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

  • 1960: The Early Bird
    Part of our Sound Photography project - this sound is based entirely on the accompanying photograph, pictured here. Find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography
    Photograph by Cities and Memory. Sound by Kid Kin. 
    "The image of birds circling the beach at Dakar brought to mind the idea of calm before/after the storm. After the busy day is over and the city dwellers have left, the birds have the freedom to roam and feast in peace. I wanted to create a piece of music that reflected this calmness in its ambience, but also unfolded in a way that anticipates or echoes the "storm". Distorted guitars, spliced drum samples and cuts from previous & future work swell and rise throughout the piece."
    4 min
  • 1960: Dreaming of the moor
    Part of our Sound Photography project - this sound is based entirely on the accompanying photograph, pictured here. Find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography
    Photograph by Frances Annear. Sound by Lisa Rae Bartolomei. 
    "The image of Tealham Moor I found quite evocative and mysterious and a landscape quite foreign to that which I’m familiar with in Australia. I did a little research into the types of wildlife that live in the flood plains and manipulated some recordings of ducks, skylarks and dragonflies with synthetic elements to create a dreamscape of the beauty and foreboding atmosphere of the photo of a place that only exists for me in my imagination. The melodic material was composed by me playing my Roland JP-8000 and evoking the image of The Tealham Moor in my mind as I played the keyboard. At points in the composition the processed sounds and real world material collide to illustrate the intersection between real and imagined space created by my perception of the image."
    7 min
  • 1960: A Stromboli fairytale
    Part of our Sound Photography project - this sound is based entirely on the accompanying photograph, pictured here. Find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography
    Photograph by Giulia Biasibetti. Sound by Cities & Memory. 
    "I was immediately drawn to this image because it has a fairytale quality to it, as if the mural had been lifted from the pages of a storybook. To accompany the image, I created a fictional fairytale about seas and oceans, composed from snippets of other fairy stories, including "Sinbad The Sailor", "The Lighthouse" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fisherman and his Wife", "Jormundgand" and "L'Uomo Verde d'Alghe" by Calvino, since the original image is from Stromboli, Italy. As well as fantastical synth lines to move our fairy story along, you can hear field recordings from a Sicilian beach and sounds recorded inside a lighthouse on Flat Holm Island."
    5 min
  • 1960: Transport for Christ
    Part of our Sound Photography project - this sound is based entirely on the accompanying photograph, pictured here. Find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography
    Photograph by Lauren Pond. Sound by Katazina Bitovt.
    "I've chosen a photo depicting Mobile Chapel 'Transport for Christ' service in USA. Mobile Chapel's initial idea was to minister to truck drivers. Thus, through my composition, I wanted to fill the church into the truck and depict it from the perspective of the driver.
    My first step was to consult my friend, who is an international bus driver, to learn how his work environment sounds, to be able to recreate the authentic soundscape of the inside of the vehicle. My next step was a recording in church during the mass for the Polish youth in Lithuania. As this particular Mass is aimed mainly at the youth who also actively participate in the Mass, I was able to capture the energy and vivacity that fills the church and the sermon.
    Technique-wise, I was using Ableton Live 9 Suite to create a live time performance from the samples I've recorded, which I then combined with the 'truck environment' I've created from my recordings, as well as samples from https://freesound.org/.
    As the road, drivers job and the structures of the Masses are all highly repetitive, the structure of my composition is cyclical and can be played in a loop. Throughout it, one can experience both environments (the truck drivers trip and the church) simultaneously, as the sound literally depicts the 'Transport for Christ'."
    17 min
  • 1958: Chained melodies
    Tooth Temple, Sri Lanka reimagined by Olivar Premier.
    "Slowing down the sound sometimes brings another level of reality: will we get an insight of being plunge inside the seemingly relaxed mind of an elephant or will we decipher the secret melody of the chains that enslave this revered animal?"
    Image by Nathalie Dona.
    7 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.