Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"This is a collaboration with pianist and composer Leah Floyeurs. We worked with sensitivity to honour the vibrational signature of this location in space, the Auschwitz Death Wall, which holds the memory of the Holocaust. The piece uses electronics and piano."  Auschwitz Death Wall recording reimagined by Helen Copnall and Leah Floyeurs.

"Spend the day at Lake Masek, join The Northern Synthesizer Orchestra on an audio journey from dawn to dusk. Created collaboratively by The NSO which is Becky, Jordan, Dom, Julie and V. " Lake Masek soundscape reimagined by The Northern Synthesizer Orchestra.

The very beginning of Together Alliance's march against the right wing. This protest took place in central London in March 2026. I was located in the centre of Piccadilly near the Ritz hotel. The recording consists of chanting, drumming and many voices passing by as they made their way down Piccadilly towards Trafalgar Square. The rig I used to catch this recording was a pair of DPA 4060s into a Z...

Tribal drumming heard from a distance in the large Georgengarten park in Hannover, getting louder as we follow our microphone, identify the source of the sound and follow it. The sound stops before we get all the way to the source, but then we hear footsteps on the gravel path and birdsong.  Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Ambisonics recording of acoustics and environmental sound at the "Death Wall" in Auschwitz I. The condemned were led to the wall for execution. SS men shot several thousand people here. Recorded by Anders Vinjar.

"I listened to the busker a lot here and loved his energy. It then made me think about how much I travel to and from work on the train daily and how attached I am to train travel, the same sounds and words I hear every day. The comfort of it. So I wanted to give it a quiet eulogy. I brought the busker in to help." Parisian metro busker reimagined by Dermot Fitzsimons. 

"One of the first things that jumped out at me about this recording was the sheer joy it conveyed, slight warts & all. I love the off note in the initial section of the piece, and started off with the notion of taking that discordance & slowly bringing it into harmony. That was stymied however, by initial processing of the discordant note resulting in something beautiful. "The other striki...

"I've always been captivated by the organic quality of atmospheres... so the meaning of FX soon became completely intertwined with it... and that's exactly what happened this time too..."  Sermon in Dundas Square, Toronto reimagined by Lajkó András Bence/ACiDBENCI. IMAGE: Kang-min Liu, CC BY 2.0 < https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 >, via Wikimedia Commons

Nothing unusual in hearing the plaintive song of a busker on the Parisian metro, and this one has a nice voice. What strikes us as we leave the carriage is how even buskers now give out their Instagram and TikTok handles at the end of songs. Tag us on social or it didn't happen.  Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

At Aker Brygge on a Saturday afternoon in Oslo, a parade kicks off celebrating the muticulturalism of the city, with representation from many different groups and countries, all of whom are communities living there. The parade sets off to walk through the city centre with a celebratory tone, and in this recording many different groups walk past, with multiple forms of music including a brass band,...

Dundas Square is a major intersection in downtown Toronto. It has a high population of buskers and other entertainment. This particular evening turned into a sermon.  Recorded in Toronto by Scott Bennett. IMAGE: Kang-min Liu, CC BY 2.0 < https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 >, via Wikimedia Commons

"Built around a recording of the feminist collective Nous Toutes in Paris, who formed in 2018 to speak out against and draw attention to gender-based violence. For one hour every Saturday, the group speaks while sounding a klaxon at regular intervals; these intervals reflect the findings of a 2022 survey by the Ministère de l’Intérieur, which states that there is a rape or an attempted rape in Fra...

"When I heard this field recording it reminded me of a similar recording my wife and I had done several years ago where we played an Iron bridge with mallets. I took this as a perfect opportunity to graft pieces of each together to create a cohesive recording of similar elements.  "The playful running of the children on the bridge formed the central musical theme which suggested the direction of t...

"I have been working on some piano miniatures inspired by Kurtág's Játékok, Bartok's Mikrokosmos and technical exercises such a A Dozen a Day. This piece fits into that body of work.  "I edited and manipulated a short section of the bells so that it was far more intense than the original and put some slow, relaxed arpeggios and chords beneath that. I inverted that idea in the second part to includ...

A feminist collective outside Les Halles in Paris protests against violence against women. They sound a klaxon every 2.5 minutes to symbolise how often an act of violence is perpetrated against women, and deliver a speech through a megaphone to passers by.  In the first half of the recording we also hear the rubbish collection truck and workmen going about their business around the protesters.  Re...

Paris isn't just Notre Dame when it comes to churches and cathedrals - Saint Sulpice is also really impressive, and here we listen to the pealing bells at midday, then take a walkthrough around the whole of this stunning cathedral.  Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

The Folies were designed by the architect Bernard Tschumi for the Parc de la Villette in Paris.  These metal structures are placed around the park, and take the form of red metal structures that stand out from a distance. While their square bases are all identical (10.8 metres per side), their shapes vary according to their purpose. Each Folie is identified by a name and a code composed of a combi...

A collage of musical patterns based on birdsong. Birdsong in Shipley, England reimagined by Janae Jean.

"The recording was chosen as I was due to visit that very departure lounge a few weeks later. "That trip to Valencia was taken at a significant time of reflection following the death of my father and the clearing out of my parents house, a place redolent with memories of my childhood. I found an old, battered Spanish Guitar in a cupboard which makes an appearance, it seemed appropriate. My piece a...

"On first listen to this field recording of Lisbon’s tram (elétrico), I was struck by the prominence of a musical note contained in the hum of the system’s wires. This ghostly tone resonates like a singing bowl as the tram and its passengers navigate the city’s narrow, hilly streets. I imagined it as the centrepiece of a film score, and this is the result." Lisbon tram reimagined by Anne Pope.

This one recording doesn't have a unique sound in general, but the setting is quite unusual from my perspective, and it has the nice mix of restaurant sounds, messages over the loudspeaker, and people talking in multiple languages, which I think creates a soothing chaos. Recorded in Valencia airport by Tomasz Buga.

Birdsong at 8.00 am in the morning in a back garden in Shipley, England, with a plane overhead and a dog whimpering inside the house who wants to come out. Recorded by Alice Gilmour.

After a long and eventful trip in Lisbon, one of the final activities I did was ride the famous 28 tram passing through the narrow corridors of the city with the wooden windows down, reminiscing on the streets trekked and the landmarks of the city before embarking on the journey home. Until next time.  Recorded in Lisbon, Portugal by Andrew Ramsey.

El Badi Palace is one of the most historic buildings in Marrakesh, and today is famous for the storks that choose its towers and turrets as prime nesting spots - in this recording, as well as the general sounds of people exploring the palace grounds, you can hear several instances of the famous and unforgettable clacking sounds of storks as they throw their heads back and exclaim to one another. ...

"This piece traces the European stork’s migratory routes - there is an eastern route and a western route. Recordings from various countries the storks pass through on their way are combined with some spoken words." Storks in El Badi Palace, Marrakesh reimagined by Sophie Oldenbourg.