Hong Kong tram journey reimagined by Cities and Memory. A Moog Subharmonicon live improvisation, responding to the field recording as it develops, introducing new elements and a busier soundscape during the tram's key movements, and relaxing back into the mindset of a passenger with a long day ahead and nowhere in particular to go during the quieter sections. 

A reimagined piece built from the sounds of the Monte Capanne cable car chairlift, which creaks and groans throughout as a Moog Mother-32 melody envelops it, representing the sun, the azure blue of the sea and the warmth of the restorative view from the summit, from which the entire island can be seen in every direction. Reimagined by Cities and Memory.

At the top of Monte Capanne on the island of Elba off Tuscany, there's an old-style cable car lifting tourists to the top of the mountain. After climbing up the old-fashioned way, we paused to record the cable car mechanism on a clear day near the summit. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

A tram departs Central station in Hong Kong - from the interior you can hear people chatting, the rumble of the tracks, beeping, dinging and exterior ambience. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Waves on Flat Holm Island reimagined by Listing Ships.

The waves sloshing under the jetty where boats arrive onto Flat Holm Island in Cardiff Bay is the central sound underpinning "The Wolves" by the band Listing Ships (featuring Cities and Memory creator Stuart Fowkes). This piece was built around the field recording of waves, and was originally released as part of the album The Flat Holm Island Sessions - it now takes its place in the Cities and Memory project as a testament to this recording session on the island.

Musicians: Mike Bingham, James Pamphlion and Stuart Fowkes.  

"I laid down the radio sample and broke it into two parts, having it bookend the piece. Then I started a drone produced through synthesizers on a 4 track cassette recording device. Over this main bed I added heavy low end synthesizers and a couple of layers of sparse noises with plenty of reverb. I meant to get a dark and intimidating sound to it. I wrapped the piece by mastering it through an analog mid-side compressor."

Composition by Valmor Pedretti Jr. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The original shortwave radio transmissions contain a number of reports on the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, by various US reporters. I used a selection of samples and put them in chronological order, to retell the event. Musically, my piece complements the drama of the event as told by the reporters, using synths and sampled drums with sporadic, soft guitar and piano parts. "Rawhide", is the codename for Reagan used by the US secret service."

Composition by Things Being Various. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Working with this recording inspired me to learn some of the history of the Malayan Revolution. I like to work with audio collage and cut-ups, so I chose a technique where I could incorporate audio samples from old British movie reals about their efforts in Malaya, along with bits from a documentary. I also used contemporary field recordings made of rainstorms in Singapore. 

I thought the music used by the Voice of Malaya would work well with some military drums so I layered those in at the beginning along with static and other sounds recorded off of shortwave radio. 

Mixed into that was explosions and artillery and sounds of war. It starts off chaotic and goes into a disorienting cut-up piece, where fragmentary voices talk about the time period juxtaposed against the movie reel pieces. Bamboo flute textures were also used to convey a jungle feeling. For a short piece I can't convey the complexity of the situation, but could convey the chaos of it, with the aim of sounding as if a person were briefly tuning into this period of time."

Composition by Justin Patrick Moore.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. 

Recorded by Colin Anderton, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

VOA (Tuesday March 31,1981)
Voice of America (shortwave) 9670khz. 0600 GMT.

Recorded by Ian Holder, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Broadcaster: Voice of the Malayan Revolution

Date of recording: 1979
Starting time: 0930
Frequency: 15.790
RX location: Singapore
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900W, random wire.

Recorded by Nigel Thornbury, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The incident in Vietnam on 30 April 1975 is known as the Fall of Saigon or the Liberation of Saigon. It depends on which side you support. This historical event unquestionably clarified the end of old-style colonialism. I prefer the former for the title because we still live in the cycle of fall and rise."

Composition by Keisuke Oki.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"In this story from the BBC World Service, news of the British invasion of the Falkland Islands begins with, as is customary, an announcement of the fighting and loss of ships and other large equipment.  Only after this cataloging does the story move to the loss of human lives, both potential and actual.  

While this does place the loss of ships and helicopters--literally--before the human cost of the invasion, I reread this news story as working in the way that a sonnet can, even if that wasn't the BBC's original intent.  One form of the sonnet builds an argument in its first eight lines, then a shift occurs in the argument in the remaining six.  The initial argument can be reversed in the volta or the turn in the latter section of the poem.

Thus, I distilled the language of the news story into a sonnet.   The loss of equipment sets up the tragedy of the lost lives, the heavier cost of war.  I wanted to turn the idea of privileging metal over men as the news story seems to do into one that concludes something quite different. 

For the recording of my text, I left in artefacts of breath and pauses to mirror those of the news reader in the broadcast.  I also distorted my voice and laid the static and pops of the received transmission over the poem, as I wanted my voice to be both of the language of the news story and of its reception over shortwave radio."

Composition by T.D. Walker.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Shortwave coverage of the fall of Saigon as heard on Radio South Africa (RSA), Radio Nederland, Radio Japan and Radio Moscow on April 30, 1975. 

Recorded by Tom Gavaras, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

BBC shortwave newscast during the Falklands War reporting that British troops have landed on the Falklands Island.

RX location: Plymouth, Minnesota

Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180, longwire.

Recorded by Tom Gavaras, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"I started the process by going through the audio to pick out any interesting snippets, including re-editing phrases to change the context. This also led to me to use the tone from the BBC ident in the intro section. After working on the rough arrangement I decided to add the tempo change then layer up the music in my usual fashion. The title of the piece references the talk of death (DFF) and revolution from the original audio. The final mix you hear is a live mixdown, hence the full title."

Composition by DFF Sound System. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"When we hear our own voice, we are already separated from that moment in which we spoke. As we pay attention to listening, we thicken the "now" with recollection, anticipation, and imagination. When we speak on the radio, our voice is further extended out through medial spacetime to receivers that we cannot even know are there. Radio is an act of trust, a gift... as is all language. But in radio the spectral presence of speech is enacted explicitly. Shortwave voices are heard as revenants of the radio frequencies, returning and returning again to haunt places they have never been, connecting moment to moment in an already-present remembrance, an already-remembered present.

The source material is a transmission on Radio Havana Cuba, 2 August 2017, recorded by Anthony Messina."

Composition by Robin Parmar. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"This is a piece made entirely from the original shortwave radio recording. I was entranced by the documentary section of the broadast on hunting with falcons, and I wanted to use as much of that as possible. Other sections were processed, looped and delayed to make a suitably atmospheric backing for the voices (only when it was finished did I realise that I stopped the rhythm each time the interviewer asked a question...)."

Composition by Basic Design. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"This was a difficult recording to reimagine - the weight of the messages contained in the recording was immense and it felt almost incorrect to change them too much. I didn't for that reason. I added nature sounds which I felt underscored the distance, though... and the isolation and longing for a familiar voice. Everything felt so far away, yet so full of emotion."

Composition by Emmy Tither.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Shortwave transmissions definitely have a ghostly quality, so I approached this with somewhat of a narrative; thinking of a long-ago abandoned outpost in the Antarctic, their final shortwave "radio show" transmission on loop."

Composition by Eulipion Corps. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

This is an aircheck of Radio Habana Cuba on 6145 from 8/2/17 via a KiwiSDR in Alexandria, VA at 1:15am EDT roughly. 

Recorded by Anthony Messina, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

BBC World Service Reporting on the death of Fidel Castro. Believe these broadcasts were targeted to Africa, but reception was good into Europe that morning. I was listening to these using my home receiver in East Anglia, England, but due to local interference, started recording them using the Twente SDR.

Broadcaster: BBC
Date of recording: 11/26/2016
Starting time: 0700 UTC
Frequency: 11.770 & 12.095

Recorded by Scott G, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

This recording might be of historical interest. It is the Voice of Iran from December 1976, three years before the revolution in Iran that overthrew the Shah and established the current Islamic Republic. The recording is of the full half-hour broadcast and includes the news, some Iranian music, and a segment on falconry as a sport. There is some occasional interference from single-sideband station.

Recorded by Greg Shroom, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Every year, the BBC broadcasts a special program to the forty one scientists and support staff in the British Antarctic Survey Team; the show contains music requests and, most notably, personal messages from back home to the team of forty one. 

The British Antarctic Survey celebrates today (their longest, darkest winter day) with the same enthusiasm as Christmas. The BBC noted:

The base commanders rise early to cook breakfast for their staff, presents are exchanged, there are sports and even, weather permitting, a mad streak in the snow! Feasting continues before they gather round a shortwave set to listen to the traditional broadcast packed with greetings from their family and friends back home together with music requests and messages from the British Antarctic Survey and a few celebrities. Finally the Antarctic horror movie The Thing is screened. For those who know the plot, perhaps it is just as well there are no longer sledge dogs in Antarctica...

Here is the recording of the BBC World Service's thirty minute broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey. I was able to receive a relatively strong signal at 21:30 UTC on 9,890 kHz from the World Service's Wooferton transmission site.

Recorded by Thomas Witherspoon, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

The American Forces Antarctic Network (AFAN) at McMurdo Station recorded in the 1980s on 6012 kHz SSB in New Zealand.

Recorded by Tony King, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"This piece uses - in various ways - a recording from the offshore radio station that broadcast from the former Dutch cargo vessel MV Peace almost continuously between 1973 and 1993. In addition to the more 'obvious' use of the recording (a static layer; short staccato bursts) an additional layer is played through a system of modules which - reacting to the sound itself - generates a heterodyne-like (near-)melody; a fake shortwave warble. The station did broadcast over AM, after all..."

Composition by Phexioenesystems.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Live, off-air, approximately twenty-minute recording of the Voice of Peace from Baghdad on 29 December 1990 beginning at 21:40 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 11860 kHz. This broadcast originated from a transmitter either in Iraq or Kuwait.

Iraq's Voice of Peace was established in August 1990 to beam programs to American servicemen stationed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait at the beginning of the month. Programming consisted of music, initially easy-listening music but subsequently changing to a "Top 40" mix, news and commentary in a failed effort to try to demoralize the American troops. Beginning in September 1990, the broadcasts used a female announcer dubbed "Baghdad Betty" by the Americans. Reportedly, Baghdad Betty was replaced by a team of announcers sometime in December 1990. The recording is an example of the news and music programming. It is not known if the female announcer is the famous Baghdad Betty or someone else. 

Reception of the broadcast was poor to fair with slight interference and fading. At 21:58 UTC, there is interference splash from WYFR starting up on 11855 kHz. The initial frequency recorded may have been 21675 kHz before switching after a minute or so to 11860 kHz as the radio teletype interference abruptly stops at this point. The recording includes frequent station identifications such as "You are tuned to the Voice of Peace from Baghdad." 

Recorded by Richard Langley, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"This was created by chopping up the original recording and then creating an instrumental track using drums, bass and guitar."

Composition by Karhide. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The piece is called "Let us become human bombs to devotedly defend Respected Supreme Leader", which is a North Korean propaganda slogan. I wanted to capture the relentlessness of the original recording and the sinister nature of the propaganda in it. I've created it using different samples that have been 'stretched', treated and cut using Audacity or Logic Pro. I added a drone pad to ground the piece a bit. It's a bit disjointed at times but I think it somehow works."

Composition by Richard Watts. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The true part: I indeed grew up in the 1950s with a little radio, though not a shortwave, to which I was thoroughly addicted. The fictional part: My real family wasn't anything like my fictional one, and it was I, not my dad, who became a professional musician and played in hotels, orchestra pits, etc. Besides my longstanding interest in commercial "old time radio," I have had a fascination for the sounds of shortwave for many years, and contributing to this project was right up my alley!"

Composition by John Tenney.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Discovering (after sending the file to a Russian translator) that the recording consisted of just spoken, random numbers, I took to chopping out the most interesting sounding sequences and arranging in a rhythmic pattern. I had played with shortwave before and already had some usable sounds. The music was improvised."

Composition by Daryn Brown.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

""Twin Cities at Night" interviews by Bill Diehl on Sputnik 1 with calls from listeners including one listener playing audio from Sputnik 1 as heard on his shortwave on 20005 kHz. Sputnik 1 audio can be heard about 4:20 into the recording. FYI ... Bill Diehl was very well known for being a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper, a rock-and-roll disc jockey on WDGY-AM in the 1960s, and a popular announcer on WCCO-AM afterwards. Bill passed away in 2017. WTCN-AM is known today as WWTC-AM. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere."

Recorded by Tom Gavaras, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"DPRK's international radio service was named "Radio Pyongyang" until year 2002. Now it is called "Voice of Korea".
In Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages, there are different words to distinguish the north and south.
In English language, word "Korea" may stand for both.
I think the name "Radio Pyongyang" is clear, does not have ambiguity. The name "Voice of Korea", we cannot guess which side it is from.

The radio recording was on the Military Foundation Day in DPRK, 25 April 1999. Its content is the celebration of the festival.

The programmes are political promotion news, editorials, songs and music.

The distance from receiving place Shenyang to Pyongyang is about 374.3KM, to Seoul is about 565.4KM, and to Beijing is about 660.5KM.
The two distances are shorter than to China's capital, it is easier to receive the radio programmes from the Korean Peninsula, and no special equipment is required.

Sometimes in the night, in the mid wave band, the radio transmission from North Korea can "mix" with Shenyang local radio signal, unintentionally interferes the local broadcast.

Broadcaster: Radio Pyongyang
Date of recording: 4/25/1999
Frequency: 9.445 MHz
Reception location: Shenyang China"

Recorded by Andy Wang, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"This was recorded on 11,885 kHz, July 24, 2021 at 19:00 UTC in McGrath, Alaska."

Recorded by Paul Walker, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

A Russian language numbers station. Paul recorded this on April 26, 2021 at 0218 UTC in McGrath, Alaska, on 11,615 kHz.

Recorded by Paul Walker, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"“Across the Ether” features a ham radio recording (from The Shortwave Radio Archive) made in 1974 with the operator from the Argentine Antarctica Station. This radio contact conversation was the inspiration for this electronic piece, because it really brings to life the personal aspects of history. It has a timeless quality about it that allows the listener to drift along with the shortwave transmissions. This project really does help us understand that all of humanity is truly out there to be listened to at the turn of a dial."

Composition by Jeff Dungfelder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"There aren't really any instruments in this track at all... I used the busy signal, and some other phone operator sounds, I used feedback from different Hz frequencies and some toned down pulsing. I cut and pasted the clips that repeat, and some volume and effect work on the actual clip. I figured since it is a shortwave clip that the track is based around, anything too clean or processed just wouldn't fit all that well. I wanted to keep the sounds behind the speech a little more like switching through radio waves trying to find the footage. I figured the Nixon resignation was a great clip to use considering our opinions of our former and our present presidents we have had. I am personally not one to concern myself with any of that stuff...but I do feel like there are some very strong opinions being based one way or the other...this is another time where scandal and rumors are running around all over and everyone is on point with their opinions being heard one way or the other."

Composition by Mike Benoit. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"It is January 17, 1991, this is the appeal launched on Israeli radio. In the span of a month, 39 scud missiles launched from Saddam Hussein's Iraq fell on Israel. 17 fell in inhabited areas, two civilians died from the explosions and 11 were seriously injured, but 7 died from gas masks, 71 died from heart attack and respiratory problems, four from reaction to the injection of atropine. 

In the piece “Who is playing with my terror?Nixon ” I wanted to describe a world where nuclear, chemical and biological weapons exist,  and can be used to terrify civilians. The recording of the Israeli radio announcement inspired me to imagine what would it be like to listen to someone telling you that the air that you breathe could kill you. And thinking about it, I just realize that we too were told  just that because of the pandemic."

Composition by Gianfranco Bitti.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"These recordings were originally made in 1974 by the late Jim Hayward (W2PVF) in Absecon, New Jersey (USA) with two different ham radio stations in Antarctica.

This recording is between W2PVF and LU1ZE of the Argentine Antarctica Station. The operator at the microphone is W1PV. The recording even includes a phone patch."

Recorded by Bill Hemphill, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Radio Australia shortwave broadcast with coverage of President Nixon's resignation speech on August 8, 1974."

Recorded by Tom Gavaras, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Recording of the North American Service of Kol Yisrael, the Voice of Israel, on the second night of the combat phase (Operation Desert Storm) of the First Gulf War, 17/18 January 1991. 

The recording is of the 01:00 UTC broadcast on 18 January on 11605 kHz. The signals originated from 300 or 500 kW transmitters at Yavne, Israel. 

At the beginning of the 01:00 UTC broadcast, an announcement is made of a missile attack (from Iraq) and Israeli residents are instructed to move to their prepared closed rooms and to don their gas masks. An extended news bulletin follows. The civil defence instruction is repeated several times during the broadcast. The broadcast, from Jerusalem, included live reports from Tel Aviv. Subsequently, residents are told they can remove their gas masks but should stay in their sealed rooms. The 02:00 UTC broadcast continues the special report including live commentary from both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, including the civil defence information telephone numbers around the country. There is a brief gap in the recording at about the 19m:40s mark due to a tape change. The broadcast concludes with a brief piece of music and the concluding announcement and interval signal.   

