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

  • 1536: Pictures for the ears #2 (Εικόνες Για Το Αυτί)
    Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces
    Reimagined by Peter Annear.
    "I am intrigued by Maria Ponce's recording in the church of Agios Ioannis on Corfu. The main focus is clearly the Pappas and his acolytes singing the liturgy. However because of the "slight distance" there are some intimate little sounds very close to the microphone that suggest a narrative beyond the obvious.
    There is one worshipper very close to the microphone with a deep bass voice who contributes to the deliciously deep harmonies. These worshipping voices are interspersed with human interaction, secular voices, coughs, chairs/ benches scraping on the floor, footsteps and other sounds almost indistinct. Who is there? If we are at a distance how engaged are we in the mass, each other or in tiny details? What catches our eye? Our ear?
    I have prefaced the recording with sounds collected in other Greek sacred spaces to set it in one suggested narrative with similar intimate sounds demanding momentary attention. Two passing sounds at the very beginning are then explored in an altered state to echo and enhance the pappas and the acolytes song of worship. Finally a small fragment of the original mass is altered to finish the piece."
    4 min
  • 1534: Finding harmony with a single note (Jerusalem)
    Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces
    Reimagined by Isaac Strader.
    "When I heard this recording, it impacted me immediately - in it’s unaltered state! The Call To Prayer in Jerusalem is so beautiful that I wanted to take some time to reflect on how I should reimagine it. I decided that it didn’t feel right to chop up the sounds and splice clips together; it is a sacred call to prayer so it felt sacrilegious to alter the individual clips.
    I wanted to capture some of the history behind the Temple Mount and the conflict between Judaism and Islam. I isolated each call of prayer and treated each one as a different person. I then began layering the calls together to find moments of harmony and dissonance, eventually culminating with the cacophony of each ‘person’ singing at the same time, finding harmony only with a single note is introduced."
    3 min
  • 1532: A mesmerising repetition (Fisherton)
    Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces
    Reimagined by Warren Daly.
    "Recently I've been experimenting with the sound of airflow through different mediums, so I was instantly attracted to a recording that features a harmonium.
    I think the recording resembles a performance piece, it's a treasure trove of sounds.
    I began my composition with dissonance, a call before the response. Finally a mesmerising repetition is the acknowledgement. A conversation reflecting on the juxtaposition of the relaxed ambience and the surrounding commotion."
    7 min
  • 1531: Mãe/Mother (part 2) (Mexico City)
    Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces
    Reimagined by Luis Antero.
    "While reimagining the original sound piece, i had my mother, who died two years ago, in thought. What I intended, in sound terms, was something that would bring me closer to her once more. I then decided to pick out a part of the organ's original sound, altering its speed, and mixed it with a guitar excerpt I had produced."
    4 min
  • 1530: Quinceañera mass, Mexico City
    Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces
    Recorded by Fabian Avila Elizalde.
    "A Quinceañera Mass in a church near to my house. I live in what you may call suburbs, but in Mexico we call it marginalised places since violence, drugs or social disadvantage are present. Nevertheless, sounds are so interesting. Religious sounds are present all the time. This church is about ten-minutes-walking from Mexico City's International Airport. Quinceañera rituals are really important in this neighborhoods in the city, since they represent the transition between being a child and a woman. It's also some kind of showing society a family who has a woman that can be pregnant or sexually active. This ritual is similar to US Sweet 16's but the religious character of Quinceañera is so powerful. "
    11 min
  • 1528: Cathedrale de Bourges interpretation
    Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces
    Reimagined by Stuart Bowditch.
    "The track was made by using Ableton’s ‘Extract MIDI from audio’ function. Naturally, there is a level of error in this process, as with any interpretation, which enables a new meanings to be found. The MIDI data was edited and used to trigger three different sounds which were then layered on top of each other and treated with various effects."
    5 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.