Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"The recording immediately jumped out at me with its' chattering insects, bees and voices, and a little noise. "I wanted to draw tones from the buzzing and clicks to make something that felt like you were exploring the world through resonance and reflection."I did a little live modular jamming to explore the material first - which led to this idea of using the bees buzzing as a gateway into this alternative world and back again:https://www.youtube.com/live/LmFAG4Ry708"It's like you just got lost for a moment, briefly seeing the world a different way."Insect hotel in Goettingen reimagined by Warren Anthony.

"Originating from the ghosts of urban interactions, the field recording was completely taken apart. Fragments were stretched and reshaped into drones, others reduced to abstract one-shots that sit somewhere between percussion and texture."Everything was composed and arranged in Ableton Live 12 with Push 3, and built entirely on instinct. No plan, no concept, just chasing what sounded right until the piece came together. The result sits in dark, dubby territory, with an edge of spiky fuzz that reflects the source material more than any deliberate decision."Bremen bridge soundscape reimagined by Alistair Petersen.

Recording inside three different zones of the Palm House at Tallinn Botanic Garden, with the natural reverby acoustic of the space, piped birdsong, and the sounds of various fans and heating devices. Recorded in Tallinn, Estonia by Cities and Memory.

Great-tailed grackles force their existence into urban spaces. Every dusk during Arizona's mild winters, these birds congregate and chatter for two hours, avian voices intermingling with bustling downtown activity. This sample features the grackles at their peak, a hundred birds shouting to be heard over one another. Yet, they share an uneasy coexistence with the city: local businesses hire people to scare away the grackles with laser pointers, while a loud siren frightens off the birds in the recording, causing them to fly across the roadside canopy in a fretful murmuration. Eventually, the grackles settle, and they gabber until falling asleep, voices quieting into a gentle din.This recording was created for a study on great-tailed grackle roost vocalisation behaviour.Recorded in Tempe, AZ, USA by Brandon Ligon.

"The original field recording of the botanic gardens in Tallinn, Estonia, reminded me of how much I enjoy visiting these spaces, unusual and exotic flora from around the world in a little capsule… some rare specimens may only exist in these manmade protective bubbles…"For the project I extracted 6 sections of the original audio, between 5 and 25 seconds in length… (No other audio was used). I processed these on my iPad with various granular synthesis apps (Fluss, Tardigrain, Outgrowth, etc.)to dissect, disassemble, rearrange and reconstruct into a new composition."As well as adding further effects; delay, filter, distortion and reverb etc. to create 3 separate granular textured layers which I then combined together to create the final track.  Some eq/compression to finalise.“The recursive manipulation; chopping, stretching and distorting of the original audio, creates a sort of dystopian cybernetic jungle, a cacophony of alien and mechanical, yet almost familiar sounds, echo around this synthetic environment…”Botanic garden in Tallinn reimagined by id_23.

"In the recording that forms the basis of the composition, two elements act as tonic and signal, respectively: the sound of the grackles and a loud siren. The siren, a disturbing element, has been time-stretched to transform it into brushstrokes of colour, thus entering a new temporal and gestural dimension. These brushstrokes of colour unfold against the background sound of the grackles." | Nicola Fumo Frattegiani

Bees swarming around their insect hotel in a small city park and birds chirping in the background.Recorded in Goettingen, Germany by Gilberto Mazzoli.

Under the Wilhelm-Kaisen Bruecke, with trams overhead on the bridge, bicycles and walkers passing us, and the natural reverb sounds of such a large concrete structure heard from beneath. Recorded in Bremen, Germany by Cities and Memory.

Historically, Wuhan’s soundscape must have been incredibly diverse — a nexus of nine provinces and a land of rivers and lakes. Yet, precisely because of this, its development and changes have been lightning fast. Changti Street was one of the few spots that fit the project’s theme at the time. In the afternoon, the street buzzes with activity but feels relaxed and unhurried. Shop owners along the way take their time, some even napping or strolling idly. Customers come in small groups, mostly local regulars who greet passersby—a scene uncommon elsewhere. One owner mentioned the street might relocate or renovate due to its “dirty, disorderly, and poor” state; who knows how it stands now.Wuhan street soundscape recorded by Digimonk.

