it’s an appreciated service, especially by those who use synthetic white noise to help achieve focus or alleviate tinnitus. 

By mimicking and contrasting field recordings from the sea of levanto and myNoise sounds (including their programmed auto-fade, a charming button called “keeping quiet…”), the ocean is made to feel synthetic and the white noise is made to feel natural."

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Bogdan Glisik on Unsplash

Recording of the Levanto sea (Liguria, Italy) at 6 am with church bells. Recorded by Massimo Araldi.

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Bogdan Glisik on Unsplash

Reimagined by Stefan Klaverdal.

"The recording was the basis of my piece, no other material was added. I selected a few parts of the sound file and expanded them by stretching and pitch-shifting them. The aim was to create a musical re-interpretation of the sound, but keeping true to the original and use it also in a clean way as much as possible."

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature

Photo by Jairo Alzate on Unsplash

Reimagined by Mark Frederick Bulandus.

"Drawing from my nature as a Noise artist working under my Drago Katzov persona, born and raised in the Philippines where, like Indonesia, cockfighting is an accepted part of our culture, and is practiced by the males in our family including myself, the field recording of a cockfight in Bali spoke to me. 

Listening to the sound file, it was obvious that this cockfight was a provincial, pastoral one between friends and not the big money gladiatorial gambling spectacles we are used to in the Philippines.

Drawing from my penchant for various signal processors to bring out the flavor of noise on the ambient and overcast spectrum , I manipulated the field recording concurrent to an improvisational sound recording where I attempted to capture the cognitive disconnect between the past, the present, and the future as I try to make sense of the place for traditions in the context of post-colonialism and globalization."

Part of the Sounding Nature project - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sounding-nature