Reception of the broadcasts was quite good. The 11605 kHz signal was strong with slight radio teletype interference. The 9435 and 7465 kHz frequencies also provided good signals although there was slight hum on one of the frequencies."

Recorded by Richard Langley, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"For this reimagining I wanted to turn a disparate collection of sounds into something more cohesive, but with a structure and flow that mirrored the original radio recording. I also wanted to utilise audio solely from the original source material, without introducing additional musical elements.

The electronic bird sounds at the start were recorded onto an analogue dictaphone and played back at a local allotment. This was then re-recorded, along with ambient sounds of the surrounding area - bird song, wind, distant traffic etc.

A short section of the bell chimes were cut up and looped with a gated delay and reverb. This was slowly increased until the loop was completely saturated and totally unrecognisable.

For the last section of the piece, I digitally processed radio interference and other sounds, and introduced looped vocal samples, run through a granular synthesizer."

Composition by Grey Frequency.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"When I heard piece 33, I really wanted to pick apart the music hidden away in the background. These parts were cut, looped and effected to provide a pallet of parts for the rest of the track. There were also a couple of station ID's that I wanted to pull out too, and these became the name and reference point for the track. All of the orginal piece had a long distance radio phasing effect throughout and I wanted to use this rather that try to hide or fix it. This approach is embellished on organ and vocal parts as its character was too good to leave out. I then set about the feel of the piece and wanted to aim for something akin to The Chemical Brothers first album "Exit Planet Dust". I pulled drum breaks and some meaty, fuzz bass to thicken up the track. I wanted to keep it brief, not too indulgent, so aimed for about 3 minutes. This allowed enough space for the parts of the original piece and also enough variation before the end, I think."

Composition by Rusty Sheriff. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The material I chose to work with- short wave transmissions  from the beginning of the first gulf war of 1991 (?) was so touching and grim that I felt the best approach was to bring light to it. I remixed a track of mine, SKELLINGTON SECOND LINE into it to help keep it moving and to give the urgency of the original broadcast some ballast and forward momentum. My track was made on Dumbek, Qarqaba, Toolhandles, and finger snaps. I cut the original 58 grueling minutes down to a selection of static, voices and music that ‘spoke’ to me and then cut them into my accompaniment. Having no understanding of Arabic, I used the voices as purely sonic elements, rearranging them with no ear to their meaning. I sincerely hope that it gives no offense to native speakers of Arabic and that my offering can be taken in a spirit of play."

Composition by Hearn Gadbois. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"This is an off-the-air recording of shortwave radio station Radio Baghdad made on September 26, 1990.  The political situation was about to lead to the first Iraq war.  This was the European service on a frequency of 13,660 khz. which was aired between 20-22 UTC.  It was recorded in the Boston USA area.  Receiver was a Yaesu FRG-8800 with an indoor wire antenna.  Direct recording into a cassette recorder.

Date of recording: 9/26/1990"

Recorded by Lee Herterich, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Live, off-air, approximately one-hour recording of Iraq's Mother of Battles Radio in Arabic on 27 January 1991 beginning at about 13:30 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 17940 kHz. As Iraq's main shortwave broadcasting facility was put out of action early during Operation Desert Storm but while Iraq still occupied Kuwait, the broadcast likely originated from one of the 500 kW transmitters of Radio Kuwait.

Mother of Battles Radio, named after the phrase "Mother of all Battles" used by Saddam Hussein to describe the upcoming war with the United States, replaced the regular domestic shortwave service of the Broadcasting Service of the Republic of Iraq. 

The recording consists of music, talk including exhortations against America and Bush, and frequent station identifications, e.g., "Huna idha'atu Umm al-Ma'arik" ("This is Mother of Battles Radio").

Reception of the broadcast was excellent with no interference until about the midpoint of the recording (around 13:59 UTC) when a faint jamming signal can be heard in the background. The recording is briefly interrupted when checking the signal on parallel frequencies (15600 kHz -- weaker; 9570 kHz -- not heard). There is also a brief interruption at about the 29m:25s mark in the recording due to a tape change."

Recorded by Richard Langley. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Andrea Borgnino shares the following off-air recording clips of the final shortwave broadcasts from Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI): 

15380 kHz 6:30 pm UTC 30 September 2007 - Program for North America in Italian.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The original piece of shortwave radio inspired me to imagine the radio waves transmitting through the air, over the mountains of the the Himalayas and eventually across the universe."

Composition by Andrew Howden.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"Samples from Radio Afghanistan 1976 used in the track:
Treated loop of music from part of the original recording used at 0.01 in and throughout.
Bass tone from the beginning of the original recording used at 0.03 in and throughout.

I was intrigued when I initially heard the recording of Radio Afghanistan from 1976. I was a young Short Wave Listener in Coventry at the time so it comes with some personal nostalgia and it's from a period when the shortwave bands were a far busier sonically magical place than now (even though they are still sonically magical.)

I immediately loved the bass hum at the start of the recording and it’s interesting to hear The Voice of America’s "Yankee Doodle" in the background at 23 seconds in and VOA signing on at 59 seconds in.

Originally I tried to make a loop of a section of the main musical interlude but to no avail. As soon as I put part of it through some effects (Reason's Alligator Triple Filtered Gate) and combined it with a loop of the bass tone from the start of the recording I started getting somewhere. I added some drums influenced by a Big Youth track from 1975 then a bassline and sent it to my musical collaborator Jazz'min Tutum in Freiburg, Germany who adds:

"I was working on a praise poem for Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry when Pete sent me the track and I thought why not try those lyrics over it. Lee Perry's work has always been a "hauntology" of Kingston in terms of city and memory and I am sure he would have also been very interested in Pete's (use of) shortwave recordings especially the frequencies contained within them...""

Composition by Pete Polanyk.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"It was a very simple sample to start with, so it was easy to separate out useful sounds to make percussive sounds, tones and reverb impulses. I layered a couple of synths on top, echoing the shortwave signal and then drenched everything in loads of reverb and delay to try to recreate the sense of the signal struggling through space."

Composition by David Webb. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

The first [Radio Afghanistan] recording is from 1976. The recording was made with the GRUNDIG Satellit 600 Professional recorder unit prototype I got from my uncle who worked at GRUNDIG as mentioned before.

Date: ?, sometime in 1976

Time: around 1130 GMT/UTC

QRG: 15195 kHz

Listen carefully to this recording. In the background you can hear the VOA Yankee Doodle played before starting its programmes. The programme was broadcast via the BBC Ascencion Island Relay, at 1130 GMT the VOA programme in Spanish for South America began. Later in the recording you can also hear Radio Moscow's ID signal.

Recording by Manfred Reiff. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Filename:  All-India-Radio-(AIR)_India

Bitrate Mode:  vbr      Channel Mode:  mono      Sample Rate:  44100 Hz

Recording by Jerry Johnston.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Filename:  BBC_England_(Four-notes-B-B-B-E).mp3  (317.23 kB)

Bitrate Mode:  vbr      Channel Mode:  mono      Sample Rate:  44100 Hz

Recording by Jerry Johnston.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"I worked on the recording of the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in  18th February 1979. I mixed it with Uh Yes Uh No, the voice of Andy Warhol  from Jeff Gordon, Art Voices. 
Gordon's interviewed Warhol but then he erased the questions and just left the “yes” and “no” answers. Warhol would talk a loved recordings of people’s voices. Gordon claims that his favorite was Jacqueline Kennedy’s because it was like a whispering breath. Somehow this tragic announce of the Chinese invasion of Vietnam is made by a very gentle voice which made me think of this piece: Uh Yes Uh No. (Source UbuWeb Sound)"

Composition by Giovanna Iorio.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"All sounds used were from the original recording, the psychogenic origin refers to the Havana Syndrome. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome for further details. The interesting element is the application of the various listing of potential causes and the application (by modulation and FX) of some of them within the composition. 
All was edited / synchronised in Logic and some of the samples were modified by an approximation of the Havana Syndrome supposed causes. It would be tempting to add that it was recorded live at the Hotel Nacional, Havana, Cuba but was it not?"

Composition by Peter Hodgkinson. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

As a child, I was often found glued to my dad’s shortwave radio station in pursuit of voices from across the globe. If lucky, I would exchange a few words, in very limited English, with a stranger somewhere far away. Most of the time, all I got was static, in itself a hint of the vast universe yet to be explored by a young soul. This was in the 1970’s and it was my internet.

My piece is a treatment of my own childhood curiosity and the extreme autocracy of North Korea. I used bits of propaganda from North Korean radio, the Kim Jong-Un approved pop band Moranbong Band - performing tributes to their leader - and the massive impact of military parades regularly performed for the Kim family and potentates.

Sources used:
The invasion of South Korea by North Korea on 25 June 1950 announced by Swedish state radio SR.
Mix of “Voice of Korea”, short wave transmissions by North Korea state radio.
North Korean number codes, short wave transmissions date unknown.
Tapto by Moranbang Band.
Military parades of 2005 and 2012 in Pyongyang.
Patriotic Song by North Korean Military Choir.
Voice of Chairman Kim Jong-Un meeting President Donald Trump on 30 June 2019 at the Korean DMZ, related by Swedish state television SVT.
Short wave interference noise recorded from Lafayette HE-20T, a short wave base station used by my father in the 1970’s and still used by me.
All other sound clips from The Short Wave Radio Archive, Daily Mail, Swedish state Radio archives and YouTube.

Composition by Eva Q. Mansson.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Voice of Vietnam, Chinese Invasion of Vietnam, 18 Feb 1979. 20-30 GMT (i.e. 6-30 am Eastern Standard Time, 19 Feb 1979) 10-40 KHZ

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Speech by Fidel Castro (in Spanish) on the 15th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Originally delivered January 2, 1974. Broadcast January 10, 1974- 0420GMT- 11.840khz.

Recording by Ian Holder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

This recording comes from the aircheck archives of Michael Pool.

According to Michael’s notes, the following recording of the Voice of Korea was made on March 25, 2005 at 0300 UTC on 9345 kHz. The reception location was likely New York City. No other notes were included with this recording.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Radio France International. This broadcast was recorded on February 8, 2014 around 07:00 UTC on 9,790 kHz. This broadcast originates from the Issoudun transmitter site (500 kW).

Recorded by Thomas Witherspoon.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Death of Yuri Andropov (14 Feb 1984) (Tues 1200GMT). Andropov succeeded Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Communist Party.

Radio Moscow shortwave broadcast.

Recorded by Ian Holder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Radio Moscow (8 August 1970). Propaganda broadcast discussing German-Soviet Treaty, Northern Ireland, Vietnam and the Middle East.

Recorded by Ian Holder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Shortwave coverage from Radio Moscow of the Soviet October Revolution Parade (7 November 1970). The military parade celebrated the October Revolution beginning in 1918 and continued until 1990 (the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991).

Recorded by Ian Holder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The piece is called "A man of talent with great abilities", which is what Putin said about Yuri Andropov, which I thought sounded rather sinister. It's more of a soundtrack to the original recording. I wanted to do something a bit like Benjamin Britten's 'Russian Funeral' so it's mainly a horn based instrumental. There are three main parts to it - intro, march and bridge."

Composition by Richard Watts. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"There's something I loved about grit and the words coming out of the interference that grabbed me. My original idea was to try and make the whole track out of samples from the original piece. Although it didn't quite work out that way, I did create a lot of the drums, pads, bass and the kind of piano / xylophone lead thing at the end by dropping samples from the recording in to various ableton instruments and pitching / manipulating them until I could play them as instruments. It produced these brilliantly gritty sounds that had the character from the original recording

"I went through the track and pulled out the more melodic sections from the ident at the beginning of the recording and chopped and rearranged them ableton. I also went through the spoken section and pulled out some phrases that jumped out and panned and glitched them to create the wall of spoken dialogue.

"Once I laid out the main track with the instruments and direct samples I then added some new drums and guitar to the last section. I used ableton to kind of jam the whole thing out and added live guitar overdubs and some new drums to make it sound more alive."

Composition by Tiger Mendoza.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"The piece is made up of samples from the commentator's voice in a “Zoolook” style (JM Jarre 1984). Sometimes words can be heard and sometimes it is just rhythms."

Composition by Simon Woods. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"I spent six months in the 1980s working at the BBC World Service, so I felt a particular connection to the original recording. The vast majority of the piece comprises clips of this, processed and manipulated. A montage of other Short Wave transmissions was added at the top  - thanks to Electronic Battle for the loan of the SW Receiver (and for helping me to the rig the aerial over the roof!). The recurring six note keyboard motif is based on the syllables of "BBC World Service". The title -  the BBC's motto - is used ironically here."

Composition by Nick St. George. 

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"I started by playing with the recording in my software - processing it in different ways. As I was messing around tinkering with sounds, the recording made me think of a deserted giant cargo spaceship and a lone character boarding and searching the ship while the recording mysteriously played through the ship's tannoy. I added some field recordings I made recently on a village green near me. And it felt like the searching character was remembering being back at home. So I think that maybe this track is a soundtrack to that imagined sci-fi movie scene. Later, I googled whether radio transmissions leak into space and they do, so maybe this scene actually happened. The final track is made of the original radio recording, a synth made from a sample of the recording, some preset digital synths, stock samples, a recording I made of HAM radio static, some of my original field recordings and I play guitar on it too."

Composition by Sam Care.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

A shortwave transmission from Radio Peking. Propaganda recording about the challenge to world peace posed by "the U.S. Imperialists”. Recorded in Australia by Ian Holder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Radio Peking (6 November 1970). Commentary on establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy; message from China to Soviet Union.

Recorded by Ian Holder.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

The period before 1980s,1950s and 1960s were very active in terms of espionage. Many declassified documents tell us about CIA and SIS operations in Baltic States, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and elsewhere using Morse code messages. Then there is a case of Operation SOLO of FBI infiltration in the American Communist Party and Soviet secret service, where numbers transmissions from the Soviet Union were involved.

Numbers stations were in the air and there were people listening to them. So this brings to the subject of this article: a authentic tape recording of several transmissions of Spanish language Five Digit numbers station recorded in 1966. What we have here is a recording of supposedly male voice Spanish language numbers station. The technical issues and specifics of the broadcasts may point to Cuba. Cubans in 1980s to early 2010s used voiced five figure stations with characteristic“Atencion” at the start of the broadcast. This is was known as V02 and V02a before moving on to hybrid digital and voice station HM01  This station however has no such prefixes. It could be old predecessor to Antencion station. CIA was caught using four figure numbers station in Spanish language, so CIA involvement  also cannot be ruled out.

Recorded by Don Hibschweiler.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

"An original 1960s tape recording of shortwave Spanish language numbers stations is cryptically woven into this original musical composition of a reimagined spy network broadcast. 

In addition to the numbers broadcast, you are listening to musical Morse code-like transmissions, and bursts of shortwave static.

The frenetic changes in musical passages occur as spymasters discover their codes are compromised and the realization dawns that they may have to eventually face the music."

Composition by Tom Thompson.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave

Hedge sparrows in Maltby, UK reimagined by CuSi Sound (Alan Jackson).

"Hearing the sparrows chattering away in the hedge with traffic passing by reminded me of people gathering outside cafés to chat as others pass by going about their business. I recorded a sample of the sparrows and traffic as a tape loop then used this in a live studio performance with my Project XII modular analogue synth."

Sparrows chattering in a garden hedge at the side of the road with passing traffic and an occasional person. Recorded in Maltby, UK by Alan Jackson.

Crossbow competition in Volterra, Italy reimagined by de Velden.

"The setting of the original recording felt bathed in dappled sunlight, so I started with a piano accompaniment that played, flitted and drifted across and around the voices, the sounds of the crossbow competition and bells. The rest of the track grew from there."

Wandering around the medieval city of Volterra in Tuscany, what could be more appropriate than entering the main piazza to the sounds of an authentic crossbow competition taking place? Here you can hear the practice session ahead of the main competition, with the thwack of bolts hitting the target on the other side of the piazza, and the sound reverberating off every wall. Midway through, the bells from the campanile start to chime to bring even more interest and atmosphere to the recording.

Binaural recording by Cities and Memory.

Looking out from Piazza San Marco in Venice across the lagoon, there is a regular mooring spot for many of the city's iconic gondolas, and they rock back and forth, sloshing gently along as motor boat traffic stirs the waters nearby. Here we can hear the gondolas knocking into one another and riding the waves, as motorboats pass on one side, and passers-by walk behind us from another angle. Binaural recording by Cities and Memory.

Moored gondolas in Venice reimagined by Guyda Armstrong.

"This re-imagined sound is centred on an object from Venice’s past, a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy printed in the city by Wendolin of Spira in 1477. It begins with present-day sounds  which could have been heard at the time of the book’s making half a millennium ago, and then moves into the present day and to another city, with field recordings of the place where it now lives, deep in the climate-controlled stacks of the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library. The original field recording of the gondolas was made on the Grand Canal, just outside the windows of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana's rare books reading room."

"Books (and not just Venetian books) are made in water as part of their paper-making process, and this is a particularly watery book, which has seen significant water damage in its long life. Subterranean and watery sounds tie the piece together, as it moves from the splashing of the canals of Venice, into the ambient sounds of the underground library book stacks, and up through the back stairs of the building as the book is taken to the photography studio. 