Water at the Ground Zero Memorial. Two basins approximately on the site of each of the twin towers. The sound in the Ambisonics recording is of the water flowing into the two pools.Recorded by Anders Vinjar.

"I got married in Wuhan in 2010, and always found the place to be even more chaotic than the rest of China. The best thing, though, is breakfast, which we always had from a stall in the street and sat and ate while the rush hour got going nearby. I've used this sample to recreate something of the aural landscape of those mornings, as well as the salty and spicy flavour of the food."Wuhan old town soundscape reimagined by James M Errington.

"I used the recording of Ground Zero in New York, I shortened it and manipulated the sound in Adobe Audition. I like creating noise."Ground Zero reimagined by Matej Velkavrh.

"Hyena Signal (Industrial Drift) is an evolving piece born from a collaboration between Karhide and Deep Dive Sound, shaped around snippets of the recording “Maasai Tribe: Songs of the Widows.” The work emerged through a natural creative process, blending Karhide’s post rock and drone influenced textures with Deep Dive Sound’s nature immersed ambient layers and distinctive field recordings."Karhide created the first sonic foundations of the track through guitar driven textures and fragile harmonic movements, opening space for Deep Dive Sound to build a narrative through sound and atmosphere. Field recordings captured across Maasai lands allow elements of place, memory, and lived experience to become an integral part of the music itself."The result is an immersive sonic journey where ambient, drone, and ethnographic sound merge into a deeply organic listening experience that reflects both fragility and strength through landscape, memory, and voice."Maasai song reimagined by Karhide and Deep Dive Sound.

Outside Oslo's impressive, somewhat brutalist town hall building, there is a large "staircase fountain" with many layers - here we record the sounds from this fountain from many different depths and angles, with the faint sounds of the city at 10.00pm on a quiret evening behind us.Recorded in Oslo, Norway by Cities and Memory, May 2025.

A naturally reverberant amphibian chorus with a wide stereo image.  Trumpeting frogs can also be heard throughout the composition.Apenkwa is a new addition to areas in and around Koforidua where wetlands have been highly affected by building and construction activities.Recording by Emmanuel Baffoe, Ghana.Monitoring, Editing, and Mastering by Samuel Kudjodzi, Germany. Emmanuel Baffoe is one of 5 trainees selected for the Soundscape Ecology Education Ghana program organised by Samuel Kudjodzi, founder of CSEM (Center for Soundscape Ecology and Multimedia) @csem_official. This project is supported by earth fm with field recording equipment set.

Recorded in 2025. I recorded the sounds of the forest near my house.This is a walking trail for the neighbours. There is running water side the path and you can hear the communication of birds. This is my first field recording work.Recorded in Inokashira Park, Mure, Mitaka City, Tokyo by Minami Kamada.

Intense traffic noise recorded from directly under an underpass at Queen's Quay, next to the Lagan River in Belfast. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

"The amphibian music is complete and beautiful, including both melodic and rhythmic elements, so then what? What could I possibly add? "I kept the raw nature recording unaltered and layered on a variety of synth instruments, providing a tension and interplay that questions, what is natural?"Ghana amphibian chorus reimagined by Heather Spence.

"I wanted to keep the original field recording intact, and juxtapose it against a treated version. I feel with a project like this that it's important the original field recording can shine through and be part of the music. "The piano is actually two improvised solos playing against each other and glued with a drone from a Serge modular system." Inokashira Park, Tokyo reimagined by Cole Dano.

"Breath, bodies, river, smog."When I first heard this field recording I immediately heard a melody. I imagined the river carrying layers of song, remnants of the past softened and polished by the water over time. "The imagery of an overpass with the river flowing beneath reminded me of a thread or rope twisting, starting from one point and ending up in another. The traffic sounds serve as a backdrop to the initial melody (and the percussive transition) before converging with the layered melody, creating a sort of echo of the past. Lineage, water, icebergs, ships and cities that leave a legacy."Heavy bridge traffic in Belfast reimagined by Aemivore.

"The hypnotic sound of a fountain in Oslo becomes a moment of wonder, inviting the listener to enter another reality. Using recordings from UbuWeb, we were fascinated by what Lacan thought about Alice in Wonderland. "We combined the original sound of Oslo's fountain with music by Lazzaruolo/Villanova and Lacan's words creating a dialogue between voice, imagination, and atmosphere."Oslo fountains reimagined by Giovanna Iorio (concept, research) and Lucio Lazzaruolo (music).

This recording features a cappella chants from the Breton tradition performed in solo within the historic chapels of Ouessant island - a unique acoustic setting where complaints, canticles and popular songs resound in French and Breton. Recorded on Ouessant Island, France by Florent Picollet.

The recording is from April 17, 2025. The recording point was chosen under the iron bridge that crosses the Tiber River near the town of Pretola a few kilometers from Perugia in Umbria. Interesting reflections and resonances are created under the bridge. Water is certainly the dominant acoustic element but its veil is constantly torn by a multitude of sounds. The bridge, despite being located in a densely populated and busy area, isolates the urban environment creating a capsule of natural sounds.Recorded by Nicola Fumo Frattegiani.

A surreal discovery in a deserted motorway service station in Lazio. Behind the gas pumps stands a small, post-modern chapel, empty and silent. Inside, hidden low-fi speakers broadcast a bizarre loop of farm animals (goats, roosters) and distorted Christmas carols. The recording captures the haunting reverb of this lonely, sacred space, where kitsch sounds and motorway melancholy collide in a glitchy, suburban liturgy.Recorded in Casalecchio di Reno (BO), Italy by Andrea Tondi.

Tourists strolling on the foggy night, we could hear men singing in a courtyard just beyond the bridge. Using my iPhone with a Rode Me-L, I walked to the circle of men, paused, and then exited down a narrow pathway between two buildings. Subsequent research confirmed that we were in an historic Jewish ghetto and the occasion for song and feasting was Lag BaOmar. Recorded in Venice by Emiko Morita.IMAGE: G.dallorto, CC BY-SA 2.5 IT https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/it/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

"The haunting chants from this recording are so powerful, at first I was intimidated. I really wanted to preserve the integrity of the voices while also creating a new sonic experience. I also wanted to explore the type of communion that happens in a space such as this historic chapel. |So utilising a lot of stretching to mimic waves on the sea I hoped to express the expanse of time across generations, a reaching out of one hand to grasp another. It’s as if a story is always unfolding through this beautiful oral tradition and my hope is to emphasize the sacredness of that here."Ouessant Island chapel reimagined by Aemivore.

"A surreal discovery in a deserted motorway service station in Lazio. Behind the gas pumps stands a small, post-modern chapel, empty and silent. Inside, hidden low-fi speakers broadcast a bizarre loop of farm animals and distorted Christmas carols. The recording captures the haunting reverb of this lonely, sacred space, where kitsch sounds and motorway melancholy collide in a glitchy, suburban liturgy."To respond to this recording, I wanted to preserve its surreal, absurd and almost filmic character. The scene felt like something from a strange theatre production or an abandoned movie set, where familiar sounds take on an unsettling, dreamlike quality against the hum of the road. To capture this feeling I used a piano-led approach, collaging harmonic and melodic sounds from the recording and using pauses and space. Rather than filling the sonic landscape, I wanted to create room for the atmosphere of the original recording. I was reminded of Samuel Beckett and his use of absurdity, repetition and space in writing this piece. I aimed to use the theatrical strangeness of the recording while leaving space for its strangeness and melancholy to linger."Italian autogrill nativity reimagined by Laura Hills.

"While I was exploring the recording, I noticed a small pulsating noise, almost like the beating of a heart. It made me think about the interconnectedness of nature — no living being is truly separate, there is the same pulse that runs through every fibre of this planet. "I started to play with the idea of turning the river into something bodily while maintaining a feeling of abstraction and fluidity. Since I wanted to fully explore its pure potentiality, I chose not to add any new sounds or instruments: Every sound in this piece is created from the same sample."Pretola bridge reimagined by Jen S. Neidhardt.

"I was captivated by the collective choral singing and the way the melody naturally became fractured and glitched through the layering of voices and their echoes bouncing through the streets."The main vocal melody became the backbone of the piece, with alto clarinet framing and responding to the voices before drones and distortion gradually emerge. The rhythmic clapping provides momentum for the second half, carrying the music forward as the singing slowly dissipates into the distance, leaving the clarinet alone to complete the melody."Venetian ghetto soundscape reimagined by N.Kleiner.IMAGE: G.dallorto, CC BY-SA 2.5 IT https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/it/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

"My response to the field recording started with appreciating the every-day sounds in the recording, and recognising that sometimes it is in the every-day-ness of those sounds there is something special: when we can pay attention to all the detail is where I personally find moments of quiet revelation, dappled sunlight, the light on clouds or time to listen to birdsong. From there it was embroidered with a piano part, reverbed strings and MS20."Port Colborne soundscape reimagined by de Velden.

"My great-grandfather was a glassblower. He was gone long before my time, but I grew up feeling his presence in my grandmother's house. Hearing this field recording felt like a way back to him, and to something older. Molten glass has always reminded me of primordial earth and creation myths. I built the piece from fragments of the recording, layered with synthesizers. I hope you find something cosmic in here. "Thus created were the islands,Rocks were fastened in the ocean,Pillars of the sky were planted,Fields and forests were created,Checkered stones of many colors,Gleaming in the silver sunlight"— Kalevala, Rune I, translated by John Martin Crawford (1888) St Helen's glassblowing reimagined by Anni Roenkae.

"I shared the quiet, non-mechanical sounds from old town Shanghai with Ruth Tsang to prompt her childhood memories of leaving the city in May 1949. Rhythmic patterns extracted from the field recording were used to shape a loose structure for the oral history." Shanghai street soundscape reimagined by Emiko Morita.

"When I heard the field recording of people milling around Gloucester Cathedral, the choir rehearsing with the organist, I liked to think of the many ghosts that (probably) reside in the cathedral and them weaving in and out of the congregation and choir, possibly into the organ as well, unbeknownst to anyone but themselves. "The organ samples have been retuned/detuned against an waltz time drum beat playing against a common time baseline."Gloucester Cathedral soundscape reimagined by Moray Newlands.

"The clanking of the flagpole was what piqued my interest initially. Being from a smallish town in England originally, it's a sound I am very familiar with - this was then compounded with the pigeons and the bin trucks; again, all very familiar sounds, and ones that are mostly missing in my current home of New Zealand. "With the approach of the memories this triggered in me, I also wanted to include a nod to the 'Englishness' of it all. To this end, I have layered strings and choral voices across the original sounds to give it something of an Elgarian feel. At least in my head."In terms of processing, all the percussion is derived from the flagpole or other sounds within the original piece. I've also processed most of the strings and the bass through snippets of the original to give it a more coherent and gritty feel. And finally, there are a couple of synths that use samples of the pigeon and the bin truck. Holbrook village green reimagined by maff (Matt George).IMAGE: Ovingham Village Green by Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

This is the sound of a master glassblower, Marcin Czepiga at The World of Glass. He is blowing and shaping glass for the museum shop after the visitors have left. The sound is unique as usually, only the glassblowers at the museum will hear the process as it is in the recording. During public glassblowing demonstrations, there would be talking therefore a different sound to what is heard here. St Helens is world famous for glass and the story of an industry entwined there is being kept alive in this recording. The Hot Glass Studio is one of the largest in the UK.The recording was taken in 2025.Recorded by Rebecca Ainsworth.

The chosen location of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, signifies the opening of the Welland Canal in late March of 2025. The constant hum of the freighters and lakers, which ply these waters on the Lake Erie coast, are mixed with those of a nearby playground, gulls, Canada Geese and Red-wing blackbirds. As the ice on the coast is partially frozen, there are few sounds of water along the shoreline.Recorded by Troy Ouellette.

Kongjia Nong Lane may be the last patch of lilong old district in Shanghai’s city center, with its iconic passageway buildings—a classic snapshot of the city’s past—recently demolished. One resident returned to their old home to gather final belongings, murmuring to themselves. In summers past, they might have set out small tables and bamboo chairs at the doorstep for cooling off, dining, or ga sanhu (chatting). Without the muffled clamour of neighbours, their murmurs grow clear, the room’s reverberation spilling into the alley, amplified again. This hollow, resonant echo is etched into the temporal lobes of the residents—a soundscape shared across generations. After moving to new homes, will it take them long to adjust?Recorded in Shanghai, China by Digimonk.

| A congregation waits in Gloucester Cathedral on Good Friday for the Easter liturgy to begin. The hubbub of voices echoes in the vast space of the nave. Then the Cathedral choir and organ begins to practice before the service.Recorded by Paul Stephens-Wood.

Home to both the village hall and quoits club, the Holbrook village green sits almost slap bang in the centre of the village. With the COOP supermarket, Methodist Hall, Swan public house and an independent butcher all nearby, this area of the village is the central hub of village life. What interests me sonically about the the present day village green is its flagpole, upon which the union flag is raised and lowered daily (like many other villages across the country). Even the gentlest breath of wind can cause the rope to clang and vibrate against the hollow metal pole. On a breezy day in August 2024, I set up my recording equipment in the late morning and sat back to listen. There was a palpable hum of activity as people came to run errands or shop. And, as always, a pigeon could be heard cooing away.Whilst I was recording, the sound of the dustbin lorry approaching could be heard. This sound is one of the regular sounds of any community and the hissing and clanking of the heavy lorry can often jar your focus from whatever task you are currently doing, to run out and check that your bin is ready for collection (as missing it would mean a lengthy period of time until they would return).I love the sounds of a bin collection: the hissing of air brakes, pneumatic lifting, the drones of an emptied wheely bin wheels on concrete, the slamming of lids and occasional shouts from the workers, and (if you are lucky) the beeping warning sound of the vehicle reversing.(Holbrook is a small village located 6 miles from the town of Ipswich, England.)Recorded by Matthew Shenton.IMAGE: Ovingham Village Green by Andrew Curtis, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Inside Gare du Nord, an unusual sonic addition - the fake sounds of birdsong piped in from speakers in the ceiling. The intention, I'm sure, is to bring a little nature into the station and to help travellers feel more relaxed. However, the combination of the huge station space, the volume of the bird calls and the speaker position leads 90% of travellers to ignore the sounds, 5% to look extremely confused at what's going on, and about another 5% to listen, notice and smile. The birdsong also blends into the beeping of the ticket gate - nature and machinery together in sound. Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory.

At the famous "animal hole" in Bremen, a drain cover with a difference! Pop a coin in and the sounds of animals from the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Town Musicians of Bremen" play in turn - first the cockerel, then the cat, then the dog, then the donkey. This binaural recording was late at night when the square was deserted, meaning the sound travelled clearly out into the night air, instead of being obscured by the usual bustling sounds of the evening.Recorded in May 2025 in Bremen, Germany by Cities and Memory.

Inside the Klimahaus museum, which is dedicated to telling the stories of climate and the environment. The exhibition called "The Journey" takes you around the world on a line of longitude from Bremerhaven with interactive installations and exhibits that make extensive use of sound to be as immersive as possible. Here we are inside an artificial rainforest experience based on Cameroon, with rain, thunder and tropical birdsong. Recorded in May 2025 by Cities and Memory.

