Cities And Memory

"I’ve always viewed and listened to the ocean in a special way, and the sounds of the field recording inspired me to create this piece. I called it Impermanence for a couple of reasons… just like our lives and our consciousness, the waves are both individual and part of the ocean at the same time - all and one. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as is said in Buddhism. "At my mother’s funeral a couple of years back, as is part of our culture, we scattered her ashes into a river, which flows into the ocean. So I always think of her when I look out into the sea, wherever I am in the world, as she's now a part of it. I managed to get some sampled recordings of her, from an old video recorder my brother had playing with my niece some 20 odd years ago, which I've placed in the middle of the piece… hopefully conveying my memories of her within the sounds of the ocean waves. "We all have different beliefs which of course should be respected, but I believe we as humans are both temporary (in conscious existence)

The sunsets on Malapascua Island in the Philippines feel like explosions in the sky — wild, breathtaking, and almost unreal. But beneath that blaze of colour, it’s the sound of the waves that holds you — soft laps against the shoreline, repeating like a forgotten lullaby. I stayed there alone, wrapped in the rhythm of the sea, as if time had unraveled and tomorrow didn’t exist. The sky burned in hues I didn’t know names for, and the ocean spoke in its slow, endless tongue. In that moment, sound and color were equal — and both were everything. Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"A woman writes a message during her daily tram commute to work. Seemingly insignificant details, like selling a table or a couch, hide a deeply personal story about love, and the fragility of the hope for new beginnings." Melbourne tram journey reimagined by Cristina Marras.

This recording from 2025 captures a short commute using Melbourne's iconic trams in the city centre. It's not unusual for trams to be packed and this afternoon was no exception as many people were also heading to a football game.  The clatter of the trams mingle with conversations and crosswalks, bringing the Melbourne CBD to life. Recorded in Melbourne, Australia by Janina Castro.

"Invisible Anchor is a downtempo ambient track centred around a seismic field recording of an electricity pylon, this served as the primary background pad. The field recording was tuned to the track's key using Temperance Pro from Eventide and it matched the track length precisely. For the overall character, the master mix was run through Air Music Tech's FlavorPro with a tweaked cassette tape preset to introduce a lo-fi vibe. All music elements originated from Sonic Charge's Synplant II and the Air Music Tech DrumSynth." Electricity pylon in Wytham Woods, England reimagined by Karhide.

This is a recording made with a seismic microphone attached to an electricity pylon in the English countryside in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire.  The sounds come from the wind vibrating the entire structure, as captured by this specialist microphone. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"Thinking about the ascent and the vastness of Gran Sasso Park I stretched sounds to hold the sound of the water and this suggested voices so Caruso takes a trip to the park." Gran Sasso park in Italy reimagined by Stuart Wilding.

Living with an isolated Shipibo indigenous family in the Peruvian Amazon, this recording features an ícaro titled "Yoi Jacon" ("another world") by curandera Ronin Mea. The chant speaks of a realm beyond our own, filled with ancient wisdom, amidst the backdrop of a disappearing way of life due to deforestation and modernization. Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

The gentle tinkling of cowbells in a field among the Dolomites at the end of a long summer afternoon. Recorded in Colmean, Italy by Cities and Memory, June 2025.  

"The field recording is a completed song, sung to the backdrop of a symphony of sounds apparently arising from the Peruvian Amazon setting where the performance and recoding took place. The chant/song repeats and winds upwards in tonal centre as it journeys through a call and response form.  "My composition takes shape as a tribute to the eternal, calm yet elegant and alive feeling and state of mind that I experienced with the field recording. The oud is performed as a single extended gesture of surprise and awe, playfully speaking to the song’s landscape with juxtaposing textures and rhythms." Shipibo icaro in Peru reimagined by Mastaneh Nazarian.

"I liked the tonal qualities of this recording. There is a constantly varying pattern of sound: the cars, trucks and buses never pass over in the same configuration so the tones will always combine differently. Each time I improvised this musical re-creation was also unique. The different patterns of sound could have gone on for eternity, but here I have just reimagined it twice." Hawthorne bridge, Portland reimagined by Philip Gibbs. 

The Hawthorne Bridge, built in 1910 is the oldest vertical lift bridge in the USA and the oldest highway bridge in Portland, Oregon. I stood beneath it one sunny summer day, as the traffic passed over the open steel grills of the carriageway creating the rushing tones in this recording. Recorded by Paul Stephens-Wood.

"I thought about the cows maybe wanting someone else to jam along with in the Dolomites, and then a bunch of choristers turn up with a wannabe DJ in tow, and they end up getting it together just in time for milking." Cowbells in Colmean, the Dolomites reimagined by Rod Dykeman.

Persistent, detailed creaking wood and metal sounds coming from the floating dock structure on Hovedoya island, Oslo, along with gentle wave sounds underneath, September 2025. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"I really liked the calmness of the sea which contrasted with the harsher sounding creaking wood and metal sounds. I created a track that features and contrasts between these two sounds.  "I used a variety of samplers, loopers, delays, reverbs and other effects to create an ambient, tape-loop, drone type of track with a stilted - wonky - rhythm created from drum-like sounds and the creaks created from the recording.  "It came out a bit darker than intended, I started trying out recording a few ideas and really liked the result so kept the original one-take live recording." Creaking dock on Hovedoya islands, Oslo reimagined by Andy Lyon.

"It is a wonderful and relaxing recording that evokes sitting down and unwinding after a long day. I chose to include a few happy and playful guitar tracks, maybe like the music a person would strum themselves or listen to whilst sitting by a river before bedtime. A very joyful recording session for the Autumn Project." Mara river, Kenya soundscape reimagined by Jeff Brown. IMAGE: Danijel Mihajlovic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

It is around 11.00 pm at Malaika camp, Kenya. The sound of the river is always present. Different types of birds are singing. Hippos are aroung the area and can be heard. Also in a distance lions calling each other can be heard (7'10) At the end of the attached video you can see the river Mara in the daylight and a hippo coming into the river, recorded from the camp's restaurant. Recorded by Christina Antoniadou. IMAGE: Danijel Mihajlovic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A unique recording in the kitchen at Bremen Bonbon Manufaktur, as sweet-making maestro Luca takes us through the process of making sweets by hand, including heating up mixtures, adding sugar, manipulating the still-warm ropes of sugary candy into the right shapes, chopping them down to size and more.  An aural record of a traditional - and delicious - handmade practice.  Recorded at Bremen Bonbon Manufaktur by Cities and Memory. 

"I love port sounds and this had so much more. An untuned bell and a brass band too. I split the recording into four "stems" and then edited it down to 4 minutes, bounced them down then added some effects and some subtly detuning resonant bass." Aker Brygge harbour soundscape, Oslo reimagined by David Webb.

At Aker Brygge in Oslo, a tourist catamaran docks, we hear its engines throbbing as it manoeuvres into the dock. Passengers disembark under instruction from the crew, and all the while we hear the arhythmic bell chimes from the Untuned Bell sound installation to our right. Recorded by Cities and Memory, September 2025.