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

  • DadAdrift (Washington DC)
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds
    By Jeff Dungfelder. ""Before composing “dadAdrift,” my reconstruction of the sample recording of “Take the A Train” performed by the “USA Washington DC Dupont Circle jazz buskers,” I researched and embraced the history of the Dada Movement and its rejection of traditional art standards and use of nonsense to represent the senselessness of war and violence. In the process, I also discovered an interesting backstory to the Duke Ellington signature tune, ""Take the A Train,” composed by Billy Strayhorn in 1939.
    When Ellington first heard Strayhorn's song, he wanted to record it. He tracked down the composer and offered him a job and money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. To get to his home, Ellington told Strayhorn to “take the A train.” On the way, gripped by anxiety, Strayhorn threw his draft in the trash, believing his song sounded too much like a Fletcher Henderson arrangement. Eventually, Strayhorn’s song was retrieved from the trash and rebirthed as ""Take the A Train.” What Strayhorn designated as trash Ellington elevated into art.
    Using the original sound sample of the ""jazz buskers” with the Dadaist doctrine in mind, I deconstructed and reimagined Strayhorn's song, which has become “dadAdrift.” What was ""thrown away” became what was “kept”."
    6 min
  • Belgrade tram waltz
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds
    By Marko Stojanovic. ""I send you two sound works, which I made by
    1.recording real environment (interesting parts of Belgrade soundscape)
    2.editing recorded sounds
    3.composing music using those sounds.
    The result is, two sound-scene of original city Soundscape, characteristic for my hometown everyday sounding , but in the aesthetic way, different and unusual. Principles I used is the same as principles of Pierre Schaeffer's Musique concrète.
    Keywords that put those works familiar with dadaism:
    collage, assemblage, montage, editing, readymade (using objects in another ways)."
    1 min
  • Tram bells, Belgrade, Serbia
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds
    By Marko Stojanovic. ""I send you two sound works, which I made by
    1.recording real environment (interesting parts of Belgrade soundscape)
    2.editing recorded sounds
    3.composing music using those sounds.
    The result is, two sound-scene of original city Soundscape, characteristic for my hometown everyday sounding , but in the aesthetic way, different and unusual. Principles I used is the same as principles of Pierre Schaeffer's Musique concrète.
    Keywords that put those works familiar with dadaism:
    collage, assemblage, montage, editing, readymade (using objects in another ways)."
    1 min
  • The sound of Sankt Nicolai goes Dada
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds
    By Robert Cole Rizzi. "The sound was discovered as I was investigating the church for sounds for a commissioned piece
    for an installation for Kolding Light Festival in December 2015. You may hear the piece here https://
    soundcloud.com/rizzi/hope-the-sound-of-sankt-nicolai-church-in-kolding-denmark - the drainpipe
    recording is in there…
    I decided to apply the sound poem technique - in my own interpretation - my father, Richard J.
    Rizzi, is a poet and I have a recording of him reading his poem “Virgin Mary Falls From my Sleep”
    (I found it to be appropriate considering the origin of my field recording) I warped it using the
    “preserve transients” played forward at 20 - setting in Ableton - duplicated, reversed and panned
    each one hard L/R and there you have it…"
    3 min
  • Sankt Nicolai Kirke, Kolding, Denmark
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds
    By Robert Cole Rizzi. "The sound was discovered as I was investigating the church for sounds for a commissioned piece
    for an installation for Kolding Light Festival in December 2015. You may hear the piece here https://
    soundcloud.com/rizzi/hope-the-sound-of-sankt-nicolai-church-in-kolding-denmark - the drainpipe
    recording is in there…
    I decided to apply the sound poem technique - in my own interpretation - my father, Richard J.
    Rizzi, is a poet and I have a recording of him reading his poem “Virgin Mary Falls From my Sleep”
    (I found it to be appropriate considering the origin of my field recording) I warped it using the
    “preserve transients” played forward at 20 - setting in Ableton - duplicated, reversed and panned
    each one hard L/R and there you have it…"
    5 min
  • Dada Dublin
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds By Roger Gregg.
    "I employed the Tzara technique of using no particular technique. Like Hugo Ball’s fascination with the music of raw syllables, I reviewed the recording searching for some quips of passersby that struck as particularly rhythmic or musical. These selections were cut out and treated in various ways using an assortment Waves and GRM plug-ins. I used these segments to inspire some overtly musical responses improvised by myself playing guitar, saxophones, keyboards and various percussion and sound effects gadgets."
    5 min
  • Temple Bar, Dublin
    Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds By Roger Gregg.
    "I employed the Tzara technique of using no particular technique. Like Hugo Ball’s fascination with the music of raw syllables, I reviewed the recording searching for some quips of passersby that struck as particularly rhythmic or musical. These selections were cut out and treated in various ways using an assortment Waves and GRM plug-ins. I used these segments to inspire some overtly musical responses improvised by myself playing guitar, saxophones, keyboards and various percussion and sound effects gadgets."
    8 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.