Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Reimagined by Jeff Dungfelder.

"For my track “Vegetalismo” I used a Leslie Rollins field recording of Alberto San Pedro (a medicine man in San Antonio de Cumbaza Peru). In this field recording he is singing an icao for a vegetal healing ceremony. My fascination is with the icao he is singing, which is used by shamans to enhance the effects of plant medicines, evoking plant spirits for spiritual healing. My title “Vegetalismo” comes from the term used for the practice of mestizo shamanism in the Amazonic provinces of Peru. The shamans – known as vegetalistas – gain their knowledge and power to cure from the vegetables, or plants of the region. Many receive their knowledge from ingesting the hallucinogenic, emetic brew ayahuasca. They say the plants actually teach the icaros (magical healing and protective songs) to the shaman. In my recording process, I have used Leslie Rollins field recording in many different ways throughout the song, not only as altered vocals, but also as various textures and rhythms, representing the healing process and the transformation of the individual as imagined during this ceremony. Thinking about how these shamans receive their knowledge and power to heal from their special relationship with the spirits of the Amazon rainforest are the foundation of this piece of music."

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Recorded by Leslie Rollins.

"This icaro (recorded on March 27 2015) is sung by Alberto, a curandero in his Malloca in San Antonio de Cumbaza Peru. An icaro (Quechua: ikaro) is a song sung or whistled in vegetal ceremonies. The word icaro is believed to derive from the Quechua verb ikaray, which means "to blow smoke in order to heal"."

This icaro (recorded on March 27 2015) is sung by Alberto, a curandero in his Malloca in San Antonio de Cumbaza Peru. An icaro (Quechua: ikaro) is a song sung or whistled in vegetal ceremonies. The word icaro is believed to derive from the Quechua verb ikaray, which means "to blow smoke in order to heal".

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Reimagined by Andy Lyon.

"I chose the Lincoln Cathedral recording because it is a landmark which dominates the local skyline. Building started in 1072 and was somewhat eventful - by 1232 it had been ravaged by fire, destroyed by an earthquake and the central tower collapsed.

When the central tower was replaced with a tower and a spire it was the tallest building in the world for 238 years until a raging storm blew the spire down in 1548.It has seen the plague, the renaissance, countless wars, the turmoil of the 20th Century and now faces the absurdity of our current position and the same bleak outlook we all do.

I've reimagined the recording, a snapshot of 3 minutes, as a representation of the history and turbulent times using some of my favourite sound design tools :

Dust by Soundmorph - a new discovery which is a sample based granulising synthesiser which uses real time particle simulation. It's an excellent tool for creating anything from cinematic soundscapes to glitchy textures.

Noisetar by NuSofting - An entry in the KVR Developer's Challenge 2016 it's a synthesiser that produces noise based sounds.

Spaceship Delay by Musical Entropy - An entry in the KVR Developer's Challenge 2016 it's an excellent and fully featured delay effect

Incipit by Inear Display - This is a creative delay effect which produces glitchy or dub type delays

Hornet Deelay - Another recent discovery, its a dub delay with vintage character

Cataract by Glitchmachines - a sample scanner with modulation and morphing which can produce intricate percussive rhythms to glitcjy chaos

Fracture XT by Glitchmachines - a glitch effect with very cool patchable effects section

Cryogen by Glitchmachines - a modular buffer effects processor designed to generate robotic artifacts and abstract musical mutations

Subvert by Glitchmachines - a 3 channel distortion effect

Metric Halo Dirty Delay - Another excellent delay effect with a very clean and spacious sound

Nave by Waldor - A wavetable synth that produces some excellent sounds

Lagrange - Another entry in the KVR Developer's Challenge 2016, a delay effect using granular techniques which has a unique sound."

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Reimagined by Mark Taylor.

"Prayer wheels are devices for spreading spiritual blessings and well being. My piece is meant to portray the release of that positive energy within the wheel.

Created using Kontakt and Reaktor; hosted in Sonar X1.

I’ve combined experimental sound design with more traditional composition techniques for this one. I’ve also attempted something totally new for me – 100% ‘live’ real-time mixing of various parameters via two MIDI controllers linked into separate Reaktor modules.

The opening section (up to the sudden change at 2:08) is almost entirely created from fragments of the original field recording – all edited ‘live’ in two Reaktor modules. I produced just 2 new strands for this section:

1) A live recording of a singing bowl that I’ve owned for years and never actually used in a full piece until now!

2) A synthesised / sampled male vocal mantra / drone – time stretched and re-pitched in Melodyne.

The central section explodes into life with various extra strands – 8 orchestral lines, tuned percussion, piano, synthesised / sampled female vocals time stretched and re-pitched in Melodyne. The kick drum and non-pitched percussion loops were all created from fragments of the original field recording.

The final section returns to the opening ambience, but with the addition of an extra live singing bowl line – this time a rhythmic pattern tapped out on its edge with soft beaters."

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Recorded by Wolfgang Dorninger.

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Recorded by Wolfgang Dorninger.

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Reimagined by Marshall McGee.

"I chose this recording because I felt it had a really interesting combination of tones and reverb. I just loved all the chords and sounds someone was banging out of this instrument! I decided to reimagine it in a darker, more percussive way by taking bits of the sound and attaching them to midi notes and playing out beats."

Part of the Sacred Spaces project. Find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Reimagined by Nacho Roman.

"I do love organ sounds, with an unlimited natural reverberation, and creating dense textures and dark atmospheres to the audience. For the composition, I used a part of he original field recording for the intro, and a very small part of the recording to try to get a darker texture than the original one."

Part of the Sacred Spaces project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/sacredspaces

Recorded by James Kent.