"We capture various other noises along the way: the winding of the moveable shelves to access the book; the hum of the server fans and climate conditioning units; the intermittent beeps and thuds of the door alarms and studio equipment. Sounds from the original field recording are slowed down and resampled to provide a constant sonic undertow. The book itself can be heard as its pages are turned and photographed, and the piece closes at the end of its brief trip up into the world, as we switch off the equipment and prepare to return it to the depths."

San Gimignano sound installation reimagined by Scott Lawrence Whitman.

"The original field recording was a fervent spoken word performance about climate change from San Gimignano, Italy. I attempted to convey the urgency of the matter by manipulating the dialog and reinforcing the message with music."

A sound art installation pumps out of a large speaker cone-like structure into the Piazza del Duomo, San Gimignano. The subject matter is around climate change and the impact it's having globally, with impassioned speeches from Italian activists mixed in with soundscapes. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.  

A busker of west African origin sings under the porticos in Padova, Italy - this particular singer always chooses this spot for the excellent reverb it offers, as well as the healthy number of passers-by. He has a beautiful voice, and often sings what appear to be exrtemely heartfelt songs in what we assume is his mother tongue - this is an excerpt of one such lovely song. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Padova busker reimagined by Barney Spigel. 

"Moved by the music being performed as well as the sense of place captured in the recording, I wanted to zoom in on some of my favourite slices of the soundscape by looping and layering them into an evolving pattern of rhythm, texture, harmony and timbre so as to hypnotise the listener into perceiving the original recording with an extremely heightened sense of what I love about it."

Dolomite cows feeding reimagined by Janae Jean.

"The sounds of cows grazing in the mountains with their bells jingling gave me the impression of shimmering light on a summer day. I used the audio to generate MIDI data from I constructed the melody, harmony, rhythm, and tempo of the piece."

Stromboli beach reimagined by John Savarese.

"A walk along an imaginary shoreline, using sounds from the volcanic stone and sand on Stromboli and a rocky beach on Long Island Sound."

Sottopasso delle Cure, Florence reimagined by Hansklammer.

"We reimagined the underpass as an underground florentine network of tunnels through which the listener explores. We took inspiration from the Lou Reed track Glory of Love that is can be heard in the original field recording and based our soundscape on different interpretations of that song using guitar / synth / bass and samples."

Camposampiero mass bells reimagined by Lisa Rae Bartolomei.

"The act of atonement, contemplation and faith in a higher power brings light to the darkest of times , and we are all finding our own ways to find hope amongst the blackness of a year of misery and confinement. The bell a symbol of love, warning and the heart of community acts as a guiding force through the stormy weather. 

"This recording is built from abstractions of church bells. Bells being an archetypal sound and electroacoustic staple I was interested in exploring the possibility of working with their rich sonic textures to explore the emotions of a city longing for spring to come after a very dark winter."

Dolomite mountain stream reimagined by Andy Truscott.

"A simple synth part that has been processed through some modular equipment. Some side chain compression is introduced to add movement to the piece. I felt inspired to write a simple ambient, evolving piece for this field recording." 

Villa del Conte campana della sera reimagined by Rafoo.

"When I first heard and picked the field recording, I remembered it being warm and idyllic. However, the day I finally got to working on it, I couldn't feel anything but discomfort/uneasiness. The resonance from the bells which builds up in the later part of the recording sounded like something straight out of an avant garde horror flick. 

"As hard as I tried to remove that feeling from the recording (by actually editing out that part), it persisted and spilled into every simpler instrument I was creating, the editing, everything. It didn't matter what the field recording was, I was feeling a certain way and projecting that everywhere. The reimagined sound is a piece of my current mind and self; ugly, angry, chaotic, untethered. I almost hate it as much as I hate myself."

Cows feed in the Dolomites close to a mountain rifugio, their cowbells clanking melodically - a classic European mountain sound. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Close to Rifugio Contrin in the Italian Dolomites, a mountain stream rushes past under a simple wooden bridge. We placed the Zoom H6 recorder close to the water under the bridge to get as close a take as possible of the sound. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

On a Sunday morning, as dozens of people queue up outside the hospital at Camposampiero in Italy for a Covid-19 test as part of ongoing pandemic precautions across the country, the bells ring out for Sunday mass from the town beyond, to remind us of life trying to go on as normal in the midst of such unprecedented times. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

A second recording in a few years of the "campana della sera" (evening bell) in Villa del Conte, Italy, as the original repetitive chime that signals 9pm every day has now been replaced with a series of melodic patterns at the same time every day. The bell has the same purpose - to mark the end of the day to the town, but a very different feel with the new sound. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Abbazia Pisani September bells reimagined by Steve Germana.

"For the Cities and Memory Italian remix project, I chose a field recording that began with steady bells and transitioned into bird calls. I found a tuning for a guitar to match the bells and improvised with the sounds. 

"Using one of my own patches in max/msp, I changed the pitch, speed, and duration of many tracks of the field recording, and mixed those with my guitar improvisations. My intention with this work is give impressions of displacement, miscommunication with unyielding patterns of repetition and a bit of pathos."

On a Wednesday morning in September, bells chime across the village of Abbazia Pisani in Italy - we hear a couple of cars pass by, birds chirping in the trees and passers-by. A peaceful, everyday soundscape.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Binaural recording from Campo Santa Margherita, Venice - this square is one of the social hubs of the city, a large open space filled with cafes and bars. This recording really conveys the sounds of a late, warm August afternoon, with cicadas buzzing, life passing by in the bars and cafes, and towards the end the piazza's church bells ring for 5pm. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Binaural recording from one of the most striking cities in Tuscany, San Gimignano. This is a recording of passing crowds in the unusually-shaped Piazza della Cisterna, surrounded by tall buildings with a lovely reverberation. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Campo Santa Margherita, Venice, reimagined by Una Walker.

"Working on this piece exactly two years since my last trip to Venice provided an opportunity to re-live walking through the streets, over bridges, by the lagoon, and eating lunch in Campo Santa Margherita. The original recording is used as a spine throughout the piece around which I have woven my own recordings."

Piazza della Cisterna, San Gimignano reimagined by Audio Obscura. 

"I asked Cities and Memory to allocate me a random field recording which seemed a fun way to approach this. I listened through to the recording only once and then decided to cut up the recording into small fragments and begin to assemble a piece this way. 

"It was made in a very haphazard way and after a short while I had a basic cut up section that I then recorded and improvised on top of, adding beats and synth sounds and effects. It felt like a jam and I didn't tidy it up too much, rather liking the fragmented nature of the piece."

La Campana dell'Amicizia e della Concordia (the bell of friendship and peace) is a monument on top of Monte Piano in the Dolomites. The bell monument was created as a warning to remind us to look for peace between peoples, and is located on a trench crag, between the first Italian-Austrian line. When you ring the bell, it resounds over an enormous distance across the mountains that surround you on all sides. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

The Bell of Friendship on Monte Piano reimagined by Michael Lilley.

"I took the central bell clang and jammed (solo) with it in Endlesss until I had hammered the original sound, beyond recognition. 

"The final arrangement was in Bitwig."

Mass bells in Abbazia Pisani reimagined by Neil Spencer Bruce (Light B4 Sound).

"The importance of bells in soundscape and culture is well documented as a way of controlling people and providing a sense of community. I wanted to explore both the tonality of the bell and the spaces in which the chime. On first hearing the field recording, images of Nick Roeg's Don't Look Now and the Giallo films of Dario Argento became the inspiration, films had a sense of dimension and space to them, and a sense of impending doom. 

"Izotope's RX was used at the basis for the tone palette, creating samples using spectral frequency elements from the recorded bells. Spectral repair was used to highlight the 'noise' in the recording and then use this to form part of the underlying pad sounds. Additionally stripping elements from the original recording, also provided sources for a number of convolution reverb impulses which tracks elements were then processed with.

"Binaural processing was used to further to add an immersive layer to the piece and to give it an additional authentic 80's feel, the mix was then processed on to an analogue cassette tape, for added hiss and nostalgia."

Mountain stream in Alba reimagined by Kenya DuBois.

"Before the Covid-19 pandemic, I was planning a visit to several European countries. The meditative sound of the recording in tandem with my composition represents a portion of the sensory experience of sound and fragrance that I looked forward to experiencing, such as cafés, countrysides, and the white truffles of Alba."

Dolomite mountain stream reimagined by Nicolo Scolieri.

"In looping sections, searching for rhythms in the noisy stream, and adding some tones and pitching them together, it seems like the interlocking waters made a chamber, reverberant and dark, but shining too, a cave."

Piazza Dalmazia, Florence reimagined by Mike Rucinski.

"The original recording from the Piazza Dalmazia was almost ten minutes long, so I knew some careful selection was required in order to draw out a narrative. On second listen it became clear that while this was a busy street with people, vehicles and cafes / shops, a darker undertone began to present itself in the form of coughing people, and lots of them. This coughing, combined with the distinctive Italian siren sound became the sonic framework for this piece. 

"I added some piano, played while listening to the original recording, and layered, morphed, looped and snipped many elements from the original recording to build a feeling of busy Italy, intense city movement, and the safety of indoors vs the uncertainty of outdoor life in 2020/21; as many of us have felt strong anxiety brought on by public places and human interaction in recent times. While this piece represents the dark in life, there is also very much a feeling of uplift and positivity layered alongside, waiting to come forward stronger than ever."

Cinque Torri, Italy reimagined by Liz Hanks.

"The field recording of birds, people and a distant aeroplane inspired me to contemplate on the increasing polarisation between, nature, humans and technology.  The three elements currently co-exist but we as a human population need to make huge changes to make this sustainable.  The piece is a lament for our future."

Cimitero Verano in Rome reimagined by Leon Muraglia.

"Emiliano rushed home after making the recording. It was his turn to make dinner and his girlfriend was due home just after 5. The bus was a bit late so he just made it before she got home. After dinner, they talked about how their days had gone and watched a film. Emiliano then prepared his books for the next day. It was then that Emiliano realised he had mislaid his glasses. But where? He needed them the next day for lectures. 

"He searched the whole flat before realising that he must have left them at the cemetery. They would be easy to find, as he had stood next to a wall. Of course! He had taken them off to focus on the screen on his audio recorder and put them on top of the waist-high wall whilst he recorded. 25mins later, he was at the site. After jumping the wall, he was in the pitch-black of the cemetery. An oasis of darkness in the city centre. Feeling uneasy, he felt along the wall for his glasses, but found nothing. Where could they be? He kept searching, with only the light from his mobile phone. Colder, uneasier now, he kept stretching out in the black. Suddenly..."

Mercato delle Cascine, Florence reimagined by Laura Jacobs. 

"I only used sounds from the sample because I felt there was so much life and music in it already. I looped and used effects to highlight and add playfulness to the sections I particularly liked. I hope the listener feels they are floating inside and around the market, zooming in and out of all these activities that are happening simultaneously."

Via Vincenzo Gioberti, Florence reimagined by David McKenna. 

"In Concrete Gazebo we use samples all the time, incorporating and 'playing' them during jams that are then are then edited and mixed. This sample was tried in a few ways but this piece perhaps best reflects the bustle of a city street as captured in the original recording."

Piazza del Duomo, Siena reimagined by Bartosz Panek.

"I really missed even the shortest journeys during recent lockdowns. Before the latest, introduced in Poland in October 2021, I travelled to Łódź, a city where you can hear trams everywhere. They are quite old and old-fashioned. Looking at them I realised they resemble old trains moving slowly on peripheral railway lines. When I was a child, I used to dream of travelling by train, although – or because – in a small city in Eastern Poland where I was brought up train connections were suspended for many years. 

"And during long months of lockdown my hearing changed a bit – I’ve been suffering from tinnitus. Sometimes I fell like I hear my dreams in which the sounds you listen to are distorted, sharpened or enhanced. 
When I find out a mother calling her son and a suitcase being dragged on the pavement in the original source sound from Siena, all my yearning was woken up. Including a journey to Siena."

Stromboli beach reimagined by Giovanni Verga. 

"An ancient legend tells us that Strombolicchio is the cap of the Stromboli volcano thrown into the sea by a violent eruption. And indeed, this small volcanic island is located right opposite the volcano. 

"This image took me back to 20 years ago on a cold April morning when I was in the island walking on the beach. The sea was in a storm, the Stromboli erupting and Strombolicchio just there a few meters away, looking at volcano as if it were a bottle cork thrown into the sea. I wanted to compose a small piece as a tribute to that magical and energetic vision."

Verano Cemetary: a huge monumental burial, full of tombs of important people in Rome and in Italy, surrounded by giant walls and a circle of trees.

Its dimensions, walls and trees makes it a quiet place: traffic noise is barely audible from the centre of the cemetery (where the audio starts) with birds singing, then moving gradually to the exit the city noises increase.

Recorded by Emiliano Venanzini. 

A powerful mountain stream close to Malga Rin Bianco in the Italian Dolomites. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

The stunningly-beautiful Piazza del Duomo is one of two extraordinary piazze in Siena, Italy - this one hosts the city's magnificent Duomo, and is both a major thoroughfare and a magnet for the city's tourists. Recorded by Cities and Memory, August 2021.  

Bells call the village of Abbazia Pisani, Italy to mass on a Sunday morning in August.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Soundscape from Via Vincenzo Gioberti, Florence, Italy. 

Florence is not only a city centre with countryside surrounding it, but there are also many other areas to be explored. These places do not only offer original and unexpected points of interest for art lovers, but they also have a kaleidoscope of sounds that really tell you something about life in Florence. Abandon yourself in a soundwalk through Isolotto and San Frediano, with their veracious people; among the elegant XIX century buildings just outside the centre; through Campo di Marte, where sporting events are held; or in the small country villages still belonging to the city municipality, like Galluzzo, Settignano and Serpiolle. You will find the true soul of a city that did not stop living in the Renaissance, but still breathes and sounds today.

Recorded by Valerio Orlandini. 

Soundscape from Piazza Dalmazia, Florence, Italy. 

In every corner of the city there is a market at least once a week. Ostensibly they look very similar, but each one has its own features, according to the zone of the city in which it is held. You can guess the typical inhabitant of every area by listening to the voices and the way the customers approach to their local market. Moreover, some markets attract people from all over the city, like the one held in Cascine park on Tuesdays or the monthly antique market of Vittorio Veneto.

Recorded by Valerio Orlandini. 

Soundscape from the Mercato delle Cascine, a street market in Florence, Italy. 

Recorded by Valerio Orlandini. 

The sound of birds nesting, the occasional bird of prey overheard, a passing aeroplane and hikers at Cinque Torri, a stunning location in the Italian Dolomites. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

In Alba in Trentino, Italy, a mountain stream runs through the centre of this town in the heart of the Dolomites, where the sound has that typical purity one only gets up in the mountains. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Walking on a stone/sand mixed beach, on which the sand is coloured black due to volcanic activity, on the island of Stromboli, which boasts an active volcano as its centrepiece. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Crickets in Scopello, Sicily reimagined by Michael Reiley.

"The piece started with the high pitch din of the night-time crickets. After all my work with Echozoo reimaging the sounds of extinct animals I got very inspired by imagining and interpreting what is it that animals hear. How is their interior soundscape different that what humans hear? With this piece I was exploring the resonance of what does a field of crickets sound like to the crickets themselves. Is it soothing, peaceful, or agitating? The result of this piece is a meditation on that point of merging of our human-centric sound of the field of crickets and the crickets' perspective on their own song."

Lerici birdsong reimagined by Cameron Lovegrove.

"All sounds used are manipulations of birdsong, which I used to create sustained drones that formed the basis of the sounds heard. The aim was to create a blend of the real forest sound, and a fictional sound world."

Bells in San Gimignano reimagined by Jase Warner.

"'Campane Italiane' features a field recording of bells ringing out in San Gimignano, a hill town in Italy’s Tuscany region.

"The composition is made up of multiple layers of the original recording, each accompanied with its own particular drone texture. Synthesiser tracks have also been added to compliment the patterns and movement of the bells."

From the top of a high viewpoint in the incredibly picturesque Tuscan town of San Gimignano, Italy, late afternoon bells ring out in the golden sunshine. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Bells ring out for morning mass in Abbazia Pisani, Italy - in the background you can hear the morning radio show burbling away to itself, while periodically two dogs bark at everyone who passes their house across the street. A typical soundscape of morning life.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Bells in Abbazia Pisani reimagined by Xqui.

"The church bells act as a percussive sound in tandem with the occasional dog bark - music in itself.  The added 'reverse' echo and ambient streams developed the piece."

Siena's Piazza del Campo is known all over the world for its stunning beauty and unusual shell-like shape, and its size and shape also gives it fascinating sonic characteristics. Here we stand in the centre of the piazza to take a binaural recording of a typical August afternoon in the centre of Siena.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Piazza del Campo, Siena reimagined by Andy Billington.

"I worked into the original recording of Siena Piazza del Campo a number of forgotten "sonic sketch book ideas" found on an old computer hard drive. Abandoned song ideas, Zoom recorder piano motifs from lockdown 2020 and some fragmented reverse piano tape experiments were re appropriated. These slowly formed the basis for the track. 

