Cities And Memory

"I wanted to create the sense of multiple trains passing over time by breaking up the sounds into component parts with distortion and delay but also introduced the feeling of being on the train at the same time with the background notes." Dom Luis I Bridge, Porto reimagined by David Cowlard. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of Britain's most famous Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and throughout the property there are plenty of reminders of this, including a dedicated permanent exhibition to his life. Attention has been paid to sound in the exhibition, which variously includes mockups of Churchill's voice telling stories about his childhood, Morse code to mark his years in the military, a typewriter to represent his authorial life, and excerpts from his political speeches. This recording is a walkthrough of the exhibition, taking in all of these sounds, on a tour of Churchill's life.  UNESCO listing: Blenheim Palace. Recorded by Cities and Memory. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"To start with I was mostly interested in seeing if I could extract the typewriter and morse code sounds and use those rhythms to trigger snippets of Churchill's voice. I wanted to re-code the existing code and tried a variety of techniques including EQ, AI Stem Splitting, Gates, Envelope Followers, distortion and reverb.  "I started to make some overlapping rhythms with the morse code and typewriter sounds and then used a stem split version of Churchill's voice to refocus the piece and make it about his love of riding. I stretched and pitched his voice down 3 semitones to make it sound even fuller - and a bit funnier, and got into the humour of Churchill in a bowler hat riding on ponies around the grounds reminiscing about the war, and his regiment, whilst galloping along at high speed.  "Towards the end of the composition I reintroduced some of the history of the location with the train sound (referencing the 19th century aristocrat, Consuelo Vanderbilt, who married into the family and saved the palace fr

On Palm Sunday during Holy Week, all the cathedral bells are rung. It is a unique moment throughout the year. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Mexico City Recorded by Leonardo Santiago. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"I love this recording by Leonardo Santiago of the cathedral bells in Mexico City. I was working with a mix of voice, song and sound elements taken from the recording, but then I got sick and couldn’t record the voice elements. So this is a really simple combination of the second part of the recording with a poem I wrote about a visitor descending into the square to the sound of bells." Mexico City cathedral bells reimagined by Melaina Barnes. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

 "The world is not this world when heard through the auditory spectrum of a snake. It follows, then, that history itself might also shift if perceived outside the limits of human hearing. Naja Nostalgia is a sound work that employs field recording, geophone recordings, synthesizers, and an improvised Viridu performance to recreate the experience of walking through Sri Lanka’s Galle World Heritage Site—but imagined through the auditory perspective of a cobra. With a limited hearing range of approximately 50–1000 Hz, the snake’s acoustic world offers a radically different filter for understanding space, time, and memory. "What became clear during the compositional process was the surprising resonance between the snake’s frequency spectrum and the emotional texture of human nostalgia. The emphasis on low frequencies—vibrations, sub-bass tones, speaker resonance, and analog hiss—echoed the affective registers of longing and melancholia. In this narrowed spectrum, faint auditory artifacts emerged with heightened

Juan imitates the sound of a jaguar with an ancient instrument at Teotihuacan Pyramids. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

This recording was captured in Fanal, a vast forested area with an enchanting atmosphere and ancient-looking trees that are part of the indigenous Laurisilva forest. In the recording, you can hear me walking, sounds of people talking, taking photos and wandering through the mist. Between some powerful winds, theres some calmer moments where you can hear the soft patter of raindrops falling from the trees. Given the strong winds and my limited equipment—a small RøDE VideoMic Me-L for iPhone with a basic windscreen—it was challenging to avoid wind noise entirely. To present the best audio experience, I carefully edited and compiled the highest-quality segments in chronological order. Recently, Madeira has been experiencing new influx of tourism, both in type and quantity, and Fanal has caught the attention of many YouTubers and photographers. Having not visited Fanal in several years, I was curious to see how this newfound popularity is shaping the experience and hoped to capture the atmosphere of this phenom

"The field recording I worked with was of a 'Jaguar Whistle', an instrument designed to replicate the sound of a jaguar. My understanding is that in Mesoamerican cultures, the jaguar was a symbol of transformation, bridging the earthly and spiritual realms. Research suggested that Shamans and rulers sought to embody its power, believing they could take on its form to navigate the unseen world, and through ritual practices, including trance states and sacred ceremonies, they invoked the jaguar’s essence to move between life and the underworld, gaining wisdom, strength, and protection.  "The jaguar’s ability to thrive in darkness, water, and hidden places made it a guardian of thresholds, a being capable of transcending the boundaries of human existence. Without the understanding of the cultural importance of the jaguar, the significance of the whistle could be missed. Inspired by this, I created a piece that translates the original recording of the jaguar whistle into a musical form, reflecting its role in tr

"I got inspired of the original recording’s “rough” essence - the windy and rainy weather was dominant, along the noise of the people. For me, it reflects the ongoing change of the climate and amount of tourism which seem to change and grow hand in hand.  "Also the description of the original recording tells about capturing the sound of growing number of people in the misty forests of Fanal, Portugal.  Furthermore, parts the recording was cut out because of the strong wind. The final piece was then edited chronologically, which in a sense made the nature/climate to be the “main director” of the piece. "This raises age-old philosophical questions: How much control do humans truly have - or how much of it is merely an illusion of man-made complex systems that are, in reality, just a small part of nature’s vast complexity? We understand only a fraction of nature—what happens if we stray too far from its ways? Will it” be the final director" that intervenes, cutting humanity’s delusional course to preserve and

