Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 2004: A dog from Sri Lanka
    Contact mic Unawatuna: recorded by Stéphane Marin, reimagined by Pablo Fisher.
    "I've created a piece from some of the sounds contained in the original recording, with an added background TV noise (a sound from Sri Lankan television: "Good Morning Sri Lanka Shakthi TV 15th January 2015 Part 1" - YouTube Creative Commons license CC-BY). With a little of sound panning and some distortions from the sound editing software, always based on the sounds from the fence contact mic, which are beautiful." Image by Stephane Marin.
    8 min
  • 2003: Where Is (Thessaloniki, Greece)
    Part of the Sound Photography project - www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography
    By Una Lee:
    "The piece is ultimately a duet of a spoken voice and a double bass, both of which contain elements inspired by the photograph of ‘migrating swallows’ in distinguished ways.
    "The double bass, an instrument made of wood, performs sounds reminiscent of flapping wings, collective bird cries and building a nest; gestures implying movement of a flock; melodic lines that musicalise the visual created by the swallows in this specific photograph. 
    "The voice performs the poem ‘The House That Stood For Happiness’ by poet Maria Mcmanus. The poem itself is about a female blackbird, yet i chose it on account of its implication about home, yearning, nostalgia and sense of loss, which the photograph of migrating swallows evoked for me: always on the road, search for shelter, losing one’s purpose - Where is home? Have we lost it, or our ways? Do we remember where we've been? Where is it that we're going?"
    Double Bass: Simon Waters
    Voice: Una Lee
    Poem: Maria McManus
    5 min
  • 2002: The mysterious case of the bell tower and the cross
    Part of our Sound Photography project - find out more at www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography.
    By Mark Taylor:
    "Straightaway this darkly atmospheric picture with its powerful religious imagery said “Murder Mystery TV Detective”. The sort of story that combines creepy deaths with light-hearted comic characters and bizarre, totally unbelievable scenarios!
    "Think Miss Marple, Father Brown, Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Alfred Hitchcock Presents!
    "The opening scene fades from black as the camera slowly sweeps across the cemetery towards the tolling bell. Choir boys singing inside the church. A slowly evolving, warped choir drone adds a subtle, rising edge of tension.
    "The camera pans back out towards the Cross as disturbing vocal lines weave around each other accompanied by dissonant string runs. The music reaches its peak just as the camera focuses on the dead body of the local priest, hidden behind the cross.
    "Cut to the opening credits and the main theme for the programme – hopefully conveying mystery, suspense, adventure and a healthy dollop of cheesy humour!
    "Finally, a brief hint of the opening Agnus Dei from the Choir boys leads into the first scene via a dramatic close up of a second body hanging in the Bell Tower!"
    3 min
  • 2000: A kind of nostalgia
    Stagiates, Greece, reimagined by Agapi Zarda. 
    "I've recorded the natural sounds near to the village of Mount Pelion, called Stagiates. The importance of this is that there is the sound of "running water". During recent years there has been a "war" between the municipality and the locals, because the authorities want to privatise the public water sources to companies (a common issue in Europe). So Stagiates is a really active village against that."
    3 min
  • 2001: Drifting to the Underworld
    Underwater insects, Sri Lanka, recorded by Stéphane Marin, reimagined by Julie Rousse. Image by Stephane Marin. 
    "I liked the fabrics of rhythms and secrecy of the movements. I wanted them to weave a long and unfinished sonic moment, like an eternity."
    19 min

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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.