"Some form of rotary synth effect from Apple Logic Pro 8 (2008) added to the movement of the track as did a fragment stock loop sample of a jazz trio. Adding reverse reverb to one section of the jazz drums gave the final rhythmic chaos finish. 

"Finally the all important dog yelp samples were repositioned (a part of the original recording that really stood out). In a town famous for horse racing it is somewhat ironic that the dogs finally get a look in..."

Villa del Conte thunderstorm reimagined by Eulipion Corps. 

"Thoughts roll in with the storm, some passing quickly, others lingering demanding attention. A strong feeling of longing or nostalgia emerges. Breathe in, breathe out."

A huge thunderstorm captured in a field of maize in Villa del Conte, Italy - recorded by Cities and Memory. Heavy rain splashes off the leaves of the maize plants, while thunder rumbles threateningly above. 

Palermo airport reimagined by Mat Ward. 

"Leaving Sicily is a poetic remembrance, expressed through sound, of my travels across the Island in 2017. For me the island was a constant  barrage of wonder; both beautiful and terrifying, welcoming and isolating, modern and ancient and familiar yet alien. 

"The piece heavily manipulates samples from the field recording captured at The Falcone Borsellino airport to express some of the dichotomies above. Leaving Sicily finishes with the ‘raw’ sound of the crowd of the airport terminal representing the transition from my surreal and personal travel back into the world of normality - just another tourist in the crowd about to return to his normal life."

Via dei Calzaiuoli, Florence, reimagined by Nick St. George.

"All you really need to know about this piece is that Via dei Calzaiuoli is THE shopping street in Florence..."

Checking in at Falcone Borsellino airport, Palermo, recorded by Giuseppe Calisti. 

"While I was waiting to check-in I found myself in front of a long line of passengers and I took the opportunity to record the audio and the din of that moment."

Giardino di Villa Strozzi, Florence, reimagined by Sarah Knudtson. 

"The sounds of the Giardino di Villa Strozzi reminded me of dusk and I imagined a magical stroll along its wooded paths. As I began to play with remixing the recording I suddenly remembered a series of anti-records I had created from discs I had inherited from my grandmother. Looking  through the abandoned project, I found an Italian record called, La Voce di Wilma Doich and began to make recordings by dropping the needle on the scratched and shattered surface as it spun on the turntable. The title was taken from the song, Io Non Ci Saro, which references my absence from the garden and the absence of my grandmother."

Inside the Duomo di Volterra in Tuscany, Italy, we can hear a group of young people singing a hymn, accompanied by acoustic guitar and organ. As we walk around the cathedral, the recording takes in different sonic perspectives of the performance.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Volterra reimagined by Artur Kinal.

"As may be seen from the title I was inspired by Guy Debord quote: "each person will live in his own personal 'cathedral'". So I reimagined this actual cathedral singing to make it more personal and fitting to my imagination of my own cathedral and how it would sound.

"In the process I used AE Modulkar only, deforming the sampled piece to the point where it was more to my liking and adding some other sounds to accompany it. This was my way to create and enhance the recording's solemn and uplifting mood."

Piazza Dalmazia in Florence reimagined by Ross Burns.

"The inspiration: You are falling asleep in the afternoon and are somewhere warm. As you drift off, lightly in the background you begin to hear only the sounds around you. This field recording reminded me of these moments. 

"The track is made by panning different parts of the field recording to the left and right. I then added processing and texture in the low-end to fill the space. The chord sound and pad sound are made from fragments of the field recording stretched, placed into a sampler and processed differently. The top end of a piano is layered on the keys sound. With regards to the chords it’s one take, I tried to play the chords taking into consideration the movements created by the field recording."

Kotor clock tower reimagined by Camilla Fanning.

"The Montenegro bell recording is perfectly pleasant, unfortunately the year that's in it all I could think of was a warning bell. The piece reflects a sense of swirling words, numbers, unease and alarm. 

"The tracks are taken from real emails and texts received over the last year, as well as some official advice. In all it felt like a general blur of related, ominous yet somehow inadequate communication. Responding to and trying to keep a record of this moment in time seemed the right approach. Frankly, it was impossible to avoid."

Inside a ferry in Piombino, Italy reimagined by Richard Gadd.

"I wanted to use as much of the original sound as possible for its 'industrial' quality. Among those qualities are resonance and confinement. Within a shuddering steel hull the sounds of the ship are compressed into a bewildering cacophony."

Recording from inside the hull of a car ferry from Elba to Piombino, Italy, arriving at our destination. It's a claustrophobic, dense soundscape in which the overwhelming drone of the ferry's engines is punctuated by a car alarm going off, and towards the end the ferry doors open, letting in the summer morning daylight and an escape to freedom.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

"The Baie de Cayola is located on the western shores (Atlantic Ocean) of France near Les Sables d'Olonne. It is a very small bay (800 meters wide), with a pebble beach. 

"There is a road nearby, but you won't hear it on this recording.
It was recorded in autumn 2018 under beautiful blue sky and orange light."

Recorded by Jeremy Simoncello.

Baie de Cayola, France reimagined by Andy Lyon.

"Initially I was going to use a full on experimental / glitch approach but I find the sea quite mesmerising, it's alluring and mysterious. So I went with a minimal approach to compliment the recording adding tension, dark and light with a hint of glitch. 

"For me it came out a bit darker than I intended but I think it works really well, I tried to leave it open to interpretation so listeners can come to their own conclusion."

Bells in Pomonte, Italy reimagined by Phexioenesystems.

"This piece is based on a field recording of church bells and the surrounding ambience from Pomonte on the Island of Elba. 

"The bells themselves are used in multiple ways: pitched to fit with the Hexany tuning system (but otherwise untreated) and as a granulised layer. 

"The remaining ambience is also left untreated but appears with bell-like envelopes across the track. The additional tones and textures are also intentionally bell-like, with stochastic bursts throughout. 

"The titles 'Stepping Stones' is a reference to Via del Passatoio, on which the church sits."

Milan Stazione Centrale reimagined by Simon Woods.

"The piece is performed entirely with instruments from Italy. 

"Samples of classic Italian synths made by Crumar, Siel and Elka, whilst most of the other instruments are made by IK Multimedia from Modena. 

"The lead violin is Native Instruments Stradivarius."

Listen to the sounds of the evening bells for mass ringing in the sleepy village of Pomonte, in the south-west of the island of Elba. The sun is beginning to set in late August after a long day on the beach, and the bells ring out across the sky. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

The hustle and bustle of an early morning in Milan's main Stazione Centrale. You can hear us making our way along the moving walkways through the station as crowds pass us and announcements ring out around the station - we then emerge out into the main platform hall with its huge reverberation and the sound of trains preparing to leave.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Giardino Baden Powell, Florence, reimagined by Karhide.

"This started out as a different kind of remix and then I came up with a guitar line and started to test some new plugins. The plugins used are the Audio Damage Other Desert Cities delay  and the Klirrton Grindstein amp sim by Audiority plugins.

"The only other plugin used in the project is the Audio Damage Eos reverb and then mastered using Ozone."

Stazione Le Piagge, Florence, reimagined by Chelidon Frame.

"This summer I had the pleasure of reading Bernie Krause's The Great Animal Orchestra. One thing that fascinated me was how a natural soundscape can be altered by external noises, such as a plane or a train passing by: sometimes the biome takes a lot of time to restore its perfectly calibrated concert. In the original field recording, I sensed some moments that got me thinking about this phenomenon, and in my track I've explored and enhanced this experience.

"'Cicadas' is arranged in four parts, divided by the sound of a passing train: at each iteration, the soundscape is increasingly processed and paired by synthesized sounds and glitched elements, until the original equilibrium is restored, when the last train arrives at the station."

Cities and Memory founder Stuart Fowkes is interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme about the Inferno project, marking the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante. The interview features an overview of the project plus selected sound clips.  

Piazza San Marco, Venice reimagined by Cristina Marras.

"I worked on subtractions, using my recent experience in Piazza San Marco to bring together a past that seems now almost retro-futuristic, with a present that no science fiction could have ever imagined."

Repairs on Fondamenta della Canonica, Venice reimagined by Jeff Dungfelder.

"I decided to use the field recording of repairing a gate near the Bridge of Sighs Fondamenta della Canonica because the bridge is rich with historic meaning. The Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) was built in the year 1600 and connects the Doge's Palace to the historic prison across the canal. Prisoners that were tried in Venice were initially held in the underground prison chambers inside the Doge's Palace. As the number of prisoners grew, the prison was expanded to a building across the canal named the New Prison, and the Bridge of Sighs was constructed to shuttle passengers directly from their trial into their cells. 

"According to legend, the name of the bridge comes from the sighs of prisoners who crossed the bridge on the way to their prison cells or the execution chamber, catching their last glimpses of Venice through the tiny windows. The arched bridge isn’t open air like many of the bridges in the city, there are just two small rectangular windows with a lattice-like screen. Inside, a stone wall divides the interior into two narrow hallways, so prisoners who were entering and leaving could never cross paths.

"I was interested in the idea of creating sounds from repairing not just the bridge, but in a larger context, reflections of what the prisoners experienced as they saw this last view. Hopefully my piece “The Bridge of Sighs” helps the listener consider for just a few minutes what it might have been like to see such beauty before being imprisoned underground. I do think that sound can reveal a history all of its own if one listens closely enough. Enjoy."

On any normal day in Venice, roadworks are a little different from your average city, with repair boats on the city's canals looking after its unique system that keeps the entire city afloat. Here, we can hear gate repairs taking place on Fondamenta della Canonica, just a short distance from the iconic Bridge of Sighs. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

The iconic Piazza San Marco on an August afternoon in 2021, as the city returns to normal levels of tourism after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the piazza fills with tourists. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Cittadella stadium announcer reimagined by Richard Watts.

"I found the original recording imposing (and slightly sinister for some reason) so I've tried to capture that in the reimagined piece. I've used lots of samples from the original recording and manipulated them using the Alchemy, a sample manipulation synthesizer in Logic Pro."

At the Stadio Tombolato, Cittadella, Italy for Cittadella vs. Crotone, August 2021 - the stadium announcer reads out the Cittadella teamsheet before a match that the home team would go on to win 4-2.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Passo Rolle ski lift reimagined by John Tenney.

"Happy and unhappy memories while riding on a ski lift."

The sounds from on board a simple two-seater ski lift transporting skiers up the mountain in Passo Rolle, San Martino di Castrozza, Italy. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Yorkshire Dales field of sheep reimagined by Paul Walsh / Foldhead.

"This piece is in part inspired by the memory of a long, lost walk through the hills and valleys of Mayerhofen, Austria, a few years ago. 

"Having walked for hours through increasingly heavy falling snow we took what we hoped was a shortcut through a large field. 

"After a few minutes traipsing through the snow I looked to my right and what appeared to be dozens of sheep very slowly and in what appeared to be perfect unison turned their heads to look at us as one. It felt quite surreal at the time."

A field of sheep bleating, calling and frolicking at dusk on a beautiful April evening in the Yorkshire Dales, England. The air is clear, the atmosphere is pure with no traffic noise, just the placid hum of the village and the reverb of the hills above.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

AH-64 Apache flypast in Italian Dolomites reimagined by Richard Watts. 

"I really like the rhythm in the original recording so have tried to capture that in the reimagined piece. I've used samples of the helicopter and fed them through a filter generator to create the background sounds then added drums, pads and a couple of melodies that seemed to fit."

An Apache AH-64 helicopter on training manoeuvres next to Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Italian Dolomites, as heard from halfway down Monte Piana, August 2021. The helicopter can be heard long before and after its appearance with an enormous reverb trail generated by the sound bouncing off the mountains on every side. An impressive sound.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Bellevue station, Berlin reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"The original recording conjured up a mental image of a deserted, lonely station late at night, with just the occasional traveller passing through, trying to get home. A place of isolation as much as a place of connection.

"For the reimagined piece, we've tried to emphasise the 'coldness' of a lonely station late at night and the sense of isolation and loneliness through waves of very slow (25bpm) guitar pulses and reverb-drenched melodies to create a slow-moving, contemplative reflection on how it feels to pass through a transient place alone at night."

Bellevue station, Berlin, Germany recorded by Cristina Iscenco.

"I was walking home after a rehearsal. The sound of the trains was blending with the drone of the bells coming from nowhere. It was only about 20:30, but everything was asleep and dark."

Torrent at Brent de l'Art, northern Italy reimagined by Karhide.

"The idea behind the track was the slow erosion of the rock to form the canyon."

Brent de l'Art is a natural rock formation similar to a canyon, created by thousands of years of erosion by water, which has exposed layers of rock formed millions of years ago.

This erosion is due to the debris that the water carries across these narrow valleys. Stones and plants overwhelmed by the flood of water, once they enter the canyon they create whirlpools, they hit the walls, digging into the rock and then flow downstream. The flow of water in narrow valleys like this is also characterized by the greatly amplified noise of flowing water, which does not happen in normal more open valleys, and can clearly be heard in this recording. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

An idyllic scene from Lago Antorno in the Italian Dolomites, as a pack of horses with cowbells attached to their necks feeds on lush grass next to a mountain stream. In this recording you can hear the horses, the bells and the water rushing by in a binaural recording taken close by. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Horses by the stream at Lago Antorno, Italy reimagined by Cravune. 

"The original piece evokes tranquillity and peacefulness. I wanted to overemphasise this aspect of the recording by chopping the audio, pitching it down and rearranging it on top of a simple low frequency drone."

Marriott hotel sounds from Riyadh reimagined by Andy Lyon.

"I wanted the focus to be on the recording, I really like the flow and contrast.  I've added subtle orchestration and effects to try and create a 'floaty' kind of ambiance to compliment the recording."

One of our earliest recordings from Saudi Arabia, sadly only able to be captured on a mobile phone, but evocative of the soundscape nonetheless. In 40 degree heat outside the Marriott hotel, we can hear police sirens in the distance, the heavy drone of Riyadh's constant traffic, and a light chorus of birdsong in the hotel garden. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Starling murmuration in Curtarolo, Italy reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"Seeing a murmuration of any size is a truly wonderful event, and in this recording we're close to the roosting birds and their sound is pushed directly down to us, so the soundscape is full and loud. 

"The reimagined piece is based around trying to musically visualise the absorbing and miraculous patterns of the murmuring birds above - when we close our eyes and imagine a soundtrack to a grand murmuration, this piece is something like what we hear." 

A small murmuration of starlings swirling around in the sky and then landing in large numbers to roost and chatter on a mobile mast in Curtarolo, Italy on a hot August day. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Bindertwine Park, Ontario reimagined by Neil Wiernik.

"Birds chirping in a forest meadow, it feels like we are in a remote place away from the cars and the city but if you listen closely you can hear the rumble of the cars and trucks on the highway off in the distance. 

"What if the birds voices became louder, deeper, doubled, what if the sound of the breeze through the trees became tones, droning in the wind? What if the meadows and surrounding forests made their own sounds to drown out the human made ones? 

"What if the animals, trees and plants in these meadows and forests created its own music and sound loud enough to just barely be heard past the forest by the cars and trucks on the highways in the distance?" 

"This recording was made in a meadow surrounded by the forest of Bindertwine Park, in Vaughan, Canada. Birds chirping and if you listen closely you can barely hear the highway off in the distance, all ending with a gust of wind."

Recorded by Neil Wiernik.

Rio de Janeiro Panelaço protest reimagined by Jochen Edmund Pendleton.

"Pots and pans make wonderfully festive musical instruments.  Here I've added a few others of my own design and, channelling Walter Smetak, tried to find some stillness amidst the commotion."

Radio mast on Monte Capanne reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"Having looked for more information on the masts atop Monte Capanne, we discovered that one of them is the key Italian mast for Radio France (you can see Corsica across the water from Elba), which became the starting point for this piece. 

"A sample from Radio France (courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive) forms the crackling backdrop, as disjointed speech crackles in and out of earshot.

"The droning backdrop is built entirely from effected tracks of the original mast drone, creating a kosmische piece for 2021 built from radio waves, static and pulses of electrical power."

Having climbed to the top of Monte Capanne on the Italian island of Elba, we were greeted by the sight of several enormous radio/mobile masts at the summit. 

Not exactly the most beautiful sight, necessary though these masts are, but the perfect peace at the top of the mountain was broken by the incessant, pulsing drone from the masts, which becomes the key sound signature at the summit. 

This recording captures that drone, and how it is effectively the only sound signature at the top of the mountain.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Kotor old town reimagined by Bev Craddock.

"When I visited Kotor at the end of an exhausting and emotional bike trip from Split via Mostar I stumbled across a Jazz cafe called Evergreen in the Old Town which has Tom Waits pictures on all the tables and live music. 

"I sampled a loop from a track, used a music box recording of the sonata, stretched the supplied recording and played some played notes from the C minor chord in the Helm synth app and fiddled with them all in Audacity along with the original recording. 

"As the tracks came together I wanted to recreate that dreamlike state where memories and the outside world drift in and out of your consciousness."

Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford sound installation reimagined by Scott Lawrence Whitman.

"The source of the original field recording was a sound installation at the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University involving windmills. 

