Cities And Memory

"The recording is of a tornado warning siren with howling wind and rain. Although we don't get tornadoes in my part of the world, I do enjoy stormy weather- from the comfort of my own cozy home. This is what I imagined when creating this piece: a warm cozy home where you can ignore the chaos going on around you.  "The title, "Placid island" is from a H. P. Lovecraft- Call of Cthulhu quote, "We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far"."  Fisherville tornado warning siren reimagined by Lynn Findlay.

There have been talks of a large storm moving in after many tornadoes had already touched down in the western part of the state earlier that day. Just before midnight, the rain calms down as the clouds lower, and the tornado sirens begin.  I sit outside recording the dissonant yet beautiful cacophony of the overlapping sirens while neighbours step outside to asses the situation before the storm picks up and everyone makes their way to take shelter as the tornado touches down nearby. Sheltering in the basement as the tornado touches down, your ears pop as if an airplane is taking off due to the rapid change in pressure.  The tornado passed by, leaving my childhood home unscathed, but others in the state were not so lucky. Days after these storms, the City of Louisville experienced one of the worst floods in its history.  Recorded by Andrew Ramsey.

"Irreversible Change is an ambient track built around a field recording captured at the Pryvoz Market. The natural bustle of the environment is anchored by a sparse, glitchy beat created withthe Air DrumSynth. The rest of the soundscape is shaped by a piano-like Sonic Charge Synplant 2 patch, which floats over the glitchy percussion and the chaotic market noise." Pryvoz market, Ukraine reimagined by Karhide.

This recording was made during a Kathakali performance — a traditional Indian theatre art form native to the Malayalam-speaking state of Kerala. It captures a 9-minute percussive piece performed by an ensemble featuring the Chenda and Maddalam, two prominent drums of the tradition, accompanied by the echoing tones of Chengila (gong) and Elathalam (cymbals). Recorded from the audience’s perspective, the audio reflects not just the instruments themselves but also the layered soundscape projected through nearby speakers, with occasional murmurs that ground the recording in the real-life atmosphere of the performance. Recorded in Ettumanoor, India by Manu Krishnakumar.

Recording at Pryvoz Market in Odessa was a mix of emotions. The market buzzed with life, as vendors sold goods and people clung to everyday routines despite the ongoing conflict. There was a sense of resilience in the air, but beneath the bustle, a quiet sadness lingered.  It reflected the uncertainty of the war between Ukraine and Russia, casting a shadow over the moments of normalcy that still persisted. Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"In reimagining this field recording, I drew upon the raw power of musique concrète by manipulating and deconstructing the layered sounds from the Kathakali performance. I used noise synths to push these textures into distorted, static-filled territories, creating a sense of immersion that moved away from the traditional and into the realm of sonic experimentation. "The distant murmurs and ambient noises from the audience were subtly amplified, weaving them into a dissonant tapestry that, though still grounded in the live experience, felt like a journey through a space where cultural tradition and experimental sound collide. By harnessing drone-like sustained tones, I sought to accentuate the timeless, ritualistic nature of the performance, while pushing its auditory limits, creating an environment where the familiar meets the unfamiliar." reimagined by 42.

The sound of religious singing in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Rome. A calm evening in February before the Basilica shuts its doors for the night, I wandered into the near-empty church to record the soothing sounds of religious hymns that seeped into the dimly lit streets of Rome.  Recorded by Andrew Ramsey.

"Upon first hearing the Santa Maria field recording, I felt a strong sense of place. It was as if I were right there in Rome. I cut a section of the field recording and used the priest's words and the loudest plainchant singing to compose a story song. To create a character and add atmosphere, I added a short recording of my own footsteps walking. The song unfolds: a curious traveler; what she discovers and what she takes with her.  "As far as instrumentation, I knew I wanted to use Mandy, my mandolin, to honor Italy. Guitars, percussion, a synth choir of "Ah-Ah", and a walking rhythm help define one night in Rome at closing time." Santa Maria basilica in Rome reimagined by Anna Tynsky. 

Sunset in Cairo, by the Nile River, during evening call to prayers. Recorded by Helen Copnall.

 |The recording is made in the night, we hear a chorus of morning birds with some unique vocalisations, the perspective is typical for Hong Kong which is defined by skyscraper architecture, this recording was made from an apartment on the 18th floor through the window, which gives an indirect impression - an observation in sound of city going quiet in the night, creating space for non-human expressions. The birds are enveloped by the noise and hiss of the city at dawn. Recorded by Robin Koek.

