Cities and Memory - remixing the world Cities and Memory
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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.
The project presents an amazingly-diverse array of field recordings from all over the world, but also reimagined, recomposed versions of those recordings as we go on a mission to remix the world.
What you'll hear in the podcast are our latest sounds - either a field recording from somewhere in the world, or a remixed new composition based solely on those sounds. Each podcast description tells you more about what you're hearing, and where it came from.
There are more than 6,000 sounds featured on our sound map, spread over more than 120 countries and territories. The sounds cover parts of the world as diverse as the hubbub of San Francisco’s main station, traditional fishing women’s songs at Lake Turkana, the sound of computer data centres in Birmingham, spiritual temple chanting in New Taipei City or the hum of the vaporetto engines in Venice. You can explore the project in full at http://www.citiesandmemory.com
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Promise of the pier
"In my mind, a pier is almost always a busy place, people are coming or going and that alone brings excitement. For those who in fact are on the pier to embark on a voyage it is perhaps even more exciting. Remember the feeling as a child going on your first travel by boat, being in the moment just before embarking, feel the tremble of joy, but also of fear of the unknown. What may happen once out to sea? But then the anticipation overrides and we get on board to sail for the horizon.
"The piece is built on the recording by Catherine Boulle in its entirety and some parts of it were used as percussion. For the rest of it the music is composed on a grand piano manipulated with a computer."
Cape Town pier reimagined by Stefan Klaverdal.
Part of the Sound of Adventure project in partnership with Exodus Travels. To learn more and explore the full collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/adventure. -
To step outside time's relentless flow
"I listened and listened to the beautiful recording and played along the best I could on my acoustic guitar to form an idea. I used the recording complete in places and cut up and sampled in others , to creat a kind of vocal line to the piece.
"To step outside of times relentless flow is a journey , a holiday if you like. A trip away from the everyday. Music for me is the escape , the trip , the journey.
"The voices on the recording filled me full of awe and wonder. Each voice individual and unique in its own right but carried along by the songs never changing flow.
"I tried to capture this in the piece. A journey of wonder using repetitive rhythmical forms but changing each and every time whilst cascading towards the journeys crescendo and ultimate end."
Masai Mara warriors' song reimagined by Daniel Chudley - Le Corre.
Part of the Sound of Adventure project in partnership with Exodus Travels. To learn more and explore the full collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/adventure. -
A page of the night book
"A period of time
a few minutes long
fifty-eight years wide."
"This recording gave such a strong sense of a moment in time held still - the way in which the space of a minute in the middle of the night can take on the same qualities as an hour during daylight.
"The nighttime rainfall sits as a bed throughout the track, which overall is structured into one section punctuated by the calls of an owl, and a second that highlights the cries of the deer.
"The instrumentation chosen - strings, brass and flute for the most part - is intended to evoke something of the sense of wonder of being in such close proximity to the natural world.
"The overall feel is inspired by the Tomas Transtromer poem quoted above, from which the title comes:
A page of the night book
I stepped ashore one May night
in the cool moonshine
where grass and flowers were grey
but the scent green.
I glided up the slope
in the colour-blind night
while white stones
signalled to the moon.
A period of time
a few minutes long
fifty-eight years wide.
And behind me
beyond the lead-shimmering waters
was the other shore
and those who ruled.
People with a future
instead of a face.
Nighttime nature sounds in France reimagined by Cities and Memory.
Part of the Sound of Adventure project in partnership with Exodus Travels. To learn more and explore the full collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/adventure. -
Path
"I loved how the field recording provided a really nice atmospheric layer to the song. The interesting thing is that the recording has different moments as in one part you hear the sounds of the waves and in another, human voices combined with other elements that inhabit the place.
"This song talks about the wish of feeling nature, of experimenting the outside.
I think that the feelings of travel and adventure are reflected in the musical creative process. In this case Giuliana and I embarked on a musical style different from what we usually compose and we enjoyed so much. This song was a new journey for us."
Belém Tower reimagined by Maribel Tafur & Giu.
Part of the Sound of Adventure project in partnership with Exodus Travels. To learn more and explore the full collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/adventure. -
Early morning at Pepperskär Hamnen
"A sleepy harbour at Pepperskär on the island of Järsö, 12km south of Mariehamn, Åland's capital. It's just after 7am on a Sunday. The roe deer on the road vanish into the woods as I arrive, the gulls haven't yet flown in from the rocky havens in the bay.
"A slight breeze stirs the tide to softly lap the the wood-clad harbour walls and the hulls of the handful of boats moored therein. Alongside the rough cawing of early rising crows, and the calls of various smaller birds filling acoustic niches as they rouse, a lone grey heron remains silent."
Recorded in Finland by Julian Weaver.
Part of the Sound of Adventure project in partnership with Exodus Travels. To learn more and explore the full collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/adventure. -
Finlandia
"I used the field recording unedited and throughout the duration of my piece. It inspired me to put myself in the outdoors, listen to the sounds of nature in the recording and transfer how this made me feel into music: peaceful and hopeful, and then adventurous. I started with a piano solo and build instrumentation around it. I also drew inspiration from the classic composition by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, hence the name 'Finlandia'."
Pepperskär Hamnen, Finland reimagined by Kid Kin.
Part of the Sound of Adventure project in partnership with Exodus Travels. To learn more and explore the full collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/adventure.
Customer Reviews
Top podcast to discover how the world sounds
This is a great podcast full of bite-sized sounds from all around the world. In just a few minutes, it transports listeners inside a temple in Thailand or right in the middle of Manhattan. The remixed counterparts are also short but creative journeys of discovery.