"My reimagined piece, like a windmill, revolves and evolves around the field recording, part of which can be heard as a buzzing, insect-like drone  and child's voice, which I sampled and processed to create the various sound elements aside from percussion."

Venezia vs. Cittadella football match reimagined by de Velden.

"The field recording that started this track was made amongst football fans, away from the pitch. 

"It captured the excitement on the stands, which, in my track, I have tried to bring together with a musical interpretation of the drama and particularly the dynamics of a game of football."

A rare recording from the away end at a Serie B football match in Italy, December 26 2019. The Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo in Venice is unlike any other in the world, requiring arrival for the away fans via a vaporetto water taxi across Venice. 

During this match, which Cittadella won 2-1, we hear the aftermath of one of Cittadella's goals, with songs, chanting and general merriment (and abuse) being dealt out by the passionate away fans. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Chinatown, New York City reimagined by Kathleen Judge.

"Having lived in New York City’s Chinatown many years ago, listening to the original field recording brought many memories to mind. Visions and sounds full of static—distorted by time. Moments of clarity, a solid memory surfaces— and then vanishes. 

"I approached this piece as if I were tuning into a memory of a place, like turning a dial to tune into a radio station. Things clarify and then disintegrate. The repetitive childlike pattern and the high random chimes/bells are to evoke a feeling of reflection and looking for something thats gone. The distorted frequencies dishevel the recording, to make the listening feel unsteady, as tho the threads of sound will unravel soon."

Recording from Mott and Hester in Chinatown, New York City by Cities and Memory. 

A soundwalk through the Chinatown district, with multiple open shop fronts and customers giving the feel of a busy Chinese market right in the heart of Manhattan. 

Abandoned hospital sound reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"The original field recording is a sinister drone right out of a dystopian tale, and I wanted to accentuate that sinister quality, along with the mechanical, industrial nature of the sound. 

"This is a 'self-generating' piece with various arpeggiators and loops playing the same chord and developing themselves over the course of the piece. Some suitably industrial drum parts were added, and to add the final touches an enveloped distortion effect applies as the piece progresses, so the sound seems to degenerate and almost fall apart on itself by the end."

Abandoned hospital drone recorded by Connor Orrico.

"The children's hospital moved, so this is just ambience of the abandoned central plaza of the old building next to a fairly busy street."

Starling murmuration reimagined by thequietwood. 

"The field recording reminded me of walks and runs (very slow jogs), on my local moor (Dartmoor).

"I imagined myself going for a run on a crisp spring morning, crunching my way over icy grass  and stopping by a hedgerow where I briefly disturb the Starlings, and then I proceed to run on, watching the murmuration display of the soaring and swirling Starlings.

"The field recording was used to create all the additional drum sounds (Snares, Hi-hats) and the pulsating "wind" rhythmical elements. I have additionally layered simple simple arpeggios to represent the "running" and then further synth work for the flying Starlings.

"This piece was also inspired by the latest Leafcutter John album, Come Parade With Us."

A freezing cold afternoon in winter, and we visited the RSPB nature reserve at Otmoor in Oxfordshire to try to see the starling murmurations. The main event happened way off in the distance and was impossible to record, but walking back along the icy, flooded path, we accidentally disturbed a huge number of starlings in a hedgerow right next to us, who took to the skies and circled above our heads, captured in this recording.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Oxford New Year's Eve bells reimagined by Matt Chapman Jones.

"As I listened to the recording, I ended up thing of how they are such a constant part of a city; all the comings and goings, rises and falls but the bells sounding out the passage of time are in fact much more permanent."

New Year's Eve 2020 in Oxford - the country remained in a state of lockdown, with citizens only allowed out to exercise outdoors in their own local area, with no socialising allowed with others, truly the most bizarre festive season anyone has experienced. We wandered around the centre of our home city in thick fog on a freezing night, and right next to the famous Radcliffe Camera, the bells of St. Margaret's Church chimed for what would be one of the final times of the year. Ringing out through the mist, they symbolised a truly sad end to an unprecedented year. 

Little Tribune Bay barnacle recording reimagined by Donia Jourabchi.

"The composition is composed of only one sound, namely the recording made in Canada by Rogalsky: Little Tribune Bay - low tide barnacles. 

"The sound was processed and synthesized in various ways to accentuate the manipulation of the recycled elements. The rhythms are inspired by the repetitive patterns present in the nature."

Image credit: Tyler Ingram on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tyleringram

Barnacles at very low tide, July 2015 at Little Tribune Bay, Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Recorded with Telinga Stereo MK2 parabolic mic and Tascam DR-680mkII by Matt Rogalsky.

Image credit: Tyler Ingram on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tyleringram

Donald Trump motorcade reimagined by Marg Laing.

"The street sounded frenetic and noisy at first, but the rhythm emerged, as voices pinged back and forth over cars hooting. I like isolating sounds and tones and creating new sequences and finding melodies."

Image credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

Recording from the Trump/Kim Jong Un summit in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019 as Trump's motorcade travels across the city. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

"While driving across the city I saw American and North Korean flags all across the capital.

"I discovered that Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un were having their second meeting in Hanoi.

"A great opportunity to record convoy, motorcade sound effects, crowds, visitors and reporters!"

Image credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

A mass protest held at the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic in Oxford, UK. Following the global Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, there was renewed pressure to remove the statue of slave trader Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College in Oxford. 

This translated into a mass protest against the statue and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in central Oxford. Cities and Memory took part in the protest, and recorded its sounds. 

Oxford Rhodes Must Fall protest reimagined by Margaret Fischer. 

"Rhythm is such an interesting force - it creates a sense of unity and community, and yet it is also a weapon of war. In this reimagining, I wanted to highlight how the shared mindset and singular purpose of this group of protestors spontaneously and naturally found its collective rhythm. Midway, you’ll hear the rhythms of pencil on paper and a typewriter, to represent protesting happening via the written word, as well as highlighting the role higher education has in this movement. 

"Since the Rhodes Must Fall movement had its origins in South Africa, the added percussive rhythms are a nod to rhythms found in South African toyi-toyi, perhaps the epitome of a nonviolent call to arms… rhythm and melody as tools for a revolution. The track ends with the sound of a door opening — opening the door for discussion, for reflection, for future change."

The sound of sea otters and the natural soundscape at Morro Bay Marine Nature Reserve, California, USA - recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Morro Bay sea otters reimagined by Baying Ridges. 

"This recording immediately took me to a casual Sunday enjoying the sun and the breeze.  So we have a nice relaxing chord progression with the original file coming through in the background and in the underlying pad."

Earth God celebration in Taiwan reimagined by Alex Hehir. 

"This recording sounded loud and celebratory so I wanted to use fairly unprocessed snippets throughout. All of the 'drums' are built from the original as well as some melodic sections. As in some of my previous submissions, I have woven in heavily processed traditional instruments alongside some modular synths."

A traditional music show to honour the Earth God at the Wencun Earth God Temple, Taichung City, Taiwan. Recorded by Elfo. 

Venetian recording from Fondamenta Savorgnan reimagined by John Savarese.

"The field recording is a soundwalk through Venice, starting (I gather) around the Ponte della Crea and moving southeast along the Cannaregio, past a school. 

"I wanted to keep the soundwalk intact, and scored it by following some of the main sounds: boat noise, voices, waves, a howling dog."

As part of a day of field recording in Venice, we explored some of lesser-walked (by tourists) parts of the city to examine daily life as it's lived by Venetians. 

In this recording, you can hear school classes being taught as we walk past the windows of classrooms, teenagers leaving class and chatting by the side of the canal, and machine/work boats passing back and forth. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Hungarian beach reimagined by Andrew Tulloch. 

"When I initially chose the sound, I envisaged making a melodic summery piece which would float over the recording, but in the end it turned out rather darker sounding.

"The quiet droning boat sound in the background provides an interesting counterpoint to the natural wave sounds, and put me in mind of the Danube's history of trade. The overall character of the piece is intended to reflect the river's nature/industry duality.  

"The original recording is used throughout, mildly processed, as well as a synth sound made from the boat noise, and drum sounds built out of wave snippets. I liked the one piece of recognisable human voice (laugh?), and it ended up becoming a filtered rhythmic loop. Additional sounds included some soft synths, and improvised guitar/ebow notes."

Field recording of ambient beach sounds, vehicles, people, waves from Zebegény, Hungary by Ádám Szegvári. 

Costa Rican beach reimagined by Sherman and Field.

"This piece utilises the original field recording in full. In accompaniment is a field recording taken early one morning of local bird life shortly after moving in to our new home, and a section of an improvised piece utilising guitar, electronic drum machine and other devices.

"The name is a hybrid of Costa Rica capturing the original recording, and Sadliers Crossing, where we live and captured the other components of the piece.

"Our approach is one of minimal interference and production to the original  recordings."

Field recording of ocean waves at Playa Carrillo, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica by Marcel Gnauk. 

Outside La Moneda palace in Santiago, the site of so much of Chile's recent history, and tuning in to the ceremonial changing of the guard - with a modern twist, as the accompanying military band breaks into a cover of "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk for the tourists.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Santiago military band reimagined by David Dasinger.

"I wanted to focus on the phrase "to the stars" from the lyrics and give the recording a more ethereal  feeling, a soundtrack for drifting through space and time. I extracted sections of the original recording and used PaulXStretch to sculpt the sound while retaining the essence of the tune."

"Melodic Malaysian shama, along with other birds and insects, can be heard. The wind kicks up and starts bamboo clacking on the hillside." Recorded by Gretchen Jude. 

Pisa bells reimagined by Nick St. George. 

"A bit of a departure for me - something of an academic exercise in sound manipulation. A musician neighbour recently introduced me to "granular synthesis" and, as a result, all of the audio in the piece (bar the poem and a little vinyl surface noise fx at the very end) originates in the field recording. 

"This was then processed via "granular" software and various Garage Band filters. Reading by Jemma Blythe c/o librivox.com."

Hawaiian shama reimagined by Audio Obscura.

"I tried making various tracks using this source sound and in the end went for a more stripped down feel. 

"There is a beauty to the bird song in the field recording and I wanted that to still have prominence so the rest of the musical backing I tried to keep subtle and not clutter the piece too much."

Bells ringing out from the iconic Leaning Tower in Pisa, Italy, recorded by Alberto Trinco.

Tirana mosque prayer reimagined by Mark Taylor. 

"The final piece was created using 6 fragments of audio taken from the original field recording – all processed and edited within Omnisphere using its extensive granular synthesis and sampling capability."

A tram journey in Kadikoy, Istanbul, recorded by Marcel Gnauk. 

Nepal traffic reimagined by Simon Kennedy.

"The more than brilliant Dillon Bastan’s Emit was used for the work. There is no processing at all other than slowing time by 4000%.

This study is what I am calling a Ganzfeld audial experiment. Ganzfeld is a Gestalt term describing a phenomenon of perception caused by exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field. The effect is the result of the brain amplifying neural noise in order to look for the missing visual (or audial) signals. If you have seen a James Turrell environmental installation then you’ll get the idea of the Ganzfeld effect. Max Neuhaus is an artist whose sound work encourages the effect. 

Many composers (John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and Eliane Radigue) have worked with a form of composition that combines their spiritual (often Buddhist) practise with a sonic minimalism. Many academics refer to this work as requiring a focussed, reduced, deep, layered or quantum listening. 

This piece offers a mandala or quadrat to stimulate reflection. 

Katmandu lies in the valley known as the Nepal Mandala. A mandala is known, in some faiths, to represent the spiritual journey, starting from outside, venturing to the inner core, through transitional and increasingly enlightened layers. The mandala is a meditative simulacrum to be repeatedly contemplated to the point of saturation, such that the stimulus becomes fully internalised in even the minutest detail and can then be summoned and contemplated at will as clear and vivid.

A mandala traditionally has four gates. This quadrat imagines four gatekeepers offering wayfinding to, perhaps, a spiritual meditation on the four stages to enlightenment. Or the four deracinating stages of culture shock: disorientation, negotiation, adjustment and assimilation (or, often, revulsion). Maybe we follow the path from simulacra to simulation when we realise we do not experience a faithful image or copy of a place but a perversion in which our experience has no relationship to any reality or place whatsoever. The final gatekeeper suggests we reflect on the environmental and ecological consequences of our journey and our impact on this place: creation-germination; croissance-augmentation; existence and division; degradation, collapse and extinction."

Istanbul trams reimagined by Matthew Zook.

"Listening to the original field recording I felt I was actually present on the train. The sounds inspired very real sensations and feelings. Using samples from the original field recording only, I wanted to capture the same transit experience, the same journey, but through a different lens- whether that be manipulating the listener's sense of time(temporal) or producing an experience related to that of a heightened state of consciousness or awareness. Perhaps this reimagining is a memory of the trip? It is the same journey but looked at from another perspective. Due to the emphasis on subtle volumes and low frequencies, it is recommended you use headphones or stereo speakers to fully experience the piece." 

Saint Petersburg escalator reimagined by dssPower. 

"In this piece the Gorkovskaya metro station in St Petersburg Russia is transformed by the addition of past, and future yet-to-be memories of a time when humans were more connected to nature and the Earth that was.  These faint, ancient memories create a yearning for this fragile connection. With the addition of animals like Loons (Northern Hemisphere), Flamingos (Southern Hemisphere), and Bats (both Hemispheres) and the sounds of the resonance of fragile glass the space is now artificially connected to nature like a zoo with glass walls.

The original audio was split and processed through a number of outboard paths and then re-mixed to create the desired effect when layered with the additional material. The equipment used in various combinations was: Aphex Compellor, Yamaha R1000, Carver C-9, ART FXR Elite, Electro Harmonics Blurst, Joyo D-Seed, and Shure Audio Master, and one fine wine glass."

Field recording from the escalators at Gorkovskaya metro station, Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Masha Sha. 

Bangkok shrine dances reimagined by Vlad Suppish.

"Before making a reimagined version of the recording I've watched a few videos about Erawan Shrine and its deity - Than Tao Mahaprom. 

"What caught my attention is the amount of offerings to it, especially garlands. Layers upon layers of them. 

"Also layers of overpasses above the shrine. Spiritual sanctuary in the heart of large and busy city.

"My version is precisely that - layers upon layers of heavily processed original recording. No external sound sources were used.
 
"I hope that while listening to my composition, people will get some of the virtues from Than Tao Mahaprom - kindness, mercy, sympathy and impartiality."

Field recording from Bangkok, Thailand by Shaun Malone.

"A recording of several ritual dances at Erawan Shrine, at the corner of a very busy and noisy intersection in central Bangkok. The BTS (skytrain) passes by during the second dance. Recorded 5 Jan 2020."

Elephants in Mweya, Uganda, July 2018 recorded by Daan Hendriks.

"While in technical terms I don't consider this my "best" recording, it is one of my favourites of the last year due to the intense emotions conveyed by this elephant herd.

"It was recorded during an overnight session in the Mweya peninsula of Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, July 2018. I had tracked this herd during the day in my car as far as I could until they disappeared into the  bush, after which I set up a microphone rig in the general direction of the river where they were presumably heading. I left this mic behind as it recorded throughout the rest of the day, night and the next morning.

"There was a real intensity in the air that night, with the frog chorus going at full strength, insects stridulating feverishly, occasional strong wind gusts and regularly barking hippos. I am not sure what caused distress to this elephant herd but they vocalised all night, continuously rumbling and often screaming and trumpeting loudly. The overall result was a night that conveyed a really wild and primeval sound scape, and for that reason I love this recording quite a bit."

Elephants in Uganda reimagined by Peter Hodgkinson.

"Elephants are capable of hearing at low frequencies and are most sensitive at 1 kHz" so the  exploration began figuratively inside the elephant head between the two wondrous ears. 

"The original recording is wonderful in itself, but given an emphasis on the infrasound element of the elephant and the rhythms of breath through the trunk, the piece unfolded. Unfortunately, so did the Mac computer and the result was edited on a not so familiar software on a new PC. 

"I hope to complete a surround sound mix in the future to give real acknowledgement to elephant acoustics. The piece is entitled 'Proboscidean lament' in homage to the terrible plight of the elephant today."

Thingvellir national park reimagined by Allis Hamilton.

"This track is a conversation between midwinter, in my bushland home of Heron Cottage in Southern Australia, with that of the Iceland Thingvellir National Park. It is a song of the elements of rain and ice, wind and spirit. 

"The night I first heard the Icelandic track was an evening of an enormous storm, a tornado of sorts, and the recordings I made of that fierce wind and the trees in my garden swaying and swirling in their unified response to the wind created my first thoughts for the music. 

"Over the winter, through frosts, thunderstorms and rain I recorded the sounds of the natural world outside my squeaky front door. Alongside these I played some piano, ocarina; and added vocal layers laid like whispers on the wind over the footsteps of the other sounds, including the Icelandic recording which bookends the song alongside thunder and the calls of the mystical and mythic black cockatoos, the rain bringers."

Thingvellir National Park, Iceland recorded by Richard Watts.

"The sound of the wind, tourists and walking on a stone path."

Foyleside shopping centre reimagined by Nigel Lloyd.

"An ambient soundscape using a recording of Foyleside Shopping Centre."

Foyleside shopping centre, Northern Ireland, recorded by Nigel Lloyd.

