Climate protest, Edinburgh, November 2022
On Saturday 12 November in Edinburgh, a coalition of climate groups marched through the city to demand Climate Justice in solidarity with the Global Day of Action called by Egyptian groups at COP27. Performances, songs and chants featured throughout, some of which captured via field recordings. This recording was from St Andrew Square and features a protestor playing a tongue drum. Recorded b...
3m Dec 08, 2023
3m
The family album
"This sound of flowing water in a stream of Parco Naturale del Conero, takes me back to holidays when I was a little boy. A picnic by the water; I am sitting on a rug, surrounded by family with whom everything is still fine. My father takes photos to preserve a memory for later. I still have his old camera; the shutter is now broken. But sometimes, the golden light of those summers reflects in ...
4m Dec 07, 2023
4m
Sound(s) matter(s)
"This piece is a reflection about the concept of space as sound. Space understood not a visual concept, but as an auditory one, as the connective tissue between all of the objects in the world, carried to the perimeter and to the center. A voluminous environment that emerges from an exquisite global polyphony. This piece was inspired by Mathias Hinke's lesson 'Demonstrations and fun cultures' t...
2m Dec 07, 2023
2m
A hot afternoon in the forest
A humid, hot August afternoon in the Parco Regionale del Conero - we record a small trickling stream in a very quiet, butterfly-filled wood, as the occasional insect buzzes around the microphone to check it out. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
4m Dec 07, 2023
4m
Jeremy Corbyn rally, 2019
Labour Party/Corbyn rally, Manchester Apollo, November 2019 - Corbyn supporters chanting at rally. Recorded by Claire Solanki.
24s Dec 07, 2023
24s
Autumnal drift
"The sound of cicadas are quite meditative. So I let them take me where they wanted to take me. This reimagined piece attempts to tap into the spirit of that journey." Cicadas in Thailand reimagined by Eulipion Corps.
3m Dec 06, 2023
3m
Love machine
"Street sounds from the city of dreams evoking memories of romantic fantasy and escapism in the world of cinema. "Inspired by the field recording of Rome traffic (I have used the entire 4 min sample, thus defining the length of my contribution). "When listening to street sounds, in any city, any country, I try to hear the history of the echoing voices, footsteps and tires rushing by. Being fe...
4m Dec 06, 2023
4m
Roman roads
"A close-up, binaural recording of a paved/tiled road intersection in Rome, April 23, which makes a particular sound as cars cross over it. We can also hear the distinctive sound of the Roman pedestrian crossing beeps periodically." Recorded by Cities and Memory.
4m Dec 06, 2023
4m
Cicada countryside, Thailand
Nighttime sounds of the cicadas and insects in the trees and fields, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Recorded by Alex Boyesen.
15m Dec 06, 2023
15m
Echoes of industry: manipulated rhythms
"The motion of the Long Beach pump creates a complex set of friction, rubbing and impact sounds. These rhythmic interactions have been abstracted, their harshness softened, and new sets of functional sounds, manipulated rhythms, and drones have been created using the Octatrack MkII." Long Beach oil pumping reimagined by Alan Cook.
14m Dec 06, 2023
14m
Busy walla crowd
"I carefully cut six loops from the original recording of sounds that worked for me, then layered them up in Ableton live and jammed with them, adding outboard effect into the mix." Burkina Faso market reimagined by David Webb.
7m Dec 06, 2023
7m
Nightmare fuel - oil pumping in Long Beach
"The sounds of a couple of oil rigs, pumping crude oil out of an area near the San Gabriel River and adjacent to the Los Cerritos Wetlands in Long Beach, Ca. Part of the Hellman Properties." Recorded by Michael Winchester.
2m Dec 06, 2023
2m
Busy market in Burkina Faso
"Kambouinsse market - a small town 20 minutes' drive from Ouagadougou, recorded in the early afternoon." Recorded by Martin Weissberg.
4m Dec 06, 2023
4m
The sonic reverberation of Saint Marinus
"I am always intrigued by church bells, especially as they are a constant sound in many peoples lives and a sound that has not changed as the world is played out around the sonic distance they travel. Their sound is the same as prior centuries, or earlier, in old towns and villages they connect us to those so very long gone. "This is much the case in the field recording now reimagined (with th...
10m Dec 05, 2023
10m
Piazza della Liberta, San Marino
In the centre of San Marino, the clock chimes the hour, we shelter from the wind at the top of this high, exposed old town, and the passers-by are a curious mix of the usual tourists and people in all kinds of costumes here for a festival of sci-fi and fantasy. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
4m Dec 05, 2023
4m
Stroud dawn chorus
"I’ve struggled with tinnitus,  more specifically hyperacusis, for 26 years. Extremes of loud noise and silence are the enemy. I’ve pretty much given up on my one main passion, live music, but there are some surprising benefits. I can still hear bats, for example. I’ve recently moved from Bristol, which has 24/7 background noise, to Stroud, considerably quieter. The natural sounds seem more am...
20m Dec 05, 2023
20m
Quite harsh electronica (for Michael Faber)
"This started life as an ambient dawn chorus, but then I heard Michel Faber describing how his tinnitus resembles the "quite harsh electronica" music he really loves during the 30 Oct 2023 episode of Start the Week (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ry9f) and the birdsong mutated!" Stroud dawn chorus reimagined by Michael Lilley.
3m Dec 05, 2023
3m
Calama market
"The field recording of street vendors in an outdoor market in the Andean high plains of Chile, one of the driest deserts in the world, fascinated us. You could tell there was so much life in the people buying and selling, despite it being recorded doing the pandemic (much of what is sold or talked about in the recording had to do with Covid). So we wanted the composition (for saxophone and cel...
