Cities And Memory

"Browsing through the audio files and listening to a few, I came across a recording that caught my ear. The sounds of different insects formed an afternoon melody in the desert. "Paquimé is an archaeological site of a long-gone culture, the ruins of a once-thriving city. I try to imagine how it sounded when it was populated—how it must have felt to walk through its streets. As a pre-industrial city, its sonic landscape likely blended human and non-human activity: the songs of birds waking with the sunrise, people walking to the river to collect water, and insects buzzing around the town's market. "The lively sounds of insects in this recording are among the few remnants left behind— a sonic memory of what no longer exists, a way for them to tell each other and remind us of the past. "I wanted to compose a piece using this recording, sampling moments from it and adding a few atmospheric synth sounds. Together, they invite listeners to imagine different pasts while reflecting on history and possible futures.

"The field recording, sounds of individuals selling bus tickets in Peru, reminded me of similar sonic experiences I have had in San Francisco and New York City. Hearing the recording immediately took me to the images I know of Peru and promptly meshed those images with the sounds and imaged from mass transit terminals in the US cities I have lived in and traveled in. It represents, for me, a sonic impression of the diverse voices that exist in all places. The most immediate experience I had, sonically, was that I immediately related the Peruvian recording to the similar sounds of my own experiences, even though I do not speak the language of Peru -- signifying that even though we are culturally very different, we share attributes that make communication at a humanistic level possible. "I began my process by listening to the field recording on loop to really become familiar with it. I then noted the variety of voices (women, children and men) and the way those voices intertwined. I used a DAW to chop the reco

Knife sharpeners at Arequipa. Stereo 48kHz 24bit UNESCO listing: Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa 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

The last time that Felicia Barr and I had a "real" vacation was just before the pandemic. We travelled to Ireland in September of 2019 and one of our stops was Giant's Causeway which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. Giant's Causeway is a magical place which features hexagonal columns that form stepping stones which disappear into the sea. According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The day was very cold, wet and blustery as we walked around the area. In the recording, you hear a lot of noise from the wind and the water pounding the shore but sometimes you can hear different voices of people as they pass us by. It brought us so much joy to be there that we stayed for hours and just as we were about to leave, the sun finally burst through the clouds. UNESCO listing: Giant's Causeway Recorded by Bill McKenna. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore t

Desert hum wind and quiet insects at the Archaeological Zone of Paquimé. Stereo 48khz 24Bit. UNESCO listing: Archaeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes 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

"The field recording that I chose was of temple bells in a Buddhist Temple in Myanmar. The bells represent calmness and meditation and symbolises the Buddha's voice. I started my composition with just the bells to represent someone being in a clear minded stated, and gradually included other elements into the composition until the bells can barely be heard, symbolising how small daily life struggles sum together and cloud our minds." Myanmar temple clochettes reimagined by Rex Morgan. ——————— 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 piece is based on a field recording of workers cutting agave near Tequila, Mexico. The rhythmic, percussive sounds immediately captured my attention, as well as the cultural significance of the plant. The composition explores themes of Sonic Heritage, preserving the importance of agave labor, which is deeply tied to Mexica (Aztec) traditions and the reverence for Mayahuel, the goddess of agave. Mayahuel represents the sacred and nourishing qualities of the plant, central to Mexica culture for centuries. "I worked with the recording both as a collection of samples and as a unified entity. While time-stretching it to lay a foundational base layer (a sort of cantus firmus), hidden tonal qualities emerged, transforming the sound into a more abstract, almost ceremonial texture. This shift guided the piece's structure. "The narrative of the piece follows a worker who experiences a spiritual revelation during their workday, leading to a new equilibrium between labor and spirituality. This journey is reflected

Jimadores cutting agave at Tequila. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila 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

"When I first listened to the field recording, I was drawn to its spatial rendering, which made me curious to learn more about the place and its surroundings. Historically, it functioned both as an orphanage and a hospital, with certainly thousands traces of stories. This history, along with the architecture, inspired me to explore the relational characteristics of frequencies, materials, and memories. Also, I’ve always been fascinated by how a cathedral's dome is designed to shape frequencies, creating what could be described as "the song of the angels.". So I started to engage with the volume and height of the space, imagining how sound might behave within it—how frequencies would rapidly reflect across various distances, spreading in all directions within the massive structure of the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara. "I think I engaged with Sonic Heritage by focusing on the relational and spatial aspects of sound within historically and culturally significant environments. By interpreting and exploring the

"The bells of Morelia Cathedral ring out from a beautiful baroque building of pink stone. The deep, rich sounds of these bells was the first inspiration for the piece. But, when I think of the Mexican Baroque, I immediately think of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, so this piece also takes inspiration from her poem Primero Sueño. The whispered text is excerpted from the poem itself, while the sung text is a dreamlike response – a last dream, rather than a first.  I’m drawn to bells because of their rich waves of overtones. To make the sonic bed for the piece, I took the original field recording of the bell and manipulated it to bring out the small details these overtones. The original bell is accompanied by my own recordings of smaller bells, the strings of a piano, and a low cello drone. I am singing my poetic response to Sor Juana in a style inspired by early chant. The piece concludes with the original field recording. Cathedral bells at Morelia reimagined by Kamala Sankaram. ——————— This sound is part of th