"A short recording of Foyleside Shopping Centre in Derry Northern Ireland, which includes cafe and tannoy sounds."

Kafiche cafe in Sarajevo reimagined by Andy Billington.

"The original field recording of a string instrument being played in the city of Ferhadija is beautiful, uplifting and haunting, filled with drones and complex melody lines. You get a sense of the town, people and architecture with the natural reverb.

"I wanted to try and capture these architectural parts and capture a sensation you were (like in the film Enter The Void by Gasper Noi) floating around the city. 

"I layered the sounds, resampling them many times onto tape cutting and repeating the exercise and changing the pitch. Finally, a sort of sonic framework emerged and was anchored by soft synths. 

"I then re-added the original field recording, cutting out phrases of melody, adding echo and positioning until happy with the track. Ferhadija Summer was completed."

Saint Petersburg art exhibition reimagined by Simon Woods.

"The piece is built up from the original field recording. Added to this is an ever changing series of sequences, rhythms and sounds – the notes, scales and chords dictated by the original recording. 

"The music is constantly changing with new sequences coming in and dropping out – at least one new track (often more) was added each day, 31 in all."

Recording from the Manege Exhibition Hall in Saint Petersburg, Russia by Valo Tsvetkutia.

"The Laboratory of the Future is an exhibition that took place in the "Manege", at which I volunteered at. 

"There was an art installation, a piano cut in two, and there was a magnetic coil that is making the sound you hear in the recording."

Uzbekistan Khiva Star hotel sounds reimagined by Martha Riva Palacio Obón.

"Night is a liminal spacetime where, paraphrasing Salomé Voegelin, different rhythms and beings converge creating simultaneously many possible worlds. 

"In this brief aural essay, I bring forward the background sounds in the field recording and mix them with a hybrid chorus of human and insect voices. The mechanic hum is replaced with the reverberation of wine glasses. 

"The main structure of this piece is built from two tracks that run in different directions: backwards and forwards. 

"Past, present, future: I evoke the memory of many nights spent alone and with company. A cacophony that flows into silence. Nocturnal disjunctures and entanglements, every ghost requires a translation."

Soundscape recorded at the Orient Star Hotel in Khiva, Uzbekistan by Mark Wilden.

Klein Karoo nature reserve, South Africa, reimagined by Emmy Tither: "I was inspired by the dry and the dust."

Klein Karoo nature reserve, South Africa, recorded by restive.

"Field recording made on a recent trip to the Klein Karoo near Ladismith. This was recorded during the day; you can hear the sound of a tractor plowing a field, workers in the fields, water rushing down an irrigation furrow, various bird and frog calls, the occasional car passing on the road."

Laos forest sounds reimagined by Martin Juenke.

"I took the recording, cleaned and streamlined it, pitched it down a bit to avoid harshness and fatiguing highs and stretched it to an appropriate length. 

"Then I added kind of Berlin School arpeggios and harmonies, a layer of pulsing tones and other stuff to create a rich, calm, flowing atmosphere."

Recording from a forest near Luang Prabang, Laos, recorded by Manuel Oberkalmsteiner.

"Birds singing in the forest somewhere in the nowhere."

Petra traditional flute music reimagined by Nigel Lloyd.

"The reimagined piece is built from a few recordings taken on a trip to Jordan and Israel in 2019. The recordings were mostly from Petra in Jordan during a sound and light show where a man was playing a traditional piece of flute music.

"On the long walk down to the building in the accompanying photograph there was an atmospheric drone echoing through the cleft in the mountain called the Siq. In the piece you can also hear some chattering sparrows and a recording of people at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem."

Field recording from the famous archaeological site at Petra, Jordan (otherwise known as The Rose City due to its pink sandstone cliffs), during a sound and light show featuring pieces of traditional flute music.

Recorded by Nigel Lloyd. 

Pyramid of Tirana reimagined by Museleon.

"What things do you think of as summer?

"Sun, sea, sandcastles, ice creams melting, strawberries and cream and aliens enjoying a competitive game of tennis at Wimbledon…

"Hang on there... aliens at Wimbledon?

"Starting with the field recording from the Pyramid of Tirana, I heard a tiny sample of what seemed like cutlery or metal clanging, that when looped sounded like a game of ping pong. This became the rhythmic basis of the whole track. 

"Like most of my tracks they go through metamorphoses during development, and a ping pong match became something bigger in scale when I came across a field recording of a tennis match on Freesound - Tennis Match by Huubjeroen (licensed under Creative Commons 0  https://freesound.org/people/huubjeroen/sounds/114052).

" edited the match down and rearranged it into a shorter length and then took several samples from the Tirana sound file to create the rallies and ball sounds. I did not process the samples at all, as I liked the sounds of the metal clanging and banging and so it sounds as if the players are using large metal ladles to play the match.

"The final idea of my track came from the group of alien monsters I have sitting on top of my studio speakers …small rubber ones... and my imagination ran riot as I thought it would be fun to imagine them having a game of tennis. The MIDI information from the field recordings was used as a basis for synths, to create alien type sounds. For the full effect the track is best listened through headphones.

"Aliens for tennis, anyone?"

Burmese monk singing reimagined by Geraint Rhys.

"Inspired by the project's title 'remix the world' I didn't want to confine myself to a particular genre, so when I chose this clip I picked it because there was a clear rhythmic musicality to it and allowed that to lead the way. 

"I then built the piece around these vocal rhythms allowing it to develop into something which takes in elements of house, techno, chill and even added some horns too. 

"Although the clip clearly has a spatial origin, which is Myanmar, rather than create a piece that is cemented in one place, through using the various genres of it allows the piece to be multi-spatial. "

"Recording taken during a trek from Kalaw to Inlee Lake, Burma when we passed a small wooden monastery." 

Recorded by Manuel Oberkalmsteiner.

At the Durdle Door area of outstanding beauty in Dorset, England, the Stair Hole cove is a secluded, reverb-drenched cove tucked away behind the cliffs. The gentle swish of waves blends with the sounds of holidaymakers escaping the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns, and above that the sounds of gulls wheeling and arguing among themselves is the key feature in the soundscape. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

On board the funicular that descends from SchatzAlp into the town of Davos, we're visiting the 2020 World Economic Forum, and keenly listening in to the types of conversations that take place when the world's business leaders (and corporate marketeers) descend on one small town in Switzerland. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Lulworth Cove reimagined by Richard Gadd.

"A collective noun for gulls is a squabble which is also descriptive of the noises they make. On the other hand they can soar gracefully arcing in the sky. 

"I was struck by the existence of two worlds in the recording, one of the holiday makers and the other more mysterious and enduring of the gulls and the cove itself and the piece is a description of that."

Conversations on board the SchatzAlp funicular at the World Economic Forum in Davos reimagined by Xqui - "experimentations in delay times and quarters."

Stream at Malham Cove, Yorkshire, England reimagined by Canis Arboris.

"It's a soundtrack for journey into the woods. The deeper we get, the more we can separate from everyday world of small, unimportant things, which in turn allows us to dive deep into the space of our own mind.

"I approached the piece by playing with two simple chords on electric guitar, then added another layer of guitar on top of that, then bass and synths. Finally, I tweaked and automated some parameters while mixing."

Malham Cove is a huge curving amphitheatre-shaped cliff formation of limestone rock about 260 feet high, and is one of the major tourist destinations and beauty spots in the Yorkshire Dales national park in England. At the bottom of the cliffs, the soundscape is calm and the air empty, carrying any sound large distances, and a small trickling stream is the main sonic feature on this quiet day, with pockets of birdsong and the odd passing rambler. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Field recording from the Krč forest, Czech Republic by Kvetoslav Slambor.

"A sunny weekend day in the forest located in between the city outskirts and the suburbs. Lot of people come to enjoy the day in the nature, bike through or have a drink at the beer garden on the edge of the forest."

Soundwalk through the Krč forest, Czech Republic, reimagined by Richard Watts.

"The original recording is lovely and I didn't want to muck about with it too much so I've created a soundtrack under the original recording. It's supposed to be slightly sinister and take you on a journey."

Brood X cicadas reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"The drone of the Brood X cicadas, coupled with the amazing story of how they all appear en masse without warning, brings to mind the idea of the brood as a mysterious alien force emerging from beneath the Earth itself.

"This piece imagines a broadcast transmission from Brood X to the human race, crackling out across the shortwave radio frequencies before picking up into a definitive message to humanity in the propulsive second half. 

"From a production point of view, every sound here is derived from the original recording, and it was a great excuse to break out the box of tricks marked 'tape effects, broken speakers and crackling radio waves'"

Audio recording of the Brood X cicadas at their peak in Milford, USA by Andrew Wilkinson.

Zealandia nature reserve reimagined by Eulipion Corps.

"The field recording was so compelling I knew it had to be the dominant force in the composition. I recorded again with my dad on clarinet and myself on various synths and percussion. 

"Our approach was to use the field recording as a portal; allowing us to join the conversation happening at the nature reserve."

Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/like_the_grand_canyon/

Antifa protest in Porto from August 2020 recorded by Melissa Pons.

"With the far-right winning adepts in Portugal with their nationalistic discourse, the left-wing and the Antifascist Union, organized peaceful and informative protests in response to the death threats perpetrated to some of its members and deputes of the Left Block."

Antifa protest in Porto reimagined by Keisuke Oki.

"Summer in Portugal is hot as the people there."

Recording from Zealandia, New Zealand by Richard Watts

"Zealandia is a nature reserve in Wellington. You can hear lots of cicadas and various birds including a Tūī."

Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/like_the_grand_canyon/

Rail station bar in Montenegro reimagined by Nicolo Scolieri.

"I listened for the spaces in the field recording and added musical gestures with software instruments - I tried to think about reactions and frequencies as a listener. 

"Like, if I was in that space, how would my mind be working? Where would my thoughts go? I think making a musical score for a field recording is like that."

Atmosphere at a small railway bar at the station in Bar, Montenegro, recorded by Mark Wilden.

Sella Brunech ski lift reimagined by Bill Stevens:

"With the pandemic receding, I saw those that we called essential workers as a continuum of the broader working class struggles that the virus accentuated. Work that was and continues to be devalued culturally and intellectually. One reason is that we never developed stronger solidarity with factory workers, hospitality, cleaners, etc… Instead we saw ourselves as more important and different to those professions in our own struggles with Covid-19, higher wages and financial security.

"The sounds were unclear or I simply couldn’t hear any sounds, although songs were being sung by those telling their own stories documenting their struggles and tensions. So much could be accomplished in this moment; however our elected leaders are choosing to not listen and therefore to not act as time continues to move forward.

"This piece is about the songs we are not hearing. It begins as a dream, interrupted by cries/shouts that dissolve into a continuous flow of time until the dream returns culminating in the energy of civil protest to get our elected leaders to act, but in the end are they just words on the internet writing songs we cannot hear.

"I utilized the recorded sound in two areas of the composition as a pad. The original sound was manipulated through a ring modulator to give it a more metallic feeling analogous to the sound of a factory."

We're 2,428 metres up in the Italian Dolomites, at Canazei - up here in the mountains by the ski lift all you can hear is the gentle clanking of the lift performing its duties, with the occasional bit of chatter from a mountain walker, or a hint of birdsong. 

I love the purity of the sound up in the mountains, with every element neatly separated out into its own compartment in the soundscape. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"A modular nod to Kraftwerk, as a Moog Subharmonicon responds to the sounds of the Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof, imagining Florian and Ralph returning home from a European trip. Slow pulses accompany station announcements in the first half, as we enter the station at walking pace and get our bearings. 

The latter half of the piece quickens the pace, bringing in some more rapid, interweaving pulses alongside the sounds of trains arriving and departing. 

"The thrill of travel, communicated through CV voltages."

"In November 2019, my daughter and I went to Düsseldorf, Brussels and Ghent for a short vacation around a business trip. This is a recording from one of the tracks at the Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof on November 19."

Recorded by Adam Aronson.

Sounds from inside Malta International Airport reimagined by Karhide.

"The track came together as an experiment in Ableton Live, creating two different drones from the original sound and then creating a beat and bass line that changes throughout the track.

"The original sound was then mixed back in with a convolution reverb applied. The track was then mastered in Ozone by iZotope."

Recording from inside Malta International Airport, taking us past baggage claim, where we can hear a luggage belt moving, a small crowd talking, phones ringing and the classic sounds of people in transit arriving into an airport. Recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Dry stone walls are an iconic sight throughout Yorkshire in England, each one painstakingly constructed from layer upon layer of stone, without any form of cement to hold them together. 

There are estimated to be over 5,000 miles in the Yorkshire Dales alone, some dating back over 600 years to when they were built to repel wolves.

In this recording, you can hear the fascinating sound of a trickling stream just below the wall resonating up through the stones to create a rich, reverb-inflected water sound that you can only hear by placing your ear next to the wall - or a recording device into the wall. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Yorkshire water trickling in a dry wall recording reimagined by Anna Recasens.

"I am writing with sound. I like the idea of reusing, recycling, repurposing a sound, superimposing one on another. The original remains deliberately in the background.

"This version is an attempt to create a landscape that relies upon sound, exposing the very principles and ways of life in a location, and there is resistance, a response, that surfaces through the palimpsest, involving the listener in glimpses of a disappearing past, and in an emergent fluent new landscape."

Dorset rescue helicopter reimagined by Simon Woods.

"The piece is partially built up from the sound of the sound of the helicopter blades to make a basic rhythm. This is complemented by waves of synths."

On a visit to the iconic Jurassic Coast tourist attraction of Durdle Door, the beach was suddenly cleared of people by site security, as a search and rescue helicopter was called to take off someone in distress to hospital. 

This recording captures the helicopter arriving and coming in to land, briefly circling before descending onto the beach. Recorded from the clifftops above, you can clearly hear when the helicopter drops below the level of the cliff from the way the sound changes.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Kazarman, Kyrgyzstan reimagined by Andrew Howden.

"Inspired by Kyrgyzstan mountain range The Tian Shan and the celestial spirits that reside in the mountain in Tengri religion. 

"The field recording of Kyrgyz voices and the sound of a rumbling accelerating vehicle going off into the distance, which provide the base to the composition as well as processed samples, provided me with an idea of setting out on a journey to visit the Tian Shan mountain range, leaving the village behind and eventually arriving at the mountains in all their splendour and spiritual beauty with connection to the heavens and Earth."

A field recording from the town of Kazarman, Kyrgyzstan, recorded by Mark Wilden in 2016, capturing life on the streets.

Mercado Bolhao reimagined by John Tenney.

"Follow BabyKat on an imaginary ground-level journey as her feet take her through Porto, Portugal’s “second city,” asking for snacks in markets and cafés, visiting a church, riding a tram, being an independent free spirit. 

"By the way, almost all the sounds you hear are in fact from Porto; the church service and procession are from the central Portuguese city of Viseu. Also, this piece is dedicated to the real-life BabyKat, who died in 2018, and definitely was an all-round free spirit! I’m glad I recorded her voice."

Mercado Bolhao is one of the most famous markets in Portugal, where farmers go to sell their wares, and boasting the usual array of cafes and souvenir shops that pop up when a market becomes a tourist attraction.

"The recording was taken from a street corner in the centre of Mandalay near a Hindu temple. The audio image is dominated by motorcycles."

Recorded by Manuel Oberkalmsteiner.

Mandalay street corner reimagined by Joel Graham.

"After listening a couple times, the motor bike (i think) seem to purr like a tiger to me. I bandpassed the upper frequencies to create animal and bird sounds. I added a track of regular bird song(my recording) to humanize (birdize?) the artifacts left from the filtering process. I used the whole original recording."

"Tound of annual parade and celebration in honour of Mazu, the harvest god. 

"Firecrackers, drums and percussion, horns and cheering."

Recorded near Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Taipei by James A. Holland.

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

"The sound of a group of Taiwanese elders practicing Tai Chi and guided by an instructor. Recorded at 5.30am by the Lotus Pond."

Recorded in Tai Chi in Taipei Botanical Gardens by James A. Holland.

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

"The sound of Taiwanese elders singing karaoke at multiple karaoke stands surrounding Qiansui Temple. 

"The sound of people walking by the river, cyclists and nearby food vendors can also be heard. 

"The horn sound (6.28) is the distinctive sound of the ice cream bike."

Recorded at Dadaocheng Qiansui Temple karaoke area, Taipei by James A. Holland. Assisted by Tsai Hsiao-Tz.

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

London Kill The Bill protest reimagined by Tom Thompson.

"I was drawn to the energy of the crowd noise and rhythmic chanting.  

"I decided to incorporate the sounds as both a sonic centre and the bridge-passage of this asynchronous loop-based composition."

Recording by Bobby Jewell from the Kill The Bill protest in Parliament Square, London on 2 April 2021.

Recording taken at London Day of Action, as part of National Weekend of Action in protest to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill being pushed through by the UK Conservative government. The bill seeks to ban peaceful protest in an authoritarian clamp down on basic political freedoms in England and Wales. 

The protest on Saturday 2 April in London featured a number of left wing groups and was predominantly led by young people. Despite being peaceful, good-natured and musical throughout the protest led to kettling, arrests and unnecessary violence by Metropolitan Police, including those of legal observers. 