4m Dec 02, 2023
4m
The fragrance of freesias
"The field recording runs quietly in the background having had sections copied and brutally mangled / filtered / granulised to make musical sounds. Synths added for flavouring." Cape Town flower market reimagined by Simon Woods.
5m Dec 02, 2023
5m
The mist of Rotterdam
"My late partner, who was half Swedish and half Dutch, had roots in Rotterdam. Our plans to travel to this city were thwarted by the illness that befell my partner. This composition represents an imaginary trip to Rotterdam that, if it were to materialize, could only happen now under completely different circumstances." Rotterdam morning soundscape reimagined by LR Friberg.
7m Dec 02, 2023
7m
Smell the freesias
"The Adderley Street flower market is the oldest flower market in Cape Town – a large covered alley where the flower sellers, mostly women whose families have been in the trade for generations, set up their stalls at 6am each day. This recording captures the market’s morning soundscape – a customer buying freesias, people walking through the market en route to other parts of the city; the sound...
5m Dec 02, 2023
5m
Chilean food market walkthrough
"In this recording we can hear interactions of the local rotatory food market in Calama, Chile (it has different location, depending on the day of the week) during pandemia. You can hear the sellers offering their's differents products and the interaction with clients, as I walked thourght the market." Recorded by Diego Villalobos S.
9m Dec 02, 2023
9m
A wet spring in Delfshaven
"A wet, spring day on my balcony. You can hear the rain drops on a plastic roof, cars driving by on the other side of the canal, the occasional bird that flies by, the ringing of the bridge opening and a big boat pushing the water infront of it, the church nearby signaling noon and a plain flying overhead." Recorded in Rotterdam by Joris Frowein.
7m Dec 02, 2023
7m
Guanacaste dawn
"Working with this recording by Diego Espeleta of howler monkeys and birds taken at dawn at the Reserva Conchal in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, was an exercise in recalibrating expectations of musicality in sound. "The howler monkeys' growls and barks are guttural, not really what we conventionally associate with singing or music, and indeed sound quite scary in their unfamiliarity. Or is it that t...
7m Dec 02, 2023
7m
Reserva Conchal: howlers at dawn
The sun is rising fast and bringing in the heat. It is very early in the morning, but you can start to feel that it will be a hot day. The crickets are chirping, creating a constant melody in the forest, birds are calling and moving around the trees and a gentle breeze hits the leaves. A howler monkey emerges from the canopy, eating leaves and stretching from the night sleep. The sound of her c...
7m Dec 02, 2023
7m
Chanting monks, Chiang Mai
Monks and Buddhists chanting during the evening prayer ceremony, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Recorded by Alex Boyesen.
29m Dec 02, 2023
29m
Foggy mountain top, early morning
Vumari, Tanzania: birds, insects, wind howling. Recorded by Douglas Issai Ndanshau.
1m Dec 02, 2023
1m
Neighbourhood chirps
"The birds singing inspired me to imagine a dystopian world, where they made their appearance for the first time. When the people in the village immediately developed a strong dislike for them we listen to a man planning to return to force them to leave..." Birds in Vumari, Tanzania reimagined by Giovanna Iorio.
1m Dec 02, 2023
1m
Fall is in the air, leaves are on the ground
An informal evening meditation among falling leaves. Chiang Mai monks reimagined by Joel Graham.
3m Dec 02, 2023
3m
Bourbon Street R&R
"The original field recording by Alex Clifford featured a live jazz festival on Bourbon Street - one of the most iconic streets in the world. Although well known for it's 'buzzing' atmosphere, I wanted to try and evoke the rare times when Bourbon Street is quiet - maybe early dawn; the spring sun just rising, and the streets and hotel/bar fronts being washed down and prepped for another busy da...
5m Dec 01, 2023
5m
Bosque xo
"With the soundscape of that forest near the Thai city of Chiang Mai, I have reimagined a new space of natural tranquility with granular textures that process the original recording and playful random melodies imitating bird songs and tiny ambient noises." Thai forest reimagined by Marco Maril.
6m Dec 01, 2023
6m
Going to the airport
"An old man is riding the sleek new CAT train from central Vienna to the airport. He drifts and dreams, of trains and trams and railyards he has experienced throughout his long life. At one point he falls asleep and finds himself in a station, where he can’t understand a word of what’s on the public address system. Finally the announcement comes of arrival at the airport. Is he relieved?" Vien...
6m Dec 01, 2023
6m
All aboard the CAT
With the CAT (City Airport Train), Vienna offers a rapid connection between city centre and airport. In only 16 minutes, the City Airport Train brings you nonstop from the airport to the Vienna city centre and vice versa – without stress and traffic jams and in an environmentally friendly way. It’s relaxing and soothing with minor hums and clicks and not overcrowded. Let’s take a ride! Recorde...
19m Dec 01, 2023
19m
Thai forest at 7.00am
Early morning forest sounds with insects and birds, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Recorded by Alex Boyesen.
7m Dec 01, 2023
7m
Outdoor live jazz on Bourbon Street
Live jazz plays outside on an evening walk along Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Recorded by Alex Clifford.
5m Dec 01, 2023
5m
Overhead and overheard
"The filed recording runs quietly in the back ground having had sections copied and brutally mangled / filtered / granulised to make musical sounds. Synths added for flavouring." Manchester overpass reimagined by Simon Woods.
5m Nov 26, 2023
5m
The concrete jungle
"Trams pass overhead as we stand under a bridge in Manchester. In this urban recording, you can also hear loud construction sounds, passing traffic and nesting pigeons cooