Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world episodes

  • 18,000 Hammers
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined version of Eighteen Hammers by Cities and Memory.
    "The original recording is an incredibly powerful and beautiful song, simultaneously expressing hope and despair, defiance and compliance, romanticising the sight and sound of the everyday working tools that assumed so much importance in the lives of the prisoners. Taking the fact that the hammers mark time in the song (or rather the song powers along the workers to keep up the pace) as a starting point, I imagined what it would be like if there were hundreds of prisoners, hundreds of hammers, all chiming rhythmically in and out of one another until the hammers themselves become a rhythmic symphony. The drum samples are made from pieces of metal, as are several of the source sounds from which synth parts are derived."
    6 min
  • Woah Fuck
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined version of Whoa Buck by Laurence Colbert.
    "It is impossible to separate the blues and industrial revolution in America. The music and the voice always transcended the painful reality experienced - and the context in which the music was made and sung. I hope that the interplay between noise, industry, music, blues, and rhythm is apparent in this version, which also celebrates the gritty resistance through uncomplicated ‘good times’.
    I chose this field recording mainly because of the elastic vocal ability quality of the singer, and the incredible sounds and bends he makes with his voice while telling the story in the original recording. I liked the vibe of it. You could do anything with this voice, but hovering harmonically in the same area, the original fitted well with the track which I made for it. Hope you enjoy.
    Created using Ableton Live 9 / MAX "
    4 min
  • If The Rest Was Dead
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined version of Whoa Buck by Jeff Dungfelder.
    "After completing my first memory version of this field recording in a dark lo-fi noise vein loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe, I asked myself what it might be like if these words existed in a deep beat driven after hours underground world. I wanted to take them completely out of the blues/prison context and view them as a part of a late night groove headspace. At the moment I was inspired by reading a quote by Pablo Picasso: “Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." So I guess I ended up destroying my own memory version and reimagining “If The Rest Was Dead.” You could say I took the sonic view to get there."
    6 min
  • Whoa Buck
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Recorded at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1947 by Dr. Harry Oster. Courtesy Archive.org.
    4 min
  • Roots
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined version of They'll Miss Me When I'm Gone by Camilla Fanning.
    ""I heard a theory about the music of the south or the blues. It outlined the many influences from all
    sorts of sources, in particular through the mixing of cultures while the railroads were being built.
    Some of the most noticeable influences were Irish traditional Music, African chants coming through
    work songs, Cajun sounds – bottleneck and steel guitar in particular and even the Chinese scale,
    possibly heard from the camps of the Chinese workers. All these diverse sources blended to make
    the songs we recognise today. I wanted o disaggregate the history of these sounds and make a piece
    combining all the originals as part of the reimagining, reflecting all the different peoples who went
    into the making of the prison song. Parallel to this I was rehearsing ‘Spem in Alium’ and when I got
    stuck in the project, this is what gave me the way forward and the inspiration for the final form the
    piece has taken.
    Original extra ‘collaged’ sources:
    Irish (Sean Nós) 
    http://old.tg4.ie/en/programmes/archive/eoini-maidhci-o-suilleabhain/cuisle-mo-chro%C3%AD-
    sean-n%C3%B3s-na-bhfear-2013.html
    Traditional field hollers - Track Callin
    https://www.loc.gov/item/lomaxbib000263/
    Peter Cooke Recordings - Uganda
    http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Peter-Cooke-Uganda/025M-C0023X0022XX-
    1900V0
    China
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Y4ncLy9LA
    Cajun
    The disaggregated guitar from the original soundtrack."
    5 min
  • Missme
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined version of They'll Miss Me When I'm Gone by Michael McDermott.
    "I went for a expansive largeness and sense of infinite time as I imagine the fate of millions of people imprisoned for life. Outside the walls of their cell or jail the entire world stretched out in a infinite expanse and yet they remained physically trapped in a confined area. On a positive note, the musicians who played and performed this song did live on in one sense as this Lomax recording and as an esoteric remix in 2016."
    6 min
  • They'll Miss Me When I'm Gone
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Recorded at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1947 by Dr. Harry Oster. Courtesy Archive.org.
    3 min
  • RMM
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined version of Rock Me Mama by Andy Billington.
    "Having listened to this many times and being aware of Alan Lomax and his field recordings I wanted to capture some of the elements he was battling to control (echo, buzz, string hum, creaks, room noise and all the challenges of recording with a single mic).
    I wanted to link in a primitive way the raw elements of dub and ""versioning"" approach to original songs and these one take field recordings with the intention of looping the gaps between the chords (room noise, string buzz and slurred picking) to create something that captured the essence of the song and the person sat holding the mic. "
    6 min
  • Rock Me MoMa
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Reimagined by Lee Christian.
    "i was under the influence of many things making this... not least the music of on-u-sound records and skip macdonaId and his IittIe axe. their remoulding of bIues, dub, souI, funk and originaI source recordings has been a favourite since my teens so it's only fitting it surfaced here with this awesome source material. this songs has been with me in various incarnations since my first vhs of jimi hendrix covering bb ing descendant of this 'rock me baby' so it was a treat!"
    6 min
  • Old Alabama
    Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.
    Recorded at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1947 by Dr. Harry Oster. Courtesy Archive.org.
    4 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.