Cities and Memory - remixing the sounds of the world

"I retained, without adjustment, the field-recording of chanting on a football terrace. My initial sense was of masculine celebration, the chants serving as a barometer for pride and rivalry. However, with the rhythmic fluctuations, my layered loops and snatches of dialogue shifted the celebratory mood. Repetitive, loopable refrains began to drone and persist with what I perceived as a tense 'possibility of emotional volatility', creating an unpredictable subversion."Horsham FC football chants reimagined by Rachael Adams.

The Lardy Boys, also known as the Lardy Army, is the name of the supporters at Horsham FC. This is a sample of them singing on a match day.Recorded by Pauline Howley.

"I found the idea of candy cutting and the cheerful voices on the original recording very reminiscent of a childhood memory. The fact that I cannot understand the Japanese being spoken makes it further seem like a hazy memory. "I wanted to retain the cheerful, nostalgic tone that I perceived while adding a melodic component on top of the rhythm created naturally by the candy cutting."  Candy cutting in Kawasaki reimagined by David Jolly.

On the street leading to Kawasaki Daishi, the sharp, percussive sound of hand‑cut sugar candy forms a steady rhythm.Shopkeepers' voices enter from both sides, calling out “Welcome” and offering tastes of candy just cut moments before.Recorded in Kawasaki, Japan by Miduno.

| A wild night at Lake Masek in Ndutu, Tanzania. Hear hyenas whooping, lions roaring, jackals calling, hippos grunting, zebras barking, and flamingos vocalizing-all in one incredible soundscape. Perfect for immersion, study, sleep, or experiencing the true chaos of the African night.Recorded in Ngorongoro, Arusha, Tanzania by David Joseph.

"I spend a lot of my time leading community choirs and singing protest songs, rousing anthems of freedom and liberty - and now, more than ever, they are needed. This is not a protest song, it is a plea. Ask yourself, which side are you on?"Together Alliance protest in London reimagined by Rebecca Denniff.

"This is my second attempt at producing a piece of music using the source sample. The original sample contains a clean, distinct loop of tribal drumming, and at first I constructed a piece based on that loop, with rhythmic and melodic elements stacked, and arranged into an EDM piece. "That was a bit too obvious, so instead I took the loop, deconstructed it, and applied pitch-shifting, filtering and other processing to elements to come up with the low-frequency sounds (at 52s, and later in the track) as well as the various bleeps and glitches that run through the track (the original loop - in a processed form - is also in there, reversed and pushed back in the mix). "The other elements, sections and movements grew out of those treated sounds organically; I didn't plan in any great detail how I wanted it to sound, and serendipity definitely played a part in how it turned out, but it is influenced to a degree by the book Underland by Robert MacFarlane (hence the title) - I wanted to convey some of the imagery and concepts in that work (deep time, and the physical heaviness of the world beneath our feet), and used low-frequency and heavily reverbed sounds, as well as a slow tempo (55bpm) to create a sense of drama, depth and space. "More of my music can be found here: https://filmclub1.bandcamp.com." Drumming in a park in Hannover reimagined by Mark Gordon (Film Club).

"This is a collaboration with pianist and composer Leah Floyeurs. We worked with sensitivity to honour the vibrational signature of this location in space, the Auschwitz Death Wall, which holds the memory of the Holocaust. The piece uses electronics and piano." Auschwitz Death Wall recording reimagined by Helen Copnall and Leah Floyeurs.

"Spend the day at Lake Masek, join The Northern Synthesizer Orchestra on an audio journey from dawn to dusk. Created collaboratively by The NSO which is Becky, Jordan, Dom, Julie and V. "Lake Masek soundscape reimagined by The Northern Synthesizer Orchestra.

The very beginning of Together Alliance's march against the right wing. This protest took place in central London in March 2026. I was located in the centre of Piccadilly near the Ritz hotel. The recording consists of chanting, drumming and many voices passing by as they made their way down Piccadilly towards Trafalgar Square. The rig I used to catch this recording was a pair of DPA 4060s into a Zoom H6 Essential. The mic configuration was spaced Omnis, approximately 20cm apart and set at a 45° angle. The only processing has been some compression at a 3:1 ratio and lifted by +10dB.Recorded in London by Ian Rattray.