Sounds of tofu making recorded in a tofu shop in Fengyuan City, Taiwan by Fuji.

Tofu making in Taiwan reimagined by Dave Webb.

"The original sound was short and rather lo-fi but I chopped out some loops and bass. 

"I also added some sounds of me chopping up some tofu in my shed. Then looping, mixing and dubbing these sounds live with Ableton, a mixing desk and an array of outboard FX pedals."

Laos village reimagined by Jeff Dungfelder.

"Using the Laos field recording as a starting point, “stars rain sun moon” came to life seemingly all on its own. Reminding me of happiness and the joyous sounds of summer, like the The Great Gatsby quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” 

"The title comes from an E. E. Cummings poem, which says it all:

“anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men (both dong and ding
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain”

― E. E. Cummings

"A small Hmong village without electricity and machine noise. A wonderful clean soundscape." 

Recorded in a small village in the forest (Luang Prabang, Laos) by Manuel Oberkalmsteiner.

Beneath Rifugio Averau in the Italian Dolomites, we tune into the sound of ski lift clanking across the sky, the sound of the mechanism reverberating off the nearby rocks, with birdsong and the occasional walker passing the only other audible sounds.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Gazi Huzrev-beg mosque, Sarajevo reimagined by Artur Kinal (Synthotherapy).

"The sound sample was processed with AE Modular synthesizer. All other sounds come from the same synthesizer as well. 

"The recent history of the region (Sarajevo, Bosnia) isn't a peaceful one so I've tried to reflect it in the somewhat disturbing mood of the piece and war-like drumming.

"The original sample evoked some Muslimgauze associations so I've sculptured modular drums as a tribute to his hand drumming style."

Rifugio Averau in Italy reimagined by Jonas Lark.

"Deconstructing and rebuilding the audio maintaining the feeling of travelling... I used a granular synthesis synth (Tardigrain) and an experimental audio mangler (Fieldscaper), with additional reverb and further granular synthesis via Velvet Machine and Bleass Granulizer. An improvised composition recorded live in one take."

Visiting Venice on a normal weekday in September 2020, there were far fewer tourists to be seen than ever before due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in places you could almost imagine the city as a place for residents going about their normal lives. 

In the tourist centre of the Piazza San Marco, though, tourists were congregating as usual, and the crowds were as intense as ever, jostling for a selfie in front of the Bridge of Sighs. In this recording we're in amongst the tourists as they compete for the best spot, then we walk around underneath the bridge to capture some of the boat traffic beneath.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Venice's Bridge of Sighs reimagined by Ryan Campos.

"A modular composition accompanied by a world we once knew."

A late night walk home on a balmy night in early September - the sound of crickets all around chirping at 1.00am in Scopello, Sicily. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Image by Andrea Schiavon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ender7/

Crickets in Scopello, Sicily reimagined by Matthew Tomkinson.

"This piece blends car horns and cricket chirps in order to create an ambiguous duet of rising and falling pitches, whose sources are sometimes uncertain. A tension emerges between incidental melodies, dissonant drones, soothing sirens, and emergent rhythms."

Image by Andrea Schiavon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ender7

Nantou Mountains, Taiwan at 6.00am, recorded by James Holland. 

“It's the sound of what is essentially mountainous jungle terrain in Nantou county at dawn.”

 The interview with a Nanatou local that you can hear in the recording is translated as follows: 

“I really love this place. 

 

When I first came here I didn’t even want to sleep -  

 

I just sat outside, watched the stars, the moon and listened to the sound of nature. 

 

I still love this space.

 

I'm even loving it more and more because I feel, besides just the beauty of nature, I feel I become good friends with the animals here. The tree climbing lizards who watch me through the windows.  

 

And I can hear many, many sounds - from nature.  

 

The sounds of eagles,  the sounds of frogs after rains.  Probably hundreds or thousands of frogs together. 

 

The sound of calling.  

 

And the sounds of cicadas, the sounds of bird calls. 

 

Wow. 

 

It’s so good, wonderful to live in the mountains. 

 

I feel completely enriched here."

Interview credits:

Interviewee: Chang Fu Jung

Interview recordist: Tim Cole

Interview translation: BaoBao Chen

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

Doi Saket Temple, Thailand recorded by Alex Boyesen. 

"Doi Saket temple is situated on top of a steep hill in a small country town called ....Doi Saket! In the 15 years I have been here it has changed from a quiet backwater to a bustling market town.  

"There are 3 Italian restaurants if you get bored with rice. Doi Saket is next to the A118 road which takes you directly to Chiang Rai and Mai Sai, also known as the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet."

 
The transcript of the interview with a local temple visitor that you can hear in the recording is as follows: 

“The temple it means a lot for the Thai Buddhists, even me because I’m a Buddist as well. 

Many times when I feel upset or I feel something is not right to my life, I have to go to temple because it means something to me - it means a lot sometimes. 

 

Normally offering the food to the monk, have a monk share it, or even doing meditation that could make me feel a lot better and also it makes me feel happy when you can do something for somebody else, you know, make a good thing for your life and for somebody else's life as well”. 

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

The sounds of cicadas, across the fields at night outside Chiang Mai, Thailand, recorded by Alex Boyesen. 

"This was recorded in our rice paddy. Super muddy and will steal your sandals given half a chance! 

"The rice had just been harvested so it was full of birds and insects foraging, mating and just having fun. Right now the sound is changing to a heavy duty frog chorus as the paddies are being flooded for a second harvest. 

"Nothing stands still here. Over the past few days I have encountered two golden tree snakes, a cobra and a python, big and small scorpions, frogs in the bathroom, herons, moorhens, squirrels, rats and our chickens have had three more chicks."

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

Announcement over small town tannoy system in a Thailand station, recorded by Alex Boyesen. 

"I recorded this from outside of my studio door.  The local village community that I am a part of  - Tumbol Palan - has a tannoy system in which the Puya Baan (Head villager) will announce things to everyone living there.  

"This can range from deals that a farmer may have for food they have grown, upcoming events such as village gatherings, who has died, warnings about weather/Covid-19 and so on or simply to say hello and hope everyone is well and to come and visit him if there are any problems to report."

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

The sounds of everyday life on Wulai Old Street in the rain, New Taipei City, recorded by James A. Holland. Assisted by Tobie Openshaw and Billie Cheng.

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

The early morning sounds of Lungshan Temple, Taipei City, at 6.00am, recorded by James A. Holland. Assisted by Tsai Hsiao-Tz.

Part of the 5,000 Miles project in partnership with Ithaca Studio, an immersive 360-degree audio experience that transports you to another place through the evocative sounds of places 5,000 miles from the UK through spatial audio technology and ambisonic 3D recording. 

The project was an immersive live experience touring festivals in 2021, and is presented online via Cities and Memory at www.citiesandmemory.com/5000-miles.

New Orleans casino floor reimagined by Richard Watts. 

"'The Power People' is a reference to a sample I've used in the piece. The original recording was very busy with lots going on so I've tried to capture that by using a repetitive gated synth to drive it along. 

"There are various sampled sounds which I have cleaned up and used too. I always feel that casinos are sad places where people dream about making money but never get there and end up losing, so I've used a minor key melody to reflect that."

Sounds recorded at Harrah's Casino in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. These are some of the typical sounds you'd expect to hear in a casino in this region. 

Recorded by Silas VDS. 

Burlington gates reimagined by Brian Collins.

"The track was created using only field recording samples of an industrial gate being closed. 

"The approach for Ruptured Barrier was to use Max for Live granular synthesis tools and sound stretching tools in Ableton for the reimagined piece. It is part of a project called MODULATIONS."

A short recording of an industrial gate being closed outside an abandoned factory in Gillogue, Ireland, recorded by Brian Collins. 

Several thousand anti-lockdown demonstrators marched through central London on a Saturday in April 2021 despite restrictions on mass gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was billed by organisers: "Unite for Freedom".

The protesters viewed COVID-19 restrictions as unnecessary and a breach of their human rights. They opposed vaccinations, mask-wearing and so called health passports.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"The lockdown protesters firstly gathered in the early afternoon and started to march through central London. 

"In this soundscape, you can hear thousands in attendance, and portable sound systems blasting music while protesters dance while marching, carrying placards saying: "No to vaccine passports' ' and "Lockdowns kill". The age spectrum of the protesters seem quite significant, with people from all sorts of ages and backgrounds."

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Several thousand anti-lockdown demonstrators marched through central London on a Saturday in April 2021 despite restrictions on mass gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was billed by organisers: "Unite for Freedom".

The protesters viewed COVID-19 restrictions as unnecessary and a breach of their human rights. They opposed vaccinations, mask-wearing and so called health passports.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"A quieter soundscape in which the protesters just left the main shopping district Oxford Street and are now crossing Monument on their way to Westmister. Here you can hear the organizers greeting everyone for their presence and support and protesters chanting words such as "freedom" and "take off your mask". 

"The protesters view COVID-19 restrictions as unnecessary and a breach of their human rights. They oppose vaccinations, mask-wearing and so called health passports. This soundscape also highlights a peaceful interaction between protesters and the protesters on their way to face each other along the river."

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Several thousand anti-lockdown demonstrators marched through central London on a Saturday in April 2021 despite restrictions on mass gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was billed by organisers: "Unite for Freedom".

The protesters viewed COVID-19 restrictions as unnecessary and a breach of their human rights. They opposed vaccinations, mask-wearing and so called health passports.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"This soundscape highlights the end of the march where demonstrators dispersed throughout all arteries of London and some returned to Hyde Park. 

"In this soundscape we can hear the Hare Krishna delivering some free food to the protesters, including apples and a vegan meal composed of dal and rice. 

"We can also hear some small portable sound systems in the background playing reggae music while the remaining protesters still have energy to chant “Don't take the vaccine” at the sound of hip hop beats."

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Several thousand anti-lockdown demonstrators marched through central London on a Saturday in April 2021 despite restrictions on mass gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event was billed by organisers: "Unite for Freedom".

The protesters viewed COVID-19 restrictions as unnecessary and a breach of their human rights. They opposed vaccinations, mask-wearing and so called health passports.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

"This soundscape highlights a quieter part of the protest, featuring the tale of the rally, in which officers engage with the protesters that had gathered in bigger groups and offer themselves to explain that their actions are unlawful under the Covid-19 regulations, and encourage them to go home to help protect themselves and others. 

"The majority of the protesters did not appear to be engaging with the police advice as they made their way through along the river in Westminster, although always keeping a peaceful interaction with the police forces."

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Wytham church choir reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"A looped section of the choir's song flows in and out of the piece, and the upbeat, summery hymn is overtaken by a darker mood of sitar and tabla beats floating around a central low drone. 

"Is there something darker lurking beneath the veneer of this quintessentially English garden party in a churchyard?"

Outside a tiny village church in Wytham, Oxfordshire, we stumble across a quintessential garden party in the churchyard, with clinking wine glasses and English conversation. In the background, the piece is underpinned by the church choir singing an upbeat hymn - we record a snippet of singing and conversation, and then we're on our way.

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Polish clock shop reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"For this piece, we set the tempo clock of a Moog Subharmonicon to track one of the ticking clocks in the original field recording, and set it relatively low in the mix, as if the synthesiser is playing the role of one of the clocks in the shop, bedding into the wall of ticks in this immensely-rich recording. Synth pads over the top build the structure and emotion of the piece as it develops."

A rich and unique soundscape from the inside of a clock shop in Poland, recorded by Simon B.

"A clock shop at the bottom of a tower block that is full of clocks, all ticking together."

Rain in a stubble field at the edge of Waterloo, Canada, where corn is planted by the highway between commercial lots. 

It’s April, a year in, and Ontario is locking down again. The sounds are rain on last year’s dried corn, stalks under foot, traffic noise, inland seagulls.

Recorded by John Savarese. 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Bangkok metro reimagined by Cities and Memory.

"This field recording brought back strong memories of my first visit to Bangkok, falling in love with the hectic, constantly-moving city as it swirled around me. Bangkok seemed to me a confluence of futuristic aspiration and millions upon millions of people doing their best to make in a competitive conurbation. 

"The metro was the fastest, simplest way to make your way around the centre of the city, and this piece is based on memories of the emotions of travelling above the streets at night, feeling the sense of endless possibility pulsing out of the very city itself, as if you could hear it breathing in and out.

"The piece is built from Moog Subharmonicon lines weaving in and out of passages of field recordings, with some piano and tenor brass accompaniment weighting out the mix, representing the heft of the trains on their tracks."

Bangkok metro recorded by Colin Hunter.

"This recording captures a ride on the MRT Blue Line from Lumpini Station to Hua Lumpong station and includes the station atmosphere before the train arrives, and walking out through the ticket barriers after I got off the train."

Yorkshire churchyard reimagined by Cities and Memory.

This was a moment of pure peace, a snapshot of rural life in England, and for the reimagined piece we were keen not to intrude on that. Instead, we've recorded two separate Moog synthesiser improvisations live over the field recording, responding to the moments when the birds are most active or quieter, and bringing in more activity when the church bells strike ten o'clock. We hope it preserves the sense of idyllic piece from the original recording.

The idyllic sounds of morning life in a small village in rural Yorkshire, England. It's 10am on a Sunday morning in Dent, and we're sitting in a churchyard, overlooking the fields from a hill. We're surrounded in the trees and bushes by all kinds of birds making their spring announcements, while down in the fields it's lambing season, so the sheep are constantly chattering, calling out to their newborn offspring. A moment of unspoilt peace. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

"This is a third recording of pt-banging on 19 March 2020, with even more people participating. This noise was audible all over the city. The neighbourhood has lots of hills and the rocks make the sounds reflect and travel long distances. Note the variety in the rhythm and especially timbre: people using different pans and sticks to beat the pans make up for a large variety.

"There are also some shouts: at 1:07, 'Fora Bolsonaro' ('Bolsonaro out')."

Recorded by Samuel van Ransbeeck.

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

"This is a short recording of a pot-banging protest in the Catete neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro, March 2021. When people cannot go on the streets to protest, they bang pots to show their displeasure with the government. 

"In this case, the protest was a general protest against the president of Brazil, Bolsonaro. Pot-banging is a relatively easy form of protest: it makes lots of noise, does not require people to gather (and risk to be arrested or attacked by the police) and so people who would normally not protest are more inclined to participate. 

"These protests started to propagate all over Brazil since February 2020 as the people are growing weary of the government."

Recorded by Samuel van Ransbeeck.

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Early morning forest ambience reimagined by Cities and Memory.

There's something special about the sound of a forest just waking up at the beginning of the day, and I wanted the reimagined piece to capture a little of that wide-eyed optimism and beauty. This is a modular synth improvisation performed alongside the (slightly-manipulated) birdsong field recording in real time, to react to the sounds of the recording and complement them, being careful never to take over at any point. The result is a duet for modular synth, blackbirds, jays and woodpeckers. 

Local birds, blackbirds & jays chirping early in the morning. Small bugs buzzing around, quiet drips of water and a gentle breeze in Belcarra, British Columbia, Canada. Recorded by Latham Elle.

Pre-flight safety checks before a BA flight from Helsinki to London Heathrow, recorded by Cities and Memory.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Helsinki to Heathrow flight reimagined by Nisha Duggal and James Broomfield.

"Plugging into the intensity of the pre-flight safety: nerves, excitement, the jitters of travel."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

San Francisco BART reimagined by Scott Whitman.

"I enhanced the field recording with additional Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) sounds plus original music to convey the experience of rail travel and the passage of time."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"Traveling on the BART train/subway in San Francisco is always an experience. This recording gives a glimpse into four minutes of a ride." Recorded by Sound Brigade - Brett Bach, Ken Cain, Luke Bechthold.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Punta Arenas bells reimagined by Cities and Memory.

These bells have a particular emotional resonance, sounding out in the most southerly place I've ever visited on a particularly special trip - to me at the time, these bells were an opening up onto a world of promise and adventure, as they are for so many other Patagonian visitors. 

The reimagined piece, then, opens with the pealing of the bells, and they're used as an opening to a vista of potential, with the music that follows representing the feelings I was having when listening to these bells chime - listening back now, I'm transported back to that moment and that place instantly.

Church bells ringing out at 7pm in the town centre of Punta Arenas in Patagonia, southern Chile, as heard from the balcony of a nearby hotel. 

Punta Arenas is the most southerly airport in South America, and the town is the gateway to Chilean Patagonia. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Tegel airport reimagined by Clelia Ciardulli.

"Until we travel,
we are waiting,
remembering the time warp
of airports with their echoing announcements
of lockdowns, with the merging of what we had hoped
and what we hope anew,
the clicking ticking and slipping and sliding of clocks,
until we travel,
the travels are inwards,
waiting to cross, to lift off, to meet,
to leave, to arrive.
Until we travel."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

This sound was recorded in the waiting room of the flight that was going to take me to Chile in January 2015. Listening to this recording you can perceive the classic acoustics that are produced in airports, a lot of reverberation and little intelligibility. So far nothing very new. However, the history of this sound is related to the place where it was recorded.

The basic architectural motif of Tegel Airport is the hexagon. Not only is the terminal building designed as a hexagon, but this figure is also found in the tower and other ancillary buildings, in the staircases and even in the design of bus stops. Smaller design elements also occupy the motif and are often characterised by 60-degree angles.

