Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"My approach to the piece involved a lot of processing. A number of times. And then, at some point, recording a couple of sessions, improvising with the pieces made up to then. This piece is half of the slightly edited and pruned output of those two sessions. "Part of my process involved finding some videos on YouTube of the market where the recording was made, and then running a couple of pieces...

"Using Audacity I added some effects to the recordinf to make it sound more organic so the swishing now could be a moving branch. I was making the effects as if from the natural world here in particular, where I am in rural New Zealand, as if to give an 'air' to the mechanical sounds of the loom." Traditional loom weaving in Juncalillo reimagined by Sonja von Kerkhoff. 

By day, the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa is a tourist trap, filled with food stalls, trinket stands but most unfortunately there are all kinds of mistreated animals. Snake charmers' trumpets and movements keep the serpents in a high state of distress, there are miserable looking monkeys posing for photos in football shirts, chained birds of prey and so on. No question it's a fascinating soundscape, but a...

Soundscape composition created from 3D Ambisonics recording at this site. 5 youths were murdered here, shot at close range by Anders Behring Breivik 22nd July 2011. The sound of the waves towards the shore are the same today as when they tried to hide in 2011. This soundscape-composition is part of the HEYR project, presenting 3-dimensional soundscapes from special locations, connected to special...

Ticking pedestrian crossings at a four-way junction in Oslo, with the sound getting louder and quieter as we approach and move away from them, and a passing fire engine siren and tram. Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

Exploring the Nordic Pixel Forest, an attraction in the Ekebergparken sculpture park, in which many ropes of lights hang from the trees, creating a grove of lights, and a sound installation blends birdsong and gentle ambient music, which mixes in with the sounds of actual birdsong from the real trees surrounding the grove.  Recorded in Oslo, September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

On a quiet beach in the Oslo fjord on Hovedoya island, with very gentle lapping waves, a distant boat passing, the occasional couple walking past. A calm, relaxing soundscape from one of the islands in Oslo's fjord.  Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

Wandering from the main gate through to the terrace overlooking the sea, through the Café des Oudayas and into the Andalusian garden. Recorded by Rachel Beckles Willson with students of the Ecole Nationale d'Architecture, Rabat.

The most famous tourist attraction in Marrakesh, perhaps, is Yves Saint-Laurent's Jardin Majorelle, a one-hectare botanical garden and artist's landscape garden in Marrakesh, Morocco. It was created by the French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years, starting in 1923, and features a Cubist villa designed by French architect Paul Sinoir in the 1930s. Here we tune into birdso...

Walking out of the mountain village of Imlil in the Atlas Mountains, we come across a powerful waterfall next to a cave - except the cave has an improvised Moroccan cafe built into it - resulting in this soundscape of powerful torrents of water next to tourists taking selfies and ordering coffee.  Recorded in Imlil, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

"This piece consist of recording of water. Seemingly peaceful, it contains echos of a dark event.  "I tried to treat it that way, shifting quickly away from the ripples of the water, without entering a too obvious aggression or rage, more like turbulence. "I tried however to maintain also the soothing emotions of water and move towards an integrated stillness."  Utoya soundscape reimagined by Seba...

"For this piece I used techniques such as chopping up the original field recording and applying more effect such as reverb, reversing, filtering, and modulating etc. I also decided to add in some of my own synthesis using a Moog Sub Phatty and Grandmother to add more layers and depth to my soundscape piece." Nordic Pixel Forest, Oslo reimagined by Jake Edwards.

"The first thing I noticed about the recording was the rhythm of the traffic light noise so I tempo matched that to 150bpm and began experimenting with different arpeggios to find a melody and a direction, I had the name Oslo Oscillation pretty early on so looked to incorporate some oscillating themes into the piece, the traffic light noise itself is oscillating in pitch, I put low pass filter on...

"Inspired by the descriptive title of the recording which ends with the word “calm”, I evoke that feeling with a gentle piano line like waves or a gently rocking boat, supported by strings and brass sounds.  "The pulsing engine sound of a passing boat in the recording led me to imagine embarking on a boat tour of the bay with some traveling music, beats and that engine rhythm propelling us along....

"Mvura (Shona for "water") was inspired by a field recording captured in the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh, Morocco. A space filled with birdsong, flowing water, passing voices, and a calm energy of nature. "The composition began with sampling the sound of flowing water from the recording and building an Afro House journey around it. I wanted to fuse the organic atmosphere of the garden with the w...

"The field recording spoke to me of slow, gentle and happy co-existence, across cultures, across generations and between people and nature. Musically the track is built around a short rhythmic motif extracted from the original source; this set the pace, the root tone and the overall feel of the piece." Rabat soundwalk reimagined by Thom Cuschieri.

"I asked for a random field recording and was very happy to get this assigned. I visited the market ~40 years ago, and this field recording brings back the sensory overload of the place. While there I bought a pair of iron castanets which are hanging on my wall. You can hear the traders playing these on the field recording, they deliver a harsh ‘clacking’ noise on the ears and also a harsh pinch o...

"I took small snippets of the Imlil waterfall in Atlas Mountains recording to make digital noise and then composed a digital waterfall around them as they fire off at random. Waterfalls are natural wonders and they are beautiful to witness. They make an incredible noise which out of context (without the wonderful visual) can feel rather unnatural and undesirable. We are heading to - if not already...

At Hannover 96 vs. Greuther Fuerth, 11 May 2025 (final score: 1-1). The pre-match anthem is a German song which prompts a mass singalong from the entire stadium, as a traditional pre-match ritual.  Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

In the central concourse of Hannover Hauptbahnhof, with crowd noises, announcements, and notably someone playing classical piano towards the entrance.  Recorded in May 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

Waves lap on a driftwood and sand beach only accessible by boat in the Po Delta, Italy, June 2025. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

This recording was taken while standing outside a tiny church in Meghalaya, one of three states in India to have a Christian majority. The congregation was singing hymns in Khasi a few days before Easter. The room was sparse and the singing carried into the quiet town, lit by a few new street lights built by the mining corporations steadily taking over the lush surrounding hills.  Recorded in Bris...

"Improvised violin input triggers and guides various drone instruments that are all generated from either the violin input, or from the Cities and Memory "Italy Po Delta" field recording. Submitted audio is a frozen excerpt of an ever-evolving soundscape that responds to the violin input."  Po Delta waves in Italy reimagined by Jeremy Sklad (rtfct).

"This piece takes the original recording and focuses on the relationship between destructive extraction and a tiny town in the hills, surrounded by lush mountains, deep caves, and amazing waterfalls. The hills are alive but no longer untouched. Star Cement is slowly trudging through the Jaintia hills. The enormous foreboding lights can be seen from the single-road village while the singing drifts...

"We selected the field recording because the chanting of large crowds seems to be everywhere this year. There are so many gatherings of folk, taking to the streets to make their point. The German stadium singalong was a good starting point for our own field recording collection.  "Combining the Union Chapel choir and minister’s gentle anthems, with the drumming of a wiccan at Crossbones’ Memorial...