Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 1676: Brexit means Brexit
    Unite for Europe march reimagined by Cities and Memory.
    This is our take on the sounds of Brexit, a sonic representation of how we experience the debate about Britain leaving the EU. Voices of people who voted Leave on the grounds of immigration issues are interspersed with meaningless soundbites from the Prime Minister "Brexit means Brexit" and "red, white and blue Brexit" among others, while clips from the pro-EU Unite for Europe march in London in June provide a counterpart. The piece is designed to illustrate the tension and the void opening up in British society between those looking outward to the world openly, and those who wish to close down and are closed to other cultures, other races and other nationalities.
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    4 min
  • 1675: One man protest
    Field recording of a man speaking through a public address system taken at Plaza Italia in Santiago, Chile. Recorded by Mark Baldwin on Zoom H4N Pro.
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    2 min
  • 1674: I was thinking about protest
    London Housing Bill protest reimagined by Stace Constantinou.
    "It's tempting to be constantly in action - out of the streets, online etc. But, it's worth stopping. And realising that thinking itself is a form of protest, and perhaps at this time, the most necessary.
    This piece attempts to reconcile the 'doing' getting out the streets etc., with the 'thinking' of protest. The subjective ears hear the objective street scene, whilst transforming this experience into a new experience of listening to the process of transforming the sound, then listening again."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    1 min
  • 1673: Exhausted in Santiago
    Santiago protest reimagined by Peter Annear.
    "This field recording is full of atmosphere, a great sound collected in a couple of minutes of anthropophonic ear thrashing. Thank you for submitting it.
    The different layers are well distinguished:
    The protesting voice – megaphony - which finds melody and rhythm in his intention to conmmunicate
    The serendipitous sounds – serendipophony - hooters and whistles which accompany the megaphony. The communicative intent is still there but less so
    The traffic roar – cacophony – which is random, all surrounding with surprises from left and right. These sounds have little communicative intent.
    Do these layers of sound reflect levels of consciousness too?
    Reimagining: 065 “Exhausted in Santiago” Peter Annear
    Protest is a powerful form of communication, carried out in Mark Baldwin’s recording with passion and determination. I was fascinated by the amount of unintentional opposition he had from the sounds around him. He sounded like a man drowning, almost overwhelmed and sinking in noise.
    In my reimagining I have tried to give each layer random and focussed moments; moments of survival and moments of death. Just as we look for shape and meaning in clouds and the light and shadow of trees there are moments of connection and disconnection.
    Small serendipitous sounds have been manipulated to form intentional melodies and rhythms, the voice has been reduced to one single lingering phrase and the cacophony has been given the role of a pedal note. At certain points through the piece these sounds are given a greater or lesser focus.
    All the sounds you hear have come from the original recording.
    I used Audacity with its various effects to reimagine these sounds."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    4 min
  • 1672: Housing Bill protest, London
    Recorded by Paul Tourle.
    "Made in situ, the recording captures the sounds of my partner and I on a walkabout before the main protest march set off for Parliament Square. The recording features prominently the sounds of a protest choir (Raised Voices, I think). If memory serves, it was a stiflingly warm day. I had a sense at the time that everything was a little too cosy for a protest, and the recording brings that thought back to the surface. It puts me in mind of the protests carried out by Remainers in the wake of the Brexit referendum: I was there, too. What I find interesting is that both of these protests seemed to bring perhaps ‘softer' or less politically committed or dynamic types (myself included) out to join in. These are people who have finally had enough, but who are not at all accustomed to expressing themselves vocally. To my ear, that carries through to the recording."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    9 min
  • 1671: Corruption in South Korea
    Recorded by Ian-John Hutchinson.
    "Starting around November 2016 and lasting until the impeachment of former President Park Geun-Hye (March 10, 2017) there were frequent popular protests throughout the country.
    'One week after 500,000 - 750,000 people protested in Seoul several thousand (?) people marched to protest corruption and misuse of power allegations against Korean president Park Geun-hye. Sonically the huge protests in Seoul were dominated by broadcasts from large sound systems and a good sound recording of the crowd was not possible. Here, in this regional city, the voices of the crowd chanting and calling out could be well heard, and made for a powerful representation of real popular sentiment. In this recording at least two protest chants can be heard."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    5 min
  • 1670: Chuncheon Call and Response
    Chuncheon protest reimagined by Henry Lowengard.
    "I've been fascinated by the idea of call-and-response and chanting in protests, and how it hypnotises people into speaking in unison, no matter what the words! The original sample broke neatly into two separate sections, so the first I extended a little and orchestrated, slowly devolving rhythmically, and in the second part I fiddled with the timing (and pitch) to break up and merge the calls and responses somewhat."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    4 min
  • 1669: The words were no longer important (Seville)
    Protest on La Alameda, Seville reimagined by Jessica Rowland.
    "My inspiration was the rhythm of the music and the chanting. I only used the actual clip, and changed and effected sections to emphasise the rhythms which are inherently Spanish in feel. I took the speech sections and cut and spliced to interweave them with the music and rhythm without really knowing what was being said - the words were no longer important, they were just sound and rhythm."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    5 min
  • 1668: ReSounding (Unite for Europe march)
    Pro-EU march in London reimagined by Oliver Owen.
    "Politics is a shimmering mirror - reflecting and reverberating our hopes and fears.
    Politics is an endless echo chamber - cycling and recycling the same ideas and calls.
    For this piece I diffused, re-recorded, diffused, and re-recorded the source material, over and over again, creating a ringing, resonant drone.
    Speeches, calls, applause, and cheers repeat and echo through the piece along with incessant buzzing noise."
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    9 min
  • 1667: Introducing the speeches at Unite for Europe
    Two comedians introduce an afternoon of speeches in Parliament Square, London as part of the pro-EU Unite for Europe march. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
    Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest
    3 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.