Cities And Memory

The field recording upon which this piece is based doesn't sound like much, but it represents a huge moment for the Cities and Memory project, and a personal moment for me. The first ever overseas recording submitted to the project back in 2015 was from Sofienbergparken in Oslo, and it felt incredible that the project had managed to reach anyone outside of the UK and inspire them to submit a sound. From tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow, and ten years later we're close to 8,000 sounds submitted to the project. I was invited to return to Oslo to perform Cities and Memory live shows and deliver a presentation, and so visiting Sofienbergparken was a kind of pilgrimage to me - a place I'd imagined through sound but never seen. It was a glorious September late afternoon, with warm golden sunshine, and I recorded a walkthrough of the park, with lots of different groups all enjoying the space, from children in the playground to groups listening to music and smoking, groups playing table tennis, groups sitting around en