"I have never experienced Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca firsthand, but I have always been inspired by the spirit of this ritualistic celebration. A day of gathering—of families, friends, and ancestors—where the entire community comes together to share food, music, memories, and stories, surrounded by vibrant colors of flowers and costumes. This holiday seems to me a beautiful and consoling way to engage with death, to mourn the departed, and to reflect on the transience of life. "The field recording captures voices, likely of people gathered in a cemetery. These are joyful sounds. Their density suggests a large crowd of all ages coming together. By applying filtering techniques, I extracted pitches and harmonies from these recordings. As a symbol of ephemerality, I chose the conch shell: an instrument with sacred and ancient associations—with the sea, with the call to prayer, with the underworld, the moon, fertility, and the wind god Ehécatl, who had the power to breathe life into a void. Its haunting sound e

Interior of Hospicio Cabañas, tourist voices with long acoustic reverb. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara 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

Cathedral bells at Morelia. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Morelia 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

Day of the death at Panteón General cemetery at Oaxaca. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán 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

"The creation of this piece began with a binaural recording from Petra, Jordan—a place steeped in history, where the whispers of the past still resonate in the present. As soon as I listened back to the recording, I was struck by its depth and atmosphere. The natural reverberations of the ancient rock-cut city, the distant murmur of voices, the footsteps on stone—all these elements felt alive, carrying an almost cinematic quality. It immediately sparked an idea: to craft a sound collage that blends these organic textures with spoken word, downtempo beats, and ambient layers. "What stood out most in the field recording was its immersive quality. The binaural technique captured not just the sounds themselves but the space around them. The way sound interacts with Petra’s towering sandstone walls—bouncing, fading, and morphing—created a natural sonic landscape that felt rich and evocative. There’s something profoundly intimate about listening to a place in this way, as if you’re standing right there, experienci

"The source field recording is combined with found sounds and field recordings made at a 1965 Hiroshima anti-nuclear protest, a 1968 Tokyo student protest, as well as street performances and 'happenings' presented between 1960 and 1970. "Tobata, an industrial port in southern Japan, was often the site of such demonstrations and protests, many of which were related to the Anpo struggle (安保闘争, Anpo tōsō). "One of the most infamous moments of the Anpo struggle was the 'Hagerty Incident', in which U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II (the nephew of the famous general) deliberately provoked an international incident by ordering his car to be driven into a large crowd of protesters. The provocation backfired and chaos ensued. "The right of people to gather and protest, celebrate, or commemorate is a fundamental right with cultural, political, and social significance. The sounds we create in doing so are an essential part of our sonic heritage." Tobata lantern festival reimagined by Simon Kennedy. IMAG

"The butterfly effect: weeping and flying; llorando y volando: mariposas monarcas "What is the sound of butterflies? What is the sound of butterflies? What is the sound of millions and millions of monarch butterflies as they open wings and ascend into the air? What is the sound of zero monarch butterflies?  "Monarch butterflies have been part of my life for over 30 years in two places in North America that I have called home (both places of migration from my childhood home of Britain). I have experienced eastern monarcas in their tens of millions in the high forested mountains of the state of Michoacán, Mexico, where the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is located. I have experienced a few western monarchs in the eucalyptus trees on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, in Goleta, California, where the Ellwood Monarch Butterfly Reserve is located. Both the State of Michoacán and the City of Goleta use the gorgeous orange and black form of the monarca butterfly as their logo.  "In Michoacán, Mexico, these

On a warm summer evening crowds line the streets to watch the opening ceremony of the Tobata Gion lantern festival. Several floats can be heard passing as they march through the town.  UNESCO listing: Yama, Hoko, Yatai, float festivals in Japan Recorded by Thomas Martin Nutt. IMAGE: JKT-c, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons ——————— 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

Petra Anamnetic presents a stratophonic acoustic mapping of the Petra world heritage archaeological site, located in southern Jordan. This locale has traditionally belonged to the Bedouin B’doul tribe, a clan that continues to play an eminent role within the tourist industry, which is of central importance to the area’s economy. The piece has been recorded ambisonically and rendered binaurally – it is intended to be disseminated via headphones, replicating the immersive and interactive experience of audition in a ‘real’ space. Petra Anamnetic juxtaposes two main elements: (1) a conversation between two B’doul shepherd children tending their goats in one of the many caves that are characteristic of the area and (2) the sound of the evening call to prayer recorded from a hotel rooftop patio in nearby Wadi Musa, the main access point for most of the many tourists visiting Petra. Via the juxtaposition and creative manipulation of these two recordings, Petra Anamnetic aims to foreground the complex strata embedde

Monarch butterfly sanctuary, El Rosario. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve 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