Tribal drumming heard from a distance in the large Georgengarten park in Hannover, getting louder as we follow our microphone, identify the source of the sound and follow it. The sound stops before we get all the way to the source, but then we hear footsteps on the gravel path and birdsong. Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Ambisonics recording of acoustics and environmental sound at the "Death Wall" in Auschwitz I. The condemned were led to the wall for execution. SS men shot several thousand people here.Recorded by Anders Vinjar.

"I listened to the busker a lot here and loved his energy. It then made me think about how much I travel to and from work on the train daily and how attached I am to train travel, the same sounds and words I hear every day. The comfort of it. So I wanted to give it a quiet eulogy. I brought the busker in to help."Parisian metro busker reimagined by Dermot Fitzsimons. 

"One of the first things that jumped out at me about this recording was the sheer joy it conveyed, slight warts & all. I love the off note in the initial section of the piece, and started off with the notion of taking that discordance & slowly bringing it into harmony. That was stymied however, by initial processing of the discordant note resulting in something beautiful."The other striking aspect of the recording is that although the brass band is the main focus here, at points extraneous sounds - conversation, handling noise, wind - end up louder than it. I wanted to extend that experience, and deliberately hide the delightful main point of focus behind other sounds which might or might not match or harmonise."To this end, I extracted and processed lots of sound from the recording, added some synthesiser lines & extra percussion, and arranged to taste."Multicultural celebration parade in Oslo reimagined by Andrew Tulloch.

"I've always been captivated by the organic quality of atmospheres... so the meaning of FX soon became completely intertwined with it... and that's exactly what happened this time too..." Sermon in Dundas Square, Toronto reimagined by Lajkó András Bence/ACiDBENCI.IMAGE: Kang-min Liu, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Nothing unusual in hearing the plaintive song of a busker on the Parisian metro, and this one has a nice voice. What strikes us as we leave the carriage is how even buskers now give out their Instagram and TikTok handles at the end of songs. Tag us on social or it didn't happen. Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

At Aker Brygge on a Saturday afternoon in Oslo, a parade kicks off celebrating the muticulturalism of the city, with representation from many different groups and countries, all of whom are communities living there. The parade sets off to walk through the city centre with a celebratory tone, and in this recording many different groups walk past, with multiple forms of music including a brass band, drum troupe and various other types of percussion and music from around the world.Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

Dundas Square is a major intersection in downtown Toronto. It has a high population of buskers and other entertainment. This particular evening turned into a sermon. Recorded in Toronto by Scott Bennett.IMAGE: Kang-min Liu, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

"Built around a recording of the feminist collective Nous Toutes in Paris, who formed in 2018 to speak out against and draw attention to gender-based violence. For one hour every Saturday, the group speaks while sounding a klaxon at regular intervals; these intervals reflect the findings of a 2022 survey by the Ministère de l'Intérieur, which states that there is a rape or an attempted rape in France every 2 minutes and 30 seconds."It felt important to step back and let the speaker's words and the accompanying klaxons remain prominent and as clear as possible, so I added instrumentation gradually and with restraint. I initially focused on smoothing out some of the background noise, before moving on to building textures and drones until the voice steadily fades from the recording and the klaxon sounds once more."With Bb clarinets, noise box, Dvina, and daxophone."Feminist protest, Les Halles, Paris reimagined by deptiva.

"When I heard this field recording it reminded me of a similar recording my wife and I had done several years ago where we played an Iron bridge with mallets. I took this as a perfect opportunity to graft pieces of each together to create a cohesive recording of similar elements. "The playful running of the children on the bridge formed the central musical theme which suggested the direction of the harmonies heard in the final composition."Vibrations on La Villette Folie L5, Paris reimagined by Gerald Fratzl.

"I have been working on some piano miniatures inspired by Kurtág's Játékok, Bartok's Mikrokosmos and technical exercises such a A Dozen a Day. This piece fits into that body of work. "I edited and manipulated a short section of the bells so that it was far more intense than the original and put some slow, relaxed arpeggios and chords beneath that. I inverted that idea in the second part to include the recording of people inside the church but added faster, more intense arpeggios."Saint Sulpice, Paris reimagined by Simon Belshaw.

A feminist collective outside Les Halles in Paris protests against violence against women. They sound a klaxon every 2.5 minutes to symbolise how often an act of violence is perpetrated against women, and deliver a speech through a megaphone to passers by. In the first half of the recording we also hear the rubbish collection truck and workmen going about their business around the protesters. Recorded in April 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

Paris isn't just Notre Dame when it comes to churches and cathedrals - Saint Sulpice is also really impressive, and here we listen to the pealing bells at midday, then take a walkthrough around the whole of this stunning cathedral. Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

The Folies were designed by the architect Bernard Tschumi for the Parc de la Villette in Paris. These metal structures are placed around the park, and take the form of red metal structures that stand out from a distance. While their square bases are all identical (10.8 metres per side), their shapes vary according to their purpose. Each Folie is identified by a name and a code composed of a combination of letters and numbers. This is a vibrational recording made with a Geofon from Folie L5, which has a walkway overhead and a tower with steps - we can hear the sound of children running overhead, and percussive knocks on the metal. Recorded in April 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

A collage of musical patterns based on birdsong.Birdsong in Shipley, England reimagined by Janae Jean.

"The recording was chosen as I was due to visit that very departure lounge a few weeks later."That trip to Valencia was taken at a significant time of reflection following the death of my father and the clearing out of my parents house, a place redolent with memories of my childhood. I found an old, battered Spanish Guitar in a cupboard which makes an appearance, it seemed appropriate. My piece also includes EMF recordings of my Smart Watch, no longer does ticking mark a time of waiting, neither watch nor airport clock."Valencia airport departures reimagined by Paul Watson.

"On first listen to this field recording of Lisbon's tram (elétrico), I was struck by the prominence of a musical note contained in the hum of the system's wires. This ghostly tone resonates like a singing bowl as the tram and its passengers navigate the city's narrow, hilly streets. I imagined it as the centrepiece of a film score, and this is the result."Lisbon tram reimagined by Anne Pope.

This one recording doesn't have a unique sound in general, but the setting is quite unusual from my perspective, and it has the nice mix of restaurant sounds, messages over the loudspeaker, and people talking in multiple languages, which I think creates a soothing chaos.Recorded in Valencia airport by Tomasz Buga.

Birdsong at 8.00 am in the morning in a back garden in Shipley, England, with a plane overhead and a dog whimpering inside the house who wants to come out.Recorded by Alice Gilmour.

After a long and eventful trip in Lisbon, one of the final activities I did was ride the famous 28 tram passing through the narrow corridors of the city with the wooden windows down, reminiscing on the streets trekked and the landmarks of the city before embarking on the journey home. Until next time. Recorded in Lisbon, Portugal by Andrew Ramsey.

El Badi Palace is one of the most historic buildings in Marrakesh, and today is famous for the storks that choose its towers and turrets as prime nesting spots - in this recording, as well as the general sounds of people exploring the palace grounds, you can hear several instances of the famous and unforgettable clacking sounds of storks as they throw their heads back and exclaim to one another. Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory.

"This piece traces the European stork's migratory routes - there is an eastern route and a western route. Recordings from various countries the storks pass through on their way are combined with some spoken words."Storks in El Badi Palace, Marrakesh reimagined by Sophie Oldenbourg.

"I found the recorded voices both compelling and slightly disturbing. The levity around the use of a spice to drug 'brides to be' was deeply uncomfortable. Having lived in Tanzania and having some familiarity with the culture, I wanted to create a piece that was both challenging and a celebration. I felt conflicted, wanting to capture both the incredible joy of the people and community, and the profound sadness of the history of the area. I wanted to capture something of the trance like nature of the local rhythms and contrast that with more European melodies."Nutmeg use in Zanzibar reimagined by deadkousin.

A tour guide in the spice farm is describing to the group how nutmeg is used by locals to as a drug by men to replace alcohol, or is given to young bridges who are afraid of their wedding night. Zanzibar is known as the “spice island” and exports a number of spices including nutmeg. It also does a roaring tourist trade showing tourists around the farms and selling spices in Stone Town market. Recorded in Dole, Zanzibar by Marg Laing.

I walked into my local market one day, out of sorts, and I came across a freezer in the back of the store that sounded like it was malfunctioning. I could very much relate.I had my recorder with me that day so I thought it would be a cool sound to use in my music making.I recorded the loud, mechanical sound while my partner patiently waited for me. I kept recording as I turned to walk out and I also captured the music that they were playing in the market. It was an old pop song by INXS called "What You Need" which I found to be amusing. After spending some time recording a grinding, mechanical sound in a dark register, it made me laugh to turn and face the catchy, upbeat song. And that is why I named my recording "Not What You Need".The rest of the recording is a snippet of a conversation, the noise of the check out and me opening the door to the street as a car rumbles by.By the way, I never did get around to sampling the sound. Maybe someday.Recorded in Baltimore by Bill McKenna.