This type of construction exemplifies the classic architecture of the 1960 and continues to have a formative effect today, partly because its architecture required little space. In West Berlin, which was closed at the time, this was an important factor.

In addition to its aesthetic function, the hexagon also has a very practical one: Its organic ring shape makes it easier for passengers to find their way around the terminal building and no matter which direction they take, they always return to their starting point.

The hexagonal shape also reflects what many consider to be the airport's greatest advantage: the short distances and speed of check-in. There were 20 metres from the taxi rank to the check-in counter, and another 15 metres from the check-in counter, through the waiting area, to the aircraft door. For this reason the Tegel Airport was considered to be one of the most efficient airports.

With the construction of Berlin's new international airport, "Willy Brandt", Tegel closed its doors on 15 June. However, its architecture (and this recording) still exists. For the future a new district and a technology centre for more than 1000 companies is planned.

Recorded by Edgardo Gomez.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Cais do Sodre ferry in Lisbon, Portugal recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Freight trains passing reimagined by David Cowlard.

"The remix extends the timing and mood of the original recording into a cinematically imagined time and space, one where the antagonist is identified amidst a landscape of graffitied concrete rail bridges, underpasses and sodium vapour lighting.

"Samples are stretched and looped to provide the basis for this, while the visceral experience of the trains passing is extended and layered to emphasise the crashing rhythms. A vintage recording provides a link to the past while further shifting the mood to one of a more ominous tone."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Hong Kong ferry reimagined by Owen Sennitt.

"I had great fun playing with the original recording and coming up with this piece. I didn't necessarily have any particular ideas in mind when I started out, instead it just developed as I gathered different sounds and manipulated them before then putting them together. In the end, the engine chugging in the recording reminded me of being out on the water on an old launch, enveloped by the early dawn sea smoke, with only the blinking of channel markers to keep you on course.

"I suppose that peaceful eeriness is what is imagined in my mind when listening to the track.  I wanted to keep the original recording in the piece as is, alongside the sounds I explored during the composition that drift in and out, keeping it as a reference. Aside from one pad, all the sounds were created from samples of the original recording, which was taken at a Hong Kong fish market."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Lisbon tram reimagined by Andy Lyon.

"The ferry in the recording departs from a terminal that is typically used for commuter journeys rather than tourist journeys. This got me thinking about how journeys to work have changed drastically in the past year, reflecting on rare moments of calm, daydreams and the more usual urgency in our former routines and whether we really want or need a return to that way of life."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Colombo train trip reimagined by Ali Mohajer.

"Due to my researches about Sri Lankan culture, I got a lot of wonderful points about the simple lives and rich culture; however, the one, which was the most attractive to me, was their symbols of different Gods that each brings a different thing in life.

"The most interesting one was "Mayura Raksha", which brings peace, harmony and wealth to our lives. And exactly these are the three factors nowadays all of us around the world need most. So I have created this piece inspired by the god Mayura Raksha."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"Waiting for a definitive UK freight train, late at night, many cancellations  etc. Then two come along at once! Tempsford, 40 miles north of London, heading south..." Recorded by Rob Godman.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Tsim Sha Shui Star ferry in Hong Kong recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"Recorded during the train journey from Hikkaduwa to Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2013. A busker plays a flute as the train pulls into the station. Numerous buskers and food sellers with baskets of homemade snacks pass through the carriages. When the train gets up to speed you can hear the differences in the sound of the tracks as the train passes over bridges and crossings."

Recorded by Mark Vernon.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Bangkok metro reimagined by Rebecca Ainsworth.

As soon as I heard the original recording, I wanted to work with the ambient sounds in it. Inspired by this and The KLF's Chill Out album and my love of ambient music, soundscapes & field recordings, I started to work with the sounds in  the original and overlaid a recording from near the train station in my town, taken in a cone shaped building which adds it's own unique acoustics. The soundscape plays with the idea of trying to make the last train from Liverpool to Bangkok (the train doesn't exist)."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Moscow escalators reimagined by Meg Walker.

"Like so many of us I've been missing travelling in this last year. The desire to see new places, feel new music, taste new spices, is a lifelong one. I've also been very grateful that I haven't had to travel.

"While listening to the mesmerizing escalator sounds recorded in the Moscow metro Ploshchad Revolyutsii, I thought of the endless, and equally mesmerizing, rhythms of wind in trees. I also began thinking about beings who need to travel to live.

"That list is long, and includes the small wind-lifted fliers like butterflies and moths. Until we travel, maybe we can spend more time watching delicate beings like those, and learn from their softer ecological ways."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Helsinki airport train reimagined by Ghislain Gabrelle.

"It is a three-part composition, using the recording alone and declining the same materials in different ways. Three listening "plans", representing the three states of contemplation that I enjoy experiencing while traveling.

"A distant, diffuse shot, punctuated by almost scattered projections - like a journey - playing on the frames and the articulations, rhythmic then sustained, recalling this mechanical movement specific to trains, with attacks and frank cuts as well as the end of the extract proposed as a close-up.

"Ce trajet là, en train, laisse vaquer notre esprit à son imaginaire. L’oreille près de la fenêtre en regardant le paysage, observant les couleurs et les formes se mélanger à toute vitesse, ainsi que temps changer."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

The super-slick and efficient airport transit trains from Helsinki airport into the city centre. Recorded by Cities and Memory.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

The sound from the long, slow escalators in the Ploshchad Revolyutsii station on the impressive Moscow metro network.

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"This recording captures a ride on the MRT Blue Line from Lumpini Station to Hua Lumpong station and includes the station atmosphere before the train arrives, and walking out through the ticket barriers after I got off the train." Recorded by Colin Hunter.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Paris Charles de Gaulle reimagined by Janae Jean.

"Listening to aural ambience of train station at Charles de Gaulle Airport brought me right into the sticky vinyl seats or unfriendly wooden benches of any transport waiting area anywhere on Earth. I had a sense of sentimentality and familiarity with the process of travel, recognizing that even the waiting or stationary times are part of the journey. Even though most of us are not traveling and have not been for more than one year, we are currently in the middle of a journey. We don't need to take off on a plane or hop on a train, we are on the journey right now. There's a beauty in each step.

"Musically, I was originally planning on making an ambient sound collage with analog synthesizers, effects, and the train station ambience recording. I created synth patches that float and morph like clouds and others that buzz like engines. I chose the home tonality of B flat with a lot of suspended ninths because it feels like it's about to "take off" or "land". As I worked on it, I moved away from an ambience-only approach and started playing the 70s-ish piano ballad riff and topped it off with a "flutey," swung lead that feels a bit like "elevator music." This music feels at home in the waiting room."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Paris departure board reimagined by Robert Kellough.

"I very much enjoyed working with this sound. The voices of a bustling train station and the syncopation of the boards immediately drew me to this recording.  One of my last trips abroad was to the Pyrenees and I did take the train from Toulouse to Paris as part of that trip. I imagine I heard similar sounds at the station and completely took them for granted. I dream of traveling again and treated this sound as a daydream of visiting the train station. A daydream suddenly interrupted. I am hopeful for travel in 2021.  I'd like to hear those boards again for myself."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Aboard the train leaving Charles de Gaulle airport, recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"Today in 2021 most of the large TGV train stations in France have LED departure boards that update silently. But when I first arrived in Paris ten years ago all of the main terminals in Paris had the old "Split-Flap" style boards. Each time the board would update, a wonderful flipping noise would be heard. This recording captures exactly that sound, recorded at Gare du Nord in 2012."

Sony PCM D50 + Soundman OKM II binaural mics + A3 adapter
Recorded 06.10.12 by Colin Hunter.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Zima train station reimagined by Alex Hehir.

"This piece was inspired by the Russian station announcer mixed with the train sounds. These recordings were cut up and used to create all of the rhythms and background  textures.

"The synth sounds were almost entirely made from my Russian collection of noise boxes... I enjoyed limiting myself to these only. The track was recorded and edited in Ableton and heavily processed!"

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Field recording from Zima train station in Siberia, Russia by Mark Wilden.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Recording in front of the local university, space is calmer, windy, and less commotion in the area.  This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started.
 – Georgios Varoutsos.

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of two bars which are now closed (Bullitt and Bootleggers), quiet movement from a passerby, chatter, bicycles, and a little bit of wind. This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started. 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of Laverys Bar which is closed. Calmer space, little bit of wind, fewer movement from people and vehicles. This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started. 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in a common space of shoppers, there are still buses, much fewer people walking in the space, and essential shops closing for the evening. This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started. 
 – Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of two bars which are now closed (Filthy’s and The Points), a little number of pedestrians and vehicles passing, the sound of a skateboarder, little bit of wind. This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started. 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording of pedestrians and little amount of vehicle traffic in the area. This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started. 
 – Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of the local university, however, space has begun to be quieter and subtle sounds in the distance. Beginning of Lockdown 2 in Belfast.

– Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of two bars that are now closed (Dirty Onion and Thirsty Goat), the local area is much quieter, windy, and isolated. This is five days after the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast started. 
 – Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in a common space of shoppers, local buses driving in peak times of traffic, fewer people in the area, and space becomes much quieter. Beginning of Lockdown 2 in Belfast.

– Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of Laverys Bar which is closed. Space is much quieter, however, there is still some movement from pedestrians and vehicles. Beginning of Lockdown 2 in Belfast.

– Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of two bars which are closed/closing (Filthy’s – closed and The Points – closing), at The Points they were still people finishing their drinks on the outdoor terrace, staff picking up glassware, groups of people leaving the pub, chatter, passerby, vehicle traffic, at Filthy’s they were boarding up their doors and windows for the closure. Beginning of Lockdown 2 in Belfast.

– Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of two bars which are now closed/closing (Bullitt - closed and Bootleggers - closing), at Bootleggers they were removing outdoor terrace fencing, multiple tools being used (hammers, drills, etc…), and a few passerby. Beginning of Lockdown 2 in Belfast.

– Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording in front of two bars which are now closed/closing (Dirty Onion – closed and Thirsty Goat - closing), there is soft music from Thirsty Goat and local pedestrian/vehicle movement. Beginning of Lockdown 2 in Belfast. 
– Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Recording of more locals and visitors passing at the junction that intertwines city centre, daily shopping, and commuters. There is a lot more chatter in the nearby area as people are heading home due to the new Lockdown 2 in Belfast beginning. 

 – Georgios Varoutsos 

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Lockdown sound from Tbilisi, Georgia recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

"After 9 p.m. there is a curfew in place and we stay in a hotel direct in the old town of Tbilisi until tomorrow.

"The city is busy during the day and it started raining last night. I recorded this ambience with the window open, facing the street.

"It's a very interesting sound considering we're in a capital city, but we have almost no traffic. Only a few cars passed by during the 40 minutes recording and the rain started heavily and decreased by the end."

Part of the StayHomeSounds project to map and reimagine the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Ulan-Ude station reimagined by Anthony Miller.

"During the lockdown I was searching YouTube and came across videos of train journeys. The camera was filming from the driver's cab and the view of the track and landscape was quite mesmerising.
 
"I wanted to try and write a piece that encapsulated that feeling. I re-imagined the piece as a journey through a cold, windswept, barren landscape. All sounds, apart from the piano, were created from the original field recording and manipulated using Iris 2."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Shunting trains recorded from an overhead footbridge by Mark Wilden.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Binaural soundscape from Seoul airport recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"This recording was taken on a platform at Avignon Gare TGV in the summer of 2013. It being my first experience recording in the south of France, I was completely captured by the cacophony of the cicadas during the hot days." Recorded by Jase Warner.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Seoul airport reimagined by de Velden.

"I wanted to explore the sense of buildings without people, of buildings dreaming of people. I built a soundscape for the empty building sections of my piece out of chunks of the field recordings, and then inserted sections of the wonderful surround recording of people that the original field recording provided. I wrote a piano piece exploring those different moods, and then accentuated the 'dreaming' sections with additional synth and bass lines.

"Music and making music has been a refuge over the last year. When usual options for exploration have been limited I feel music has offered depth and breadth, providing colour and new experiences that maybe compensate a little."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Hong Kong airport baggage reimagined by David More.

"This piece is based around recordings made by placing a portable recorder inside a polystyrene fish box found in the street in Hong Kong, and checked in as baggage on a flight back to Chicago. I feel OK about not traveling, though traveling is one of my favourite things. There are benefits to sitting still, though I worry about the welfare of baggage handlers that might be out of work."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Avignon station reimagined by Steffi Baron-Neuhuber.

"This field recording reminded me of a time when I was traveling alone with a friend for the first time through Europe with Interrail about 18 years ago. Great memories and a great desire to travel again! I felt so free and I'm longing for more!"

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

"Sounds collected by a portable field recorder secured inside a polystyrene fish box that was found on the street in Hong Kong, that was then checked in as baggage on a flight back to the U.S."

Recorded by David More.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Wschodnia Station reimagined by Annali Lowdon.

"When I first heard the field recording I was drawn to the very pleasing sound of the footsteps that had been captured. I also felt a kind of stillness in the recording, an unhurried feeling, an acceptance that you will get there, when you get there. This was my starting point and why I chose to use the pure frequencies of singing bowls to express a kind of peace and calm.

"However, this soon became more of a response to the tragic disappearance and murder of Sarah Everard and the subsequent outpouring of anger felt by the female community about how unsafe women often feel when travelling. The piece then morphed into my experiences of travelling alone, particularly at night and the tension and vulnerability I have often felt. The piece depicts the altered state of reality you feel when you are in unfamiliar surroundings and feeling unsafe. Alarm bells start to go off and the ‘what if’ questions start to form."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Peruvian regional train reimagined by Elisabetta Senesi.

"The original field recording I choose inspired me a lot in this lockdown time, and made me think about some vital and similar trips I experienced in South America in 2016. Also, the entire project reminds me my last travels in Europe on several regional trains I took before the pandemic restrictions in 2020. With all this in mind I wanted to create an imaginative travelouge for 2021 by remixing different geographies/experiences to give a sense of unpredictability which every significant journey brings to our lives.

"The richness and diversity of each clip are combined together - cleaned and manipulated, in motion and more stationary, quiet and loud, at southern and northern hemispheres - mostly on a space-time continuum mood. To remember how easy was traveling and how important is the way we discover spaces/places and people far from our habits. To keep in mind that moving is a crucial human need/right and to imagine a freer future way of traveling with a new idea of mobility, slower and more train-based than before, possibly.

"The composition includes snippets of a manipulated version of the original recording, with sonic portions of an ecological jungle train I recorded at the boundaries between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, and a couple of field recordings gathered from two important train stations in France and Swiss.

"Locations of recordings are:
Marseille, Southern France (2020)
Locarno, Canton of Ticino, Southern Swiss (2019)
Juliaca, Southern Perú (2017)
Puerto Iguazú, Northern Argentina (2016)"

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Denver airport train reimagined by Jessie Brewer.

"My goal with this sound piece is to convey feelings of anticipation, disappointment, and uncertainty. A longing for what will eventually come— safe travel, visiting family and friends again, the return to a sense of normalcy— but without a clear path, or a concrete date. As initial quarantine orders slowly faded in the U.S., only to be followed by a brand new set… COVID-19 cases increasing with time rather than diminishing… it became an unavoidable reality. We must accept this pandemic for the beast it is— one we simply cannot predict— and trudge on.

"The original field recording for my piece was captured on a train ride from Denver Airport to Union Station. I chose to use only clips from the field recording, no additional sound. My primary mixing goals were to create layers of contradictory motion, repetition, and harmonic tension."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

A380 landing reimagined by Una Walker.

"A layering of the original recording with passenger conversations and aircraft sounds and the sound of someone walking on gravel paths, birdsong, wind in trees, and an interior voice repeating phrases from the overheard/overhead conversation.

"I live in a rural area on the east coast of Ireland but under a flight path. During the first lockdown the silence was palpable and when flights increased again I downloaded an app so that I could identify the origin and destination of flights I could hear above me. When I listened to the original recording (028) and heard voices I was reminded that there were people aboard those flights having inconsequential conversations ("I don't really pack much."). My field recordings were made on the forest trails near my house where I have walked almost every day in the last year, and where I have noted the transatlantic flights 30-40,000 feet above me."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

New York metro reimagined by Dana Papachristou.

"The original recording captured my ears as New York was the last place I visited before the coronavirus lockdown. I used the familiar M train sounds to create an aural condition where the ear, tired from a full day, falsely recognizes rhythm and melody in everyday sounds. A recreation of a travel experience, until we travel again."

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Travelling on the New York metro from Court Square to 23rd Street, recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

On board an Airbus A380 as it comes in to land at Frankfurt Airport, recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

Taking the train out of Denver Airport, recorded by Marcel Gnauk.

Part of the Until We Travel project to map and reimagine the sounds of transport and travel in a pre-pandemic and pandemic world. See the whole project at https://www.citiesandmemory.com/travel.

A cross-country train moving slowly through the town of Juliaca, Peru, in which the train tracks are used as a marketplace (when trains are not crossing). The sounds of music and clanking trains. Recorded by Mark Wilden.