"‘This is not a simulation?’ - raises the question what is real, am I dreaming, are we in an alternate reality?"For the Cities and Memory Spring Project I found myself drawn to an audio recording made on the platform of the Gare Du Nord in Paris. Interestingly a key feature of the recording is some fake birdsong perhaps being piped over loudspeakers onto the platform whilst everyday passengers are milling about and passing through the station."I wondered what could be fake birdsong? I also thought about train travel and the mesmeric sounds made by a train passing along the tracks. Having recently been on a long journey to New Zealand and back I reflected on the fact that travel itself takes you outside of your normal frame of reference into another reality."Philip K. Dick wrote a series of short stories called, Electric Dreams a common thematic is the idea of losing one’s self in another reality. In ‘Exhibit Piece’ the main character finds himself confused having been transported back in time into an earlier reality, into what he thought was a museum exhibit, but he is now experiencing it as his own reality, but simultaneously his memories are from the present day and he tries to grapple with these two conflicting realities."The project requires that the original audio is used somewhere, somehow within the new track. There are no other rules other than a minimum / maximum length. You will hear some of the original audio, but I have also taken samples converted to midi as part of the process of creating the rest of the track. Other recorded bird sounds and a recording of a small bell responding to the wind build additional layers."This track is not harmonic or built around typical compositional ideas. It is instead a slightly surreal and a glitchy jarring rendering of sounds including percussive elements, are we perhaps hearing what a bird might be able to hear? There is hopefully an idea of going on a journey, departing, passing through some other space or time and then arriving perhaps changed. At some point was it not real? Is this real now or is it a simulation?"Gare du Nord piped birdsong reimagined by Taylor Nuttall.

"How can humans stay human when we’re far away from our home planet? "How does it affect us when there are no familiar animals nearby?"As the countdown begins, we take off, heading for the moon base. Once there, daily tasks turn routine and we begin to miss the sounds of Earth. But, the engineers of Bremen have hidden a control panel in the habitat with unexpected outcomes.""Bremen to Moon" is inspired by the city of Bremen's traditions and innovations. It begins with a field recording of the Bremer Loch, an underground charitable donation box. Each donation activates a sound from "The Town Musicians of Bremen" fairy tale."Bremen is also home to Airbus, which helped build the European Service Module (ESM) for NASA’s Artemis program. The ESM provides power, oxygen, nitrogen, and water to the astronauts. These life systems are critical to space travel and the ultimate goal of building a permanent moon base."Bremen's animal hole reimagined by Alexandra Pierschalla.

"The base recording was thick with sounds, but light on texture. In order to create some space to let that texture through, I took a sample of the whole piece, slowed and tuned it down a bit, and ran it through multiple granular synthesizers. This created a pulsing, almost breathing sound, around which I added some aleatorically generated rhythmic lines as a kind of frame or dramatic container."Bremerhaven Klimahaus installation reimagined by Jerome Veith.

Recorded in the shallows of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. The microphones sit low, really close to the hippos resting in the mud.What defines this recording is mass. Around fifteen hippos, mostly stationary, but never still.Their presence registers through pressure, slow exhalations, submerged movement, and low frequency vocalisations that travel through both air and water.The surface carries subtle detail: displacement, ripples, contact. The sound is continuous but not dense, it breathes, expands, contracts.Humidity affects everything. High frequency detail softens, and distant sounds fold into the background. Insects form a constant upper layer, almost static like, but alive.There is no clear focal point. The recording holds a distributed weight, multiple bodies moving slowly, sharing space.Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

The Golden Triangle - the point where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet - attracts many visitors. They can be heard in this soundscape along with crashing of the Mekong river. Recorded in Ban Sop Ruak, Thailand by Jake Edwards.

This was recorded inside The Blue Temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It is filled with people marvelling at the large Buddha and people singing. Recorded by Jake Edwards.

This is Ao Nang night market, Thailand, where an announcement for Muay Thai can be heard along with musical instruments and the buzz of people.Recorded by Jake Edwards.

"Watching the World is a generative composition which was performed live and built from the recording which was processed through granular synthesis and other effects. The textures, harmonic material were inspired by the recording with a sense of movement and transition which I wanted to capture. "The piece used a system based on four-part harmony (SATB) to organise the arrangement of the granular layers allowing harmonic sequences to emerge. Apart from some of the drums and the sine wave synth, all sounds within the composition originate from the processed recording." Blue Temple, Chiang Rai reimagined by Neil Spencer Bruce.