"I wanted to see if I could make some music without any musical instruments: No keyboards. No guitars. No wind instruments. No drums or bass. I think I succeeded but then I'm not the final judge. I sampled from the original recording a car rolling past the market which becomes the bass line. The failing refrigerator becomes a beat. I looped other elements in the grocery store including a short conversation, an employee laugh and a brief snippet of a pop song playing in the store. I also added some recordings from my kitchen which I then cut up: tea kettle whistle, knife cutting veggies, turning off the kitchen fan, etc."What does "Hey You Yes Please" sound like? I don't really know. It's nothing serious but it brings a smile to my face every time I listen which I think is the whole point."Baltimore soundscape reimagined by Bill McKenna.

A rare chance to hear the sounds from a community oven, which are in every neighbourhood in the city. People bring their bread dough, their tagine or whatever else needs cooking, pay a small amount of money and use the huge community oven to cook it. It's efficient, cheap, and it brings the community together - wonderful. Recorded in Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

Roadside stop on Route 66 in Arizona, USA. Richard J. Lovington memorial garden; sound of chimes, birds and occasional passing traffic.Recorded by Mark Wilden.

"T'he road was there' uses a field recording made by Mark Wilden. The recording is of the Hackberry General Store, a famous road stop on Route 66 in Arizona, USA. I was enamored with the chimes from the field recording, which I filtered and fed through a series of delays and reverbs. The filtered chimes are accompanied by sine waves and my electric guitar."Hackberry general store, Arizona reimagined by Chris Cresswell.

"I am an advocate of food sovereignty, and I believe that coming together around food preparation and consumption, in its most simplest forms, strengthens communities and relationships. "Combining this perspective, with the visual images the source sound provoked in my imagination, I chose to work with a field recording of a communal bread baking oven in Marrakesh, Morocco. "In the recording I was taken by the natural rhythmic quality of dough kneading, and this gave me an immediate way in - taking a few imperfect samples from these, as an earthy basis for my composition."I invited several friends to speak simple related phrases in different languages, (Czech, Thai, Spanish, Norwegian, French and German) - to emphasise a sense of connectivity and expansiveness in the piece and bring a feeling of incantation."Marrakesh community oven reimagined by Suzi Lamb.

"The source material for my submission to this most recent Cities & Memory call is a field recording by Shaye Thiel, a New York artist whose medium is sound, hearing, perception, and the practice of attention. She is hard-of-hearing and these sounds were recorded with her hearing aids. "I chose to work with and reinterpret Thiel's field recording because I really loved the description of her art and work provided in her cv [https://shayethiel.com]. I encourage you to read it! I first started making ambient/minimal music as a way to address personal issues with tinnitus, insomnia, and anxiety. I really took Brian Eno's “as interesting as it is ignorable” quote to heart, because that sort of liminal music had personally provided me a lot of relief. "I'm interested in creating music that isn't necessarily musical; that uses barely perceptible elements to draw attention or distract it; in which heard sounds or rhythms might actually exist or might simply be created by the convergence of other sounds, the cancellation of frequencies, or who knows what. As Thiel puts it in her cv, sounds that are “entangled, co-created and in constant negotiation.” "My piece was entirely created and assembled in Koala Sampler on my iPhone. "All melodic elements, however simple or complex, have as their root the same single wave cycle, sliced from somewhere in the nineteen-minute recording. "Some of the rhythmic elements are samples from the recording, and some are random noises from Fractal Bits."New York hearing aid soundscape reimagined by daddy fall down.

"As I began losing my hearing, the urgency of archiving memory through everyday sounds became more pressing. This raw audio was captured through my hearing aids while I walked across the Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn, suspending the listener while people shift around them in the subway, in cars, cycling and on foot. This is an ongoing research project capturing the difference in my hearing loss combined with noise pollution by recording in the same location on the same day, year over year."Recorded by Shaye Thiel.

A game of table tennis recorded in the park high up in Belleville, looking over the rest of Paris on a Sunday morning. Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory. 

Strange sounds of water and steam valves operating beneath a Victorian steam engine. Recorded in the maintenance access chamber beneath the Markfield Beam Engine, Tottenham, London by Paul Wheeler.