"The original soundscape contains the call of the Asian Koel, a bird whose song is highly characteristic of Hong Kong, my hometown. This distinctive, rising 'ko-el' call, heard at dawn during the springtime, carries a strong personal resonance; it often signalled the arrival of the sun as I worked into the early hours.  "For this composition, I drew from my personal sound library to layer several recordings of the Koel's call. The resulting, multiplied chorus creates a dense, exaggerated dawn soundscape—a sonic event that stands apart from reality, as I've never heard more than two Asian Koels calling at the same time." About Asian Koel : https://digital.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/hkwildtracks/animal_detail.php?ids=HWT-000034&fbclid=IwAR28f0hih30zMutRepAv7-srLE1GBTN_xumUWOO-UjKjIzxfHUyVD7VRCBA  Hong Kong dawn chorus reimagined by Wong Chun Hoi.

"The original soundtrack I used from Cities & Memory's archive was recorded on a street in Cairo at sunset, outside the Marriott Hotel and Omar Khayyam casino, on Saray El Gezira Street. The famous Gezirah Palace was completed in 1869 by Khedive Ismail, to host dignitaries for the opening of the Suez Canal that year. When I first listened to this piece I heard, among the sounds of car horns and the evening prayer call, the sound of footsteps running down the street and away, and a sharp gasp of breath. The whipping wind in the microphone sounded like a jinn or an Afreet, plural Afareet. It reminded me of my favourite song El Shawarea Hawadeet (the streets are tales) by El Masreyeen from 1977. Lonely streets echoing with memories, stories and Afareet.  "In the final piece, you can hear layers of sounds from different eras. The song Al Bulbul Gani (the nightingale came to me) recorded in Cairo in 1906, written by Abd al-hayy Hilmi; the sounds of drumming used in the Cairo Zar women’s ritual by the group Ma

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

A special recording for me - the very first recording from outside the UK submitted to Cities and Memory in 2015 was from Sofienbergparken in Oslo. It seemed like a dream that not only had the project somehow managed to cross borders, but had also made a connection of some kind, so to me even this humble city park held a kind of magic.  To go there ten years later and record it for myself felt like a special moment, so this recording holds power for me. Within it, you'll hear an evening walkthrough in golden sunlight, with groups chatting and playing music, children playing, people playing ping pong and generally hanging out on a Saturday evening.  Recorded by Cities and Memory, September 2025.  

"Having enjoyed family holidays on Skye in the past I was immediately drawn to this recording as Quiraing is one of those places that makes you really appreciate what an amazing thing this planet is.  "Catch a good sunrise/sunset and it's genuinely breathtaking. I wanted to try and capture just a little bit of that feeling in my piece." Quiraing, Isle of Skye water sounds reimagined by Exit Chamber.

"The spacious, off-tempo, off-tune malaise of the Wakimachi field recording creates an in-between space that mirrors Japanese Canadian performance artist Nobuo Kubota’s reflections on childhood memories and the threshold between cultures and languages." Nighttime soundscape in Wakimachi reimagined by Emiko Morita.

"The original field recording had a mesmerising quality that pulled me toward Bamiyan’s complex and fascinating history. I wanted my remix to encapsulate the emotions I experienced along the way. The piece is a very minimal, improvised song, centred on one instrument supported by a time-stretched slice of the field recording."   Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Gholghata reimagined by Anni Elea.

Soundscape at Shahr-e-Gholghola - Dari: شهر غلغله - City of Screams, City of Woe, City of Sorrows - in Bamyan, Afghanistan. Completely destroyed and population massacred by Genghis Khan in 1221. In the recording you can hear the wind, the dust, the sorrow, possibly some screams. This soundscape-composition is part of the HEYR project, presenting 3-dimensional soundscapes from special locations, connected to special events. Find out more by visiting https://www.heyr.no Recorded by Anders Vinjar.

Captured deep within Kichua tribal territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon, this nocturnal soundscape reveals a hidden world that awakens after dusk. Above, bats flicker through the darkness, their wings slicing the air in delicate beats. Insects surge into a symphony of pulses and hums — sharp, electric, as though the forest itself were alive with circuitry.  A solitary monkey stirs unseen branches, its movements dissolving into the whispers of leaves. From afar, a howl drifts through the trees — haunting, fragile, a fleeting brush with the unseen. Beneath it all, a stream murmurs softly, threading its rhythm through the night’s weave.  This recording is more than sound. It is a portal into the rainforest’s secret hours — where every ripple, chirp, and rustle speaks of survival, connection, and fragile wonder.  Each voice is part of a living chorus, intricate and unrepeatable. To listen is to witness: the raw nocturnal poetry of the Amazon, and the urgency of protecting both its vanishing song and the ancestra

"For reasons I can't fathom when I heard this sound file I instantly thought of Moondog. So this is my attempt at a Moondog type composition - almost mathematical in approach. The title is a quote from the 1959 film 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' which explores themes of memory, love, and the lasting trauma of war." Lecture in Hiroshima City reimagined by Adam Leonard.