Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"I used a recording of ducks on a Russian lake with a plane flying overhead. It was a 6 minute track and I only used about 1 minute which I chopped up into my sampler. I then played the samples rhythmically using the plane as a drone and the ducks as an instrument. This was treated with delay. Behind this initial track I added two tracks of analog synth and topped it all off with a very simple and...

A field recording captured at the Voronezhskie Lakes park in Samara, Russia, around 11:00 AM. The recording features ducks quacking and taking off from the water. In the background, you can hear ambient city sounds, distant airplane noise, and people's conversations. Recorded by Vitaly Safarov.

Birds nesting in scaffolding at Kroepcke Passage shopping centre, along with street sweeper sounds.  Recorded in Hanover, Germany by Cities and Memory.  

"After a few false starts, I decided to simply improvise a line for flute in my usual notation software while listening to the birdsong file. I then used this to create a line of counterpoint for a second flute, but quickly realized that the piece would be better served by a darker, contrasting instrument, and settled on the cello. Finally, I filled out the texture with a piccolo, reharmonized the...

"The presence of science is a huge part of Oxford, but one that's often overlooked in favour of the more traditional side of Oxford University and of the city more widely, but science is hugely important to the city. This piece is a tribute to the scientific side of Oxford, as a reimagined take on the fascinating, huge tanks of liquid nitrogen that sit hissing away between the Department of Earth...

On 17 June 2026, the Oxford Union debating society invited extreme right wing agitators Tommy Robinson and Laurence Fox to take part in an inflammatory debate titled "This house believe the West is right to be suspicious of Islam". The response was mass protests in the city centre, with up to 1,000 anti-fascist demonstrators surrounding the Oxford Union (and about 30 pro-Tommy Robinson supporters...

"I listened to the original recording a few times to pick out some focal points I could use, notable the "Tommy Tommy" chant at the beginning and the "refugees are welcome" chant at the end. I also picked out some profanity used by a member of the protest directed at a female member of the opposition and pitch shifted a few other bits to use more as textures. "It's quite an experimental piece, lot...

Cities and Memory: "A special recording like this needed special treatment, so I had a collaboration in mind from the outset when starting on the music. Thinking about that, I set out to create a track that evoked the feeling of the dusk skies and the mellow heat of the African savannah. The field recording was full of different voices and tones, so using it as a bed for the track required some ca...

The microphones were set metres away from the lions as the light dropped off and the temperature shifted. The lions are close. This is by far the most dangerous recording I have ever done. Their voices hold weight, spreading slowly across the savannah, overlapping in uneven intervals. There is a sense of space in the gaps between each call. What carries first is distance, low frequency calls movin...

Broadcast on BBC 6music, Sunday 26 July 2026. Cerys Matthews talks to Cities and Memory creator Stuart Fowkes about disappearing and obsolete sounds, and introduces the project. Includes musical selections by Stuart from Can, Broadcast, Stuart Dempster, William Basinski & Janek Schaefer and The For Carnation.  

Woodland birds recorded during daytime in Nottinghamshire, England. Blue tits are very prominent in the recording. Recorded by Tim Hills.

"I took a pice of birdsong I had recorded and played around with the Flextime function in Logic. I added stereo echo and then a couple of synth parts from Alchemy and this is the result.: Birdsong in Bestwood, England reimagined by Tim Hills.

A few old men play a game of dice at the outskirts of the sprawling Osh Bazaar. They slap down small bills before rolling the dice on a wooden board and chain smoke cheap cigarettes. The smoke drifts into the pharmacy next door. They seemingly sell flooring at some point too. While bustling, the bazaar is more calm here; everyone is relaxed and kind. Recorded by wwjd .

"A mix of the casual tumbling dice in their cup and the majestically remote mountains that cover the land outside of Bishkek." Dice game at Osh Bazaar, Bishkek reimagined by wwjd.

The original recording conjures a restful yet lively ambience that brings to life what early morning in this part of Chisinau must feel like. As the recordist Rafa notes, there is 'a distant sense of the urban world behind them' in the original recording, which in this composition is brought to the forefront not to clash with the birdsong, but to complement it. The response is flavoured with multi...

Recorded early in the morning in a green area on the outskirts of Chișinău, this piece listens to the softer edge of the city. Birds fill the space, with only a distant sense of the urban world behind them. It shows another side of the capital: quieter, greener, more open. The recording feels like a pause from the streets, where nature comes forward and the city almost disappears into the backgrou...

This piece was inspired by a recording of a klaxon in Patton, PA that seemed to warn of nothing on a spring morning but the arrival of migrant birds. Patton klaxon sound reimagined by Xanthra DuFrane. 

The siren sounds everyday, randomly. Sometimes twice or three times. The birds are anxious. Recorded in Patton, Pennsylvania, USA by Xanthra DuFrane.

"I retained, without adjustment, the field-recording of chanting on a football terrace. My initial sense was of masculine celebration, the chants serving as a barometer for pride and rivalry. However, with the rhythmic fluctuations, my layered loops and snatches of dialogue shifted the celebratory mood. Repetitive, loopable refrains began to drone and persist with what I perceived as a tense 'poss...

The Lardy Boys, also known as the Lardy Army, is the name of the supporters at Horsham FC. This is a sample of them singing on a match day. Recorded by Pauline Howley.

"I found the idea of candy cutting and the cheerful voices on the original recording very reminiscent of a childhood memory. The fact that I cannot understand the Japanese being spoken makes it further seem like a hazy memory.  "I wanted to retain the cheerful, nostalgic tone that I perceived while adding a melodic component on top of the rhythm created naturally by the candy cutting."   Candy cut...

On the street leading to Kawasaki Daishi, the sharp, percussive sound of hand‑cut sugar candy forms a steady rhythm. Shopkeepers’ voices enter from both sides, calling out “Welcome” and offering tastes of candy just cut moments before. Recorded in Kawasaki, Japan by Miduno.

| A wild night at Lake Masek in Ndutu, Tanzania. Hear hyenas whooping, lions roaring, jackals calling, hippos grunting, zebras barking, and flamingos vocalizing-all in one incredible soundscape. Perfect for immersion, study, sleep, or experiencing the true chaos of the African night. Recorded in Ngorongoro, Arusha, Tanzania by David Joseph.

"I spend a lot of my time leading community choirs and singing protest songs, rousing anthems of freedom and liberty - and now, more than ever, they are needed. This is not a protest song, it is a plea. Ask yourself, which side are you on?" Together Alliance protest in London reimagined by Rebecca Denniff.

"This is my second attempt at producing a piece of music using the source sample. The original sample contains a clean, distinct loop of tribal drumming, and at first I constructed a piece based on that loop, with rhythmic and melodic elements stacked, and arranged into an EDM piece.  "That was a bit too obvious, so instead I took the loop, deconstructed it, and applied pitch-shifting, filtering a...