Yongnian Road and Shunchang Road are packed with “72 tenants” style lilong buildings, teeming with residents who speak softly to avoid stares. Street-level homes, often shops or card rooms, hum a bit louder. On summer nights, Shanghai uncles (yeshu), shirtless, sit on bamboo chairs, sipping cold beer, eating, and ga sanhu (chatting). In the 80s and 90s, with rising incomes, this lively scene lasted past midnight, marking the end of an era when voices drowned out traffic. During the recording, mostly locals remain; though distant words are faint, the Shanghai dialect's cadence still rings clear.Recorded in Shanghai by Digimonk.

"Paul Wheeler's original recording of the Beam Engine evoked a haunting sound of the steam-powered mechanics in an abandoned subway or perhaps a disused tube station on the London underground."Frozen in time, and haunted by the sounds and reflections of the past.Mechanical remains still try to function in a lost existence, where they are no longer seen or heard."A theme which I find moving and provocative as a metaphor for elements of modern society, where echo chambers scream relevance, but do not exist in the physical world - and where people can exist and cease to exist in a void of invisibility.I love films like Death Line and Quatermass And The Pit, and I am firmly stuck in the past."Markfield beam engine reimagined by Dave Andrews / Zegazoid.

"Initially I was interested in this field recording because of the joy and fun the competition and ping-pong sounds evoke and the idea of creating a piece to match that energy. As I was working with the recording (changing speed/octaves), I was struck by how easily these fun sounds could be transformed into nightmarish sounds. This led me to combine the nightmare quality, the way sounds can be incorporated into dreams, the feeling of waking up on Sunday morning, and my love of horror movie soundtracks for “Cauchemar Coffee.” "This track manipulates and adds to the main field recording, tracing the time from being still in a dream state through waking up, making a coffee, and starting your Sunday morning."“Cauchemar Coffe” was created in VCVRack2 with additional field recordings including bird sounds from my porch, making my own Sunday coffee and waffles, bouncing a pickleball, and raindrops on/near a water-proof stereo contact mic. Playspeed, octaves, sample portions, and effects were changed during the track on the original field recording. Field recordings were combined with additional virtual eurorack modules and effects."Table tennis in Paris reimagined by Stephanie E. Vasko.

"The recording of YongNian Rd. reminds me of living in China a number of years ago, and visiting Shanghai and walking down streets like this. What I love about this sample are its many layers - the traffic on the street, the bird chirping - likely in a bamboo cage -- but especially the lively sounds of people talking. Many streets are busy with folks enjoying each others' company - reflecting a common phrase for wishing someone well in China - that they walk slowly."Yong Nian road, Shanghai reimagined by Wayne DeFehr.

"I dearly love Iceland - and on one of our many visits I was fortunate enough to go whale watching and see two magnificent humpback whales swimming right by our boat, their fins touching. It looked like a gesture of love, and I thought of all of our stories of selchies and other sea creatures - lost dreams of swimming with the sea mammals, and them choosing to walk with us. "We on the land, and they in the sea. This is my love song for those precious whales."Humpback whale song off South Iceland reimagined by Rebecca Denniff.

"The piece is performed by Tara Milton (ex of 1990 famous bands 5.30 and The Nubiles) on Flamenco and acoustic guitar, and Giorgio Curcetrtri (played with Tara in The Nubiles and together they penned the classic ^Layabout^, indie Top Ten in 1994)) on Flamenco Guitar, Oud, Handclaps, Tambourine, Shakers, Bass and slide guitar."The music has been written by Tara Milton and arranged by Tara Miklton and Giorgioi Curcetti after listening to the Japanese percussion, recorded in Italy, and superimposed them on a dusk in the London area of Whitechapel."Santarcangelo festival performance reimagined by Giorgio Curcetti and Tara Milton.

"I am a runner, so the sounds of people cheering runners instantly makes me smile. I initially thought I would use the a capella singing more than the cheering, but it would up being quite difficult to integrate any of the complex harmonies of that singing with any coherent musical ideas that I might introduce, so I would up focusing on the cheering. "Once I found the samples I wanted to use, I wrote some music to accompany those samples, but later dispensed with all that and created pitched down samples to use for the off-kilter sustained bed throughout most of the track. All the sounds in the song have been sourced from the field recording, with the exception of a couple of the drums and the bass. Most of the percussion was actually sourced from the recording as well. "I kind of doubt they are actually shouting "Give Me Your Toes", but that's what I hear, and it seems like a good name for a track about runners."Singers cheering on Oslo marathon runners reimagined by Tristan Watkins.