"I approached the word 'heritage' from two directions; there is what we receive, 'inherit', (and what we in turn leave) - an imperative to consider how we care for leave behind what we hold precious. But heritage can also indicate efforts to retain what has, realistically, been lost - a simulacrum, second-hand experience. In the context of this project, how much better to protect and experience the real thing. In this track I explored both, using the recording unadulterated and via various resampling techniques." Yellowstone coyotes reimagined by de Velden. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

Day of the Death at Xoxocotlán cemetery. Families gather around thumbs. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"After carefully listening to my chosen field recording; Skara Brae, I refreshed my memory and researched the Neolithic site in Orkney.  "I liked how the geofon recording added a mysterious layer, with distant sounding muffled voices and rumbling… I accentuated and extended this mystery. "I imagined the aeons of time that has passed on the site; the prehistoric industry and life, how many visitors from near and far, and the plundering both by man and nature….  "I try to convey this ancient and mysterious location with my track. "I use the original recording looped and sliced using granular synthesis, to create intermittent periods of rhythm, which are then interwoven with multiple channels of modulated noise from a synth with delay and reverb etc. to simulate the maelstrom of time.  "The final recording was tweaked and manipulated in realtime and presented here after slight compression and eq’ing." Skara Brae tourism reimagined by id_23. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, explor

Skara Brae, Europe's most remarkably preserved Neolithic village, offers a profound connection to the distant past. In this recording, the wind carries its timeless song, mingling with the murmurs of visitors as they explore the site. Captured through the Geofon, the vibrations of wind and footsteps resonate like the ancient village's heartbeat, while the muffled conversations evoke echoes of lives once lived amidst these stone walls. UNESCO listing: Heart of Neolithic Orkney Recorded by Alan Cook. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"I liked how the field recording sounded messy and not put together 100% and I incorporated that in my production style. I also liked the raw sounding vibe of the recording which i enhanced with reverb to create a unique atmosphere in the background.  "I think my composition shows that every sound has a place in today's music style and we can preserve sounds from across the world by including them in our production. My plan going into the composition was to play things in and not quantize anything to keep the raw feel of the piece." Day of the Death at Xoxocotlán cemetery reimagined by Pierce. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

"Upon listening to the in field recording, I instantly had the idea of doing something involving synthesis and tying that to the idea of time travel. What stood out to me most is the raw, natural ambience that it has. I used this to use hard panning in the beginning to simulate the listener looking around. I connected it to the sound of a stream flowing.  "Upon researching Delos, I found out that it used to be occupied by the Egyptians before it became Hellenic. I chose this recording from this location as my family are from Greece, and I thought it would be really cool to make a piece using real sounds from my family's country.  "To create the piece, I used minimal layering for maximal effect. I also used sound design to help create my own sounds. I also researched what instruments were common at the time, and used those in the piece. I sampled different stringed instruments such as lyres and used harmonic minor scales to really drive that Egyptian influence. I also used dissonance towards the end to symbo

"The opera singing within the field recording sounded soul-like, which inspired us to pull inspiration from 90s hip hop, such as the Wu-Tang Clan, who also sampled a lot of old music. As discussed, we used sampling techniques and other effects such as bit crush, to achieve an old school sound." Singer at the Pantheon, Rome reimagined by Theo Steventon. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

""Wieża" considers themes of change, stasis, motion, stillness, and meditation, as suggested by the original field recording. The footsteps that explore Wieża Ratuszowa in that recording become a percussive pulse in this composition, exploring convergence, tension, loss, and progress: people, events, ideas, emotions, structures, melodies, instruments, elements of arrangement, all arriving, departing, returning, remaining constant, changing in each other's presence, and disappearing. Throughout this, the steps maintain a grounding presence, akin to the passage of time, or the presence of an architectural monument in the lives of those around it.  "The piece was recorded at home with a Windows PC, a Shure SM-58, a Focusrite Scarlett Solo, a collection of instruments, and a cat who provided invaluable support, company, and audio editing assistance (read: walking across the keyboard and randomly changing settings in pursuit of scratches)." Wieża Ratuszowa reimagined by Ross Reilly. ——————— This sound is part

From the height of Kraków’s Town Hall Tower, this recording transports you to the heart of the Old Town, where the echoes of history are intertwined with the pulse of contemporary life. Standing as a proud Gothic monument since the 14th century, the tower bears witness to centuries of change. Soft, measured footsteps ascending the narrow stairs, while the hum of modern life drifts in through the small arched windows. For me, this recording portrays the profound stillness and grandeur of the Town Hall Tower, contrasted with the lively city below. It’s a rare moment where time seems to stretch as if the tower holds space for both history and the present to coexist.  Listening to it feels like standing between two worlds... each sound is an invitation to appreciate Kraków’s timeless rhythm. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Kraków Recorded by Serge Bulat. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole p

"Hagar Qim, on the south western edge of Malta, is one of the oldest built structures in the world. Over 5000 years old, this megalithic temple overlooks the dazzling blue Mediterranean. In 2008, canopies were constructed to protect these monuments from further elemental damage. Small birds, mainly sparrows, have now made their home among the high eaves of these shelters, their calls echoing through the temple. This spot is unusually far from the traffic and urban noise that dominates much of the island, and I was able to record the bird sounds as I walked up the stony cliff path towards the temple.  "To me, sparrows are one of the characteristic sounds of the Maltese islands, along with the sound of the sea and the ringing of church bells, none of which you are ever far from. My piece merges my own field recordings of these three quintessential Maltese sounds with something very personal. My grandfather was a teacher and writer from Mqabba, a tiny village near Hagar Qim. When he retired, he undertook a labo