Cities And Memory

Hike a little beyond the main section of Nara Park in Japan, and you enter the Kasugayama Primeval Forest – also part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara UNESCO site. If you are there during the off season and early enough in the morning, it is possible to hear the forest itself, as the monks and pilgrims of old must have done. This recording was made on 13 December, 2024 on the popular hiking trail that winds up to the summit of Wakakusayama Hill. Although there is a background hum from the city, it primarily captures the sounds of the forest – bird song, trees rustling and wind – but at the start of the recording you can also hear the footsteps of a single hiker on the gravel path as they pass me. UNESCO listing: Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara Recorded by Lisa Germany. ——————— 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 soundwalk was recorded in and around the streets of Siena in Tuscany. We begin in the narrow streets and end at the famous Piazza del Campo, the town's central square and home to the biannual horse race the "palio". UNESCO listing: Historic City of Siena Recorded by Colin Hunter. ——————— 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 reminds me to listen to the world around in nature and juxtaposed with the sounds of diaspora and migration, it captures the spirit behind the audio - of birds communicating with the audience and with each other, of light footsteps through a forest preserved in present day. Why are other forests not given the same status and how can we preserve the forests and rivers that make up our land? "I imagine walking through a forest that is preserved and capturing its sounds the same way as we walk through an urban setting , with people, calls to prayer, grackles, frog sounds, etc. Each recording shared in this piece is captured during my travels and visiting home in Lahore, Pakistan and living between Houston, Texas. "I've used various recordings and I use a simple phone recorder to record my sounds as I travel and I overlaid these pieces to capture the concept of migration and diaspora through sound and to layer the original track in the backdrop as a loop. The sounds of the birds play with t

"The sound in my piece is made by striking the inside of an empty prosecco tank in an Italian winery. I created this piece using Ableton and wanted to make something that only used the original sample and no other additional sounds. I used the sampler and granulator to manipulate and edit the sound and then worked to create a short ambient piece that retained some of the character of the original sound whilst taking it somewhere new. "I was very inspired by the vastness and grandeur of the original sound and was curious to explore it in a more intimate setting, imagining the 'inner life' of the empty wine tanks. Some of the sounds did not behave as I wanted to or expected, but I went with the glitchiness and imagined that the barrels were gently telling me their story rather than me trying to uncover it for them, what resulted was a new kind of intimate and nostalgic fragility emerging from what was originally a quite bold and brash sound." Prosecco wine tanks reimagined by Katie Chatburn. ——————— This so

"The field recording was interesting to me as it revealed more after several listens. It was a combination of louder, more dynamic voices/human/environmental sounds, and some much more subtle parts. It made me feel like I was visiting another place which I found compelling, and I appreciated the inconsistent sounds and spaces captured. In the composition I wanted to marry abstractions with more concrete, yet simple melodic phrases, so that the listener can move along with the story of the moments captured in the original recording, but at the same time they can also tune into something musical if they want to.  "I wanted the music to ebb and flow like the field recording itself, encouraging reflection on this one unique position in space and time when these sounds came together, to stop and be drawn into something and consider the geography, history, and presence of what can be heard in the final work. Who do we hear and what is their story? and what does what we hear tell us about the place, this historic w

The "seggiovia" chairlift up to a rifugio in Pescul, in the Dolomites on a hot summer afternoon. The sound of the clicking, whirring chairlift interrupts the sounds of buzzing insects and light breeze, and symbolises the intrusion of human construction and entertainment into the natural environments of the mountains.  UNESCO listing: The Dolomites 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

In the heart of Isfahan, Iran, the beauty of Naqsh-e Jahan Square comes alive at sunset, where the fountain glimmers under the fading light, accompanied by the chant of the muezzin in the background. UNESCO listing: Meidan Emam, Esfahan Recorded by Azadeh Nilchiani. ——————— 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

Green parrots at Khajuraho. Stereo 44kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Khajuraho Group of Monuments 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

Tourists in the Taj Mahal interior. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Taj Mahal 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

"I was born in Bolzano, Alto Adige, by the Dolomites, and lived there for the first 11 years of my life. The first breath I took was from the air corralled by the lines these mountains made in the sky; here was my first light, colours, sounds, language.  "Hearing the seggiovia reminds me of picnics in valleys with pines and snowy tops. And hearing people joyfully gasping on the moving chairs.  "Hearing the recording, I weave that inescapable and inextricable emotional labour that is remembering, mending memories, mending oneself through memory - sound being like an ancient trace in one’s psyche." Ski lift in Pescul reimagined by Clelia Ciardulli. ——————— 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

"If you have never been in/around/under a large flock of singing, squawking, vocalising and flying birds you have missed an incredible immersive experience. It leaves your breathless, amazed, scared and humbled. You can lose all touch with your world as the sounds of bird calls and beating wings drowns out everything else.  "As I read about the Khajuiraho temple complex, I began to think of the ancient history of this complex and it's life and how it was reabsorbed by the jungle and the human lives and memories that were here as well as the ancestral memories of the green parrots. The human sounds in and around this complex have changed with the flow of time but the sounds of the large flocks or parrots has remained unchanged and hopefully will remain unchanged as time passes.  "I wasn't sure how to use this recording at first and then I was able to experience a "large flock of birds" moment around my house and it brought back the immersive experience and linked it to the parrots I had been listening to. Fr

"I have long been inspired by Iranian culture and particularly its music and poetry.  Much to my surprise, my response to the field recording of the city of Isfahan eventually took the form of a kind of oblique word-picture, prompted by the images and themes which the original field recording sounds brought to mind, which I then set to the sound of a Daf percussion arrangement. One of the main jumping off points was also the idea of the festival of the spring equinox, ‘nowruz’ - which literally means’ ‘new day’ in Persian, and which is a central celebration in Iranian culture.  "The Daf is a traditional Iranian percussion instrument associated with nowruz celebrations amongst many other things, whose unique sound I adore and which I felt tied in with the themes of sonic heritage in this context. My dear friend Mobin Hosseini from Sanandaj, Iran, kindly provided the accompanying Daf track. The field recording appears in its entirety, since this seemed the most fitting soundtrack to the rich imagery it inspire

"The field recording begins with a chant that sounds like the ones the Taj Mahal’s mausoleum guards sing to demonstrate the Taj Mahal’s acoustics. Its dome has been said to create up to 28 second of reverb. I’d heard this before because of Paul Horn’s well known album Inside, which featured a singer — a friend of one of the mausoleum guards — singing in a similar style, along with Horn’s flute sometimes accompanying him or in call and response.  "For my version, I couldn’t work with natural reverb in that way, so instead I let the untreated field recording play off different types of treated and artificial sounds. I looped the chant and played along on guitar until I found some phrases that could form the core of the piece. Then I filled it out with synths and with pads made from resampled voice and guitar." Taj Mahal reimagined by John Savarese. ——————— 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: h

This is our friend Vasilis, the last shepherd in Mikro Papingo, and Iannis, his Albanan helper shearing goats. Mikro Papingo is one of the numerous stone villages found in the Zagorochoria in the mountains of north west Greece.  After wintering his flock of 350 goats in the Vikos Gorge, living in a cave for weeks on end Vasilis brings the goats and their young back to the village in the spring. The adult goats' hair need trimming and Vasilis still does this with hand shears rather than an electric razor. This clip is where a younger goat which has not been sheared before is brought in and is very nervous. You can hear it trying to escape past the corrugated iron gate at one point and the very calm and measured reaction from Vasilis and Iannis who sooth it into the mesmeric clipping sounds.  In the past the goat hair was highly prized for making the incredibly warm and waterproof coats (samaroskouti) worn by the shepherds. When I asked Vasilis where his clippings would go he said "only the birds want it now

On some unused areas of tarmac close to Les Invalides and the grand boulevards that surround it, by the banks of the Seine, there are frequent games of street hockey. On an earlier visit to Paris I'd assumed this was a one-off, but every time we visited again and went back to Les Invalides, the street hockey guys were there, playing what is surely one of the world's most picturesque games of street sport.  In this recording you can hear rollerskates, sticks, ball thwacks and shouting among the players, all with the backdrop of busy roads in this touristy - but majestic - area of the city. A great example of public space being used for the public good. UNESCO listing: Paris, Banks of the Seine 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

"I firstly loved the sound of the piece and the atmosphere of the Cathedral - the original sound is included fully, but buried in amongst the sounds of the remix. The way into the remix was the text about the seven second reverb and some research about the building's history. I knew that whatever I did, long reverbs and delays combined with multiples of seven in some sequences would feature. Bach's Mass in D was performed in the Cathedral and so I used some MIDI files for the musical elements alongside a 14 step sequence. The sounds used were intended to reference retro computer games in a nod to the amazing stained glass window by Gerhard Richter and the acid rain erosion of the building.  "I thought about what was happening on the outside of the building and tried to think of it as a person - I found it incredible that it has been built over hundreds of years and survived tank fights and bombing during WW2. It was hit 14 times but remained standing and that is why the mass is interrupted at regular interva

"On first listening to the sound recording, the sound of the hockey puck being hit placed me inside a life size pinball machine. I felt drawn to creating the piece from the perspective of the players being inside a giant pinball machine. From there I began to build a set of pinball inspired sounds to entwine with the recording.  "The soundscape was created using hardware modular synths to layer up the bouncing of the pinball buffers in response to the players hitting the puck. A further layer of distant arcade sounds and floating background music heard from outside the machine was added using software modular synths. Throughout I endeavoured to ensure the original recording and the story it told could still clearly be heard despite placing it in my own sonic world." Paris street hockey reimagined by Andrew D. Sage. ——————— 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/h

"This track is inspired by both the sheep shearing clipper sounds and the season in which shearing usually occurs. During my first listen of the field recording, I imagined the ecosystem of handcrafting and repairing and was inspired to combine this recording with field recordings of my own craft, including whittling and sanding, use of a sewing machine to repair pants, journaling, and crocheting. "Bell sounds (created with FM synthesis and with field recordings, inspired by faint bell sounds on the original recording) and created “bird” sound serve as the underlying threads that weaves the pieces together. This track was created using VCV Rack 2." Greek goat shearing reimagined by Stephanie Vasko. ——————— 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

A binaural recording made at 10pm in Raekoja Square at the heart of Tallinn's Old Town - we hear passers-by on all sides, restaurants and bars closing early at the end of a quiet night, and the church bells tolling 10pm. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn 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

Inside the popular medieval Olde Hansa restaurant, which specialises in serving original medieval recipes, a group of three musicians performs with replica medieval string and percussion instruments. Together with the wall paintings and candlelight, the ambience is as close to an authentic medieval banquet as you can get, while at the same time forming a very modern tourist attraction in the heritage site of the Old Town. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn 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