Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 1863: Myanmar (Mani Sithu sewing machines)
    Sewing machines in Man Sithu market, reimagined by Jase Warner.
    "After hearing the field recording of sewing machines in Mani Sithu Market, Myanmar, I wanted to create a soundscape that portrayed the mechanisms of a machine with a human heart at the centre of it. The original recording has been reworked, chopped up, reversed in parts, layered with effects, and welded back together again. I recorded bass guitar to accompany it, along with drums, to complement the rhythmic quality of the sewing machines. The final result is an industrial soundscape that aims to preserve the voices of the people working in the market, and the sonance of the tools integral to their trade and livelihood."
    4 min
  • 1861: Hearing the temples
    Temple on Anawarhta Road reimagined by Andy Billington.
    "It is early December 2017 and I am suffering from an ear infection that has rendered me for the time being partially deaf in my right ear...
    Not sure how to approach this sample so have taken to YouTube to watch a guy explore Anawarhta Road Temples with his smartphone.
    I have started resampling the vox sample from the field recording to try and create form and gain a sense of space / structure in the track. Deploying multiple reverbs and filters in Logic now. I have slowed everything down and stretched the sample some more.
    Ear not getting any better...
    I have pitched down a mournful synth line and cut into the vox sample more this week.
    I have underpinned the track with some samples of hand drums I had and took these right down in the mix adding some sub bass.
    Having listened to the track again i have simplified everything and removed additional noises of radio stations from this region and some ambient street recordings off You Tube again."
    4 min
  • 1858: Elephant (Old Bagan)
    Reimagined by Richard Watts.
    "The piece is called 'Elephant'. The original recording mentions elephant a lot so I have based the piece on that. I started by creating some sounds that I thought sounded like the noise an elephant makes - I slowed the original down and reserved it. Then I layered synth, strings and piano over it. I also isolated some of the voices in the original recording and added those too. I was trying to get a sense of memory running through it. Elephants are supposed to have excellent memories."
    4 min
  • 1857: Blu Picture #8
    Reimagined by Biagio Laponte.
    ""Morgana" is a research work on the soundscape of the Costa Viola.
    Composed of two compositional layers, the sounds portray the breadth and depth of the landscape in a precise temporal space, fixing the beauty and the changing shapes of the sea waves and rocks. Natural elements far from the daily temporal perception adopted by man who open a gap to the dilation of time and imagination.
    On the natural sound layer the elements of sound synthesis follow the repetitive pattern and the external mechanical interventions, creating, from the apparently chaotic and atonal fusion, harmony and rhythm that unite our being in the present time to the natural landscape, its vibrations and its pulses.
    A research on a border landscape, the background of myths and ancient legends, a place still magical today, portrayed by sound art."
    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.