Cities and Memory - remixing the world

 "I began writing this song on the spring equinox, so it felt natural to follow the sun. While writing it, I kept thinking about the whole cycle: winter’s quiet, spring’s return, summer’s abundance, autumn’s slowing down.  "The same is true of day and night - we need both.  "This song is really about rhythm: how spring only means what it means because winter came first, and how light matters becau...

Live jazz from one of Paris' top night spots, Le Duc des Lombards - the excellent quartet The Hookup (Geraldine Laurent, Noé Huchard, François and Louis Moutin) entertain us with a great piece.  Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

The maghrib call to prayer at 6.45pm from the biggest mosque in Marrakesh, the towering Koutoubia mosque.  Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

|Drummerrss "connects two operating systems: the idea of land, territory and borders, rooted in the ground, and the idea of a spiritual belief system, with a different set of rituals, codes and rules. Both systems are crucial to the formation of individual and collective identities. In Drummerrsss, the connection and friction between them evolve through rhythm and beat: this can be fruitful, but a...

"My composition for the Cities & Memory Spring Project, For Patience Joins Time to Eternity, draws on a field recording of the Maghrib call to prayer, captured at 6:45 p.m. from the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco. I was drawn to this recording for the haunting, resonant quality of the voice, as well as its poignant relevance to contemporary events unfolding across the Middle East. "As...

"I really liked the reverb of the recording. Hearing the echos of the space and the sound of footsteps as people took in the performance was special. I took the recording and put it into Convology XT to use the space as a reverb and played some notes using DecentSampler and Vital vsts. "From there, I took the sound and stretched it and added more reverb effects to it to boost the sound. Throughout...

A recording of lapping waves from Serifos island, Faros, Greece, by Agapi Zita.

Attention please! Attention please! The sound of the emergency alarm being tested in an empty shopping centre - shades of post-apocalyptic movies or Dawn of the Dead, as the emergency announcement echoes out across the cavernous space, which is deserted this early in the morning. Recorded in Oxford, UK in November 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

"By filtering the waves to focus on the deep, rhythmic pulse of the water, I’ve made out a space for the ethereal pad. Its a place where the digital and the organic blur into one." Waves in Faros, Greece reimagined by Substak.

"he Westgate shopping centre is deserted and subject to an unknown threat that must be dealt with by: seeing, saying and sorting. There is the ticking or an unreliable clock and the mixed up sounds of a public announcement that will be familiar to users of UK railways." Westgate Centre alarm, Oxford reimagined by Roland Pyle.

"In this piece I created an ambient soundscape on top of the initial recording this was to add to the relaxation of the waves slowly crashing against the shore." Koh Rong beach in Cambodia reimagined by Jake Edwards. 

"I composed this piece imagining the observational or listening perspective of the field recordist Anders Vinjar in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan, after decades of war in Afghanistan. The recording is from inside the upper part of Shah Mama, near where the head used to be.  "While composing I tried to imagine the vastness of the region and the passages once used by monks moving through the sta...

Peaceful ambient sound from the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan, post 45 years of war in Afghanistan. Recordings from top of inside Buddha Shah-Mama, where the head used to be. Recorded in Bamiyan, Afghanistan by Anders Vinjar. 

"In this piece I wanted to make an ambient soundscape layering different textures on top of the recording. To make a composition the listener can just zone in to." Borneo rainforest reimagined by Jake Edwards.

This beautiful recording of nocturnal crickets in Ghana opened up the night to me - I wanted to create a piece that had something of the warmth of a long summer evening, gazing up at the infinite sky as the crickets sing. The arpeggios grow and develop, with more instruments entering throughout the piece, representing the growth of the cricket chorus as more and more insect voices join the song ea...

Faint cricket chorus at night, Ghana.  Subtle night activity of crickets in a suburban community in Ghana. Human movements, voices, autos and textures can be observed in distinctive stereo fields.  Recording format: Binaural. Please wear headphones.  Recorded in Koforidua - Bonya, Ghana by Samuel Kudjodzi.

"The core of this reimagining lies in the steam engine’s rhythmic inconsistency. I wrote this piece after listening to the sounds of an uneven, mechanically gasping engine: an exercise in translating industrial unpredictability into a structured yet fluid composition.  "The process mirrored the engine's own struggle - a push-pull between rigid mechanics and the faltering quality of a machine that...

Stationary steam Eegines at the Coleford Festival of Transport. The stationary steam engines at the Coleford Festival of Transport always attract attention with their mechanical symphony of rhythmic chugging, the high pitched hiss of steam, and the clanking of rods and flywheels. The sounds of this engine were particularly beguiling. It sometimes faltered, and for a moment it seemed like it would...

Artists in conversation with the Pitt Rivers Museum curatorial team at the Century of Sounds launch event in Oxford on 27 February 2026.  Featuring: Ilaria Boffa Salma Ahmed Caller Neil Spencer Bruce Panel presented by Philip Grover, Pitt Rivers Museum A Century of Sounds is a partnership between Cities and Memory and the Pitt Rivers Museum , inviting listeners to explore compositions created by 1...

Artists in conversation with the Pitt Rivers Museum curatorial team at the Century of Sounds launch event in Oxford on 27 February 2026.  Featuring: Laura Irving laura dymphna Nick Drake Panel presented by Christopher Morton, Pitt Rivers Museum A Century of Sounds is a partnership between Cities and Memory and the Pitt Rivers Museum , inviting listeners to explore compositions created by 100 artis...

A Century of Sounds feature on the Battiti show on Rai Radio 3 in Italy, broadcast on 26 February 2026.  Featuring: - Drawn to the circle by Ana Habesh - Mwana wevhu by Ndinibeatz - Kinnaur calling by Sonic Soma Plus discussion of the project and our partnership with the Pitt Rivers Museum. 

When I first heard this recording of men gathered around a guitar, singing fragments of traditional songs and inventing lyrics on the spot, with women and children laughing in the background - it hit me: music isn’t just sound, it’s connection. It's a reminder of the timeless beauty in coming together, sharing stories, passing down traditions, and creating something meaningful in the moment. Curio...

This piece is built around a field recording from the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum of Berber beggars singing for charity. Listening to this recording, across time, what struck me was not difference but familiarity. Themes of begging, homelessness and poverty recur in traditional songs from all cultures, spanning the centuries. Despite differences in place, language and technology, p...

"Sapeh (type of three-stringed boat lute) being played": the instrument was recorded in Sarawak by collector Leslie Bennett. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a small number of recordings of the musical instruments in the institution's collections being played or discussed. Recorded by W. Leslie Bennett. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, Universit...

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Berber (Ait Haddidu) music and soundscapes made by members of the Oxford University Expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Southern Morocco in 1961. Recorded by Audrey Butt, Michael R. Emerson or Ralph Hudson Johnson. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxfor...