Cities And Memory

"In this piece, the monk's chanting runs throughout, initially heavily processed by various layers of granular synthesis, and very gradually revealing itself as the composition progresses, so that by the end all we hear is the naked simplicity of the original recording. "The composition represents how we often experience the beauty of World Heritage sites, at first overcome by a feeling of their "importance" at having this status bequeathed upon them, and that perhaps we ought to feel a certain way or experience certain emotions simply by virtue of being there.  "The slow reveal of the monk's chanting represents the stripping away of the initial awe of experiencing some of the world's most amazing sights. Through spending more time in these spaces, engaging more deeply not as a tourist but simply as a respectful human being, those places have even more beauty to reveal to us than we could have imagined with a fleeting interaction, a quick photo and then heading off on our way, another sight ticked off the

An early morning at the San Agustin Church is far from quiet. Street sweepers tidying old cobblestone paths, the chapel staff routine inspections and preparations, vendors beckoning passerbys their taho or knick knacks, and local guides gleefully offering their services to wandering tourists.  The bells of the Manila Cathedral toll and people crossing the plaza are natural accompaniments like thunder to rain. Such sounds reminisce since the early days of the oldest stone church in the Philippines. Now the modern world has crept in with its own lieu of society with revving engines and busy construction from several blocks down. UNESCO listing: San Agustin Church Recorded by Janina Castro & Timothy Romero. ——————— 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

Monk chanting at Luang Prabang. Stereo 44kHz 16bit. UNESCO listing: Town of Luang Prabang 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 composition is intended to hiss out of speakers in a similar manner to the liquid nitrogen hissing from the storage tanks outside the Department of Earth Sciences. It's a sonic reflection on standing in this small street, being surrounded on every side by the sounds of humming machinery, coolant and air conditioning, the administrative machinery that underpins and helps to make possible Oxford University's scientific research. This machinery is the unsung hero of our piece.  "A tribute to the sounds of science here in our home city, layers of the liquid nitrogen field recording are delayed and granular synthesis is applied, over which huge, steady waves of ambient guitar wash, and a synth made from the sounds of metals provides an ambient pad undercurrent." Liquid nitrogen tanks at Oxford University reimagined by Cities and Memory. 

Outside the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, there are several gigantic, almost-building height tanks of liquid nitrogen behind a fence, encrusted with ice and with vapour hissing out from the pipes at the bottom. The sounds of hissing liquid nitrogen vapours mix with the industrial drones of other nearby scientific machinery and air conditioning devices coming from science labs, a sonic reminder of all the fantastic research taking place behind closed doors in these advanced university research facilities.  Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"There has been a fascinating wave of experimental and drone music in recent years placing the organ as the centrepiece of a meditative experience, expanding out and stretching the sound into a deep listening experience.  "This piece is in that tradition, taking four sampled layers of the organ and building a slowly-changing, contemplative ten minutes in which perhaps religious contemplation driven by the pure organ sound is augmented, or replaced, by a more spatial, bodily contemplation as that sound is exploded, fragmented, slowed and smeared all around the listening field.  "Every sound in the composition is derived from a manipulated version of the organ recording, and the piece was composed and mixed on a Torso S-4 sampler." Se Velha organ, Coimbra reimagined 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

The field recording takes us from tour group to tour group inside the world-famous Colosseum, with each guide bringing their own style and their own facts and anecdotal stories about the incredible history of this space. This composition imagines standing at the back of one of these tour groups, half-listening to what the guide is saying, but then allowing the eyes to drift upwards, allowing the attention to drift outwards, and a pure sensation of the beauty, importance and history of this space to be felt directly throughout the body. The piece is about direct, unmediated experience of an iconic, important site, without the need for further explanation, for tour guides, or for anything else, and how a simple and pure connection between the individual and the space is more challenging than ever in today's age of overtourism.  Colosseum in Rome, reimagined 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

Recording inside the Sé Velha church, Alta de Coimbra, when someone played the service organ. UNESCO listing: University of Coimbra – Alta and Sofia. Recorded by Luis Antero. ——————— 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

"My background is in the visual arts, with a primary focus on sculpture, particularly wood carving. Over time, I have become increasingly fascinated by the concept of ‘residue’—the traces left behind after the physical sculpture is completed. "Sound has emerged as a compelling avenue of inquiry, with the rhythmic tapping and scraping of steel chisels against wood punctuating my process. The act of making, for me, extends beyond the tangible object; it encompasses the sonic imprint of labor itself. This auditory residue has become both an extension of the work and a point of departure for new explorations—transforming the remnants of creation into an entirely new artistic trajectory. "Arriving late to this project, I was fortunate to encounter one of the remaining sonic traces: the rhythmic clicking of Asante Kente weavers’ looms in Bonwire, Ghana. The percussive interplay of wooden looms provided an immediate textural richness, forming the foundation of the piece. The sounds, derived from the original recor

"I very carefully listened to scores of recordings before settling on this one and it captured my imagination instantly. It’s incredibly rich and mysterious. What was documented in this field recording transports us, I think, to a place both ancient and instantly present. We hear footfalls climbing rickety stairs. In the distance bells toll. And in the foreground a sonorous voice intones a repeated phrase, mysteriously. It was my clear favourite and I hope we’ve done it justice.    "The recording is from Spain and although Sylvia has visited the country, I have not yet been there myself. We have friends who live in the ancient city of Tarifa and they have often spoken of the magic of this place - particularly the spectacular religious processions and other traditional sacred rituals. The field recording seems to conjure this for us, quite movingly so. I hope my composition and our recording underscores and enhances that sense of mystery, of faith, of ritual.   "There is very little enhancement to this parti

The descent from Salamanca’s Clerecía Towers unfolds like an auditory time capsule, where each step resonates with the weight of history. The recording begins at the heights of this iconic cathedral, capturing the faint echoes of voices carried by the lofty ceilings before transitioning into the measured rhythm of footsteps descending the spiral staircase. As the journey unfolds, subtle hints of the past emerge in the form of audio guides weaving through the air - snippets of historical narratives blending with the natural acoustics of the stone walls.  This descent is more than a physical act; it’s a passage through layers of time and experience. From the awe-inspiring heights to the grounded pulse of everyday Salamanca, the recording encapsulates the beauty of transition, where echoes of the sacred meet the drone of the ordinary. UNESCO listing: Clerecia Towers Recorded by Serge Bulat. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Fi

Mechanisms of wooden frames and wools in a seemingly textural sonic dialog during a Kente weaving session at Asante Bonwire. Among the Asante (or Ashanti) people of Ghana, West Africa, a popular legend relates how two young men—Ota Karaban and his friend Kwaku Ameyaw—learned the art of weaving by observing a spider weaving its web. One night, the two went out into the forest to check their traps, and they were amazed by a beautiful spider’s web whose many unique designs sparkled in the moonlight. The spider, named Ananse, offered to show the men how to weave such designs in exchange for a few favors. After completing the favors and learning how to weave the designs with a single thread, the men returned home to Bonwire (Bonwire is the town in the Asante region of Ghana where kente weaving originated), and their discovery was soon reported to Asantehene Osei Tutu, first ruler of the Asante kingdom. The asantehene adopted their creation, named kente, as a royal cloth reserved for special occasions, and Bonwire

I was interested in this field recording, taken from Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Japan featuring monks chanting their morning prayer. I’ve aimed to create a musical space that allows their prayers to serve as a background and a constant, with distinct sections complementing and reflecting the ongoing prayer and the approaching dawn. Monks chanting in Nara reimagined by Jaspal Singh Bhogal. ——————— 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 Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta is a Neolithic subterranean structure dating from before 3000 BC. A necropolis and a place of sanctuary, it comprises several chambers carved out of the rock with primitive tools. The sophistication of its creators is evident from the intricate patterns painted in ochre on the ceilings and the entry of light from the surface, which is thought to have illuminated the façade of one of the main chambers at the winter solstice. "For the musician, of particular interest is a niche in the middle chamber, the Oracle Room, apparently created specifically to project sound throughout the Hypogeum. It has also been suggested that the structure resonates at the ‘holy frequency’ of 111 Hz (actually nearer to 118 Hz, to this composer’s ear), a feature shared with other Maltese temples and structures of the period. Whatever the truth of this assertion, the strong resonance in the source recording is one of the main features of Hypogeum, along with the evocation (through signal

On a tour in the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, walking around. You can here other tourists on the tour and recorded guides. August 2008. UNESCO listing: Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum Recorded by David Webb. ——————— 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

Kasuga Taisha Shrine is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara UNESCO site in Japan. Every day, monks chant the morning prayer (chōhai) in the Naoraiden (Ceremony Hall) and the public is welcome to observe.  This recording was made on 13 December, 2024 and captures part of the prayer. There were 5 monks and 7 of us in the public area. I was the only western person. In the recording, you can hear the chant as well as sounds from the other attendees. UNESCO listing: Historic Momuments of Ancient Nara - Kasuga-Taisha Shrine 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

"My composition 'Our Tapes Have Nothing To Do With You' was inspired by AJ Born's field recording particularly for the fact that the recording documents the end of a Christmas Market in Germany. This fact, and the general atmosphere of the soundscape, reminded me of two really special and memorable weekend trips I'd taken with friends in 2018 and 2019 – to Belgium and Sweden respectively, during that lead-up period to Christmas. I felt weirdly inspired by the fact that a recording made by a person I have never met, of a place I have never been to, could evoke these specific personal memories of completely different places and different people. This thought heavily informed the lyrics that I wrote for 'Our Tapes Have Nothing To Do With You', and the way in which I distort and reshape portions of AJ's original recording throughout the song. Overall, I feel this all ties into Sonic Heritage's interest in the overlooked importance of sound – the way in which the preserved sound of a space and time can tell us so

"This field recording of Buddhist chanting in what seems to be a temple in India was personally very timely. After recently reading several books on Buddhist philosophy and spiritual practices, finding this particular field recording in the the Sonic Heritage catalogue seemed by coincidence to be the perfect source to work with on this project. "Having decided immediately not to stray too far from the setting and the ambience of the original recording, I set about to enhance the musical aspects of the field recording, while repurposing as many of the original sounds as possible. The intent was to preserve the space, people and performance while adding the structure and influence of mystical-like rhythms to draw in the listener." Monks chanting at Leh reimagined by Gerald Fratzl (Absturtzt). ——————— 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 took a lullaby theme as a counterpoint to the noise. Firework sound samples provide rhythmical element. Chaos stabilises as the recording ends, to create a final sense of calm and serenity. Shanghai street festival reimagined by HDRF. ——————— 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

Buddhist chanting at Ladakh. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Buddhist chanting of Ladakh: recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region, Jammu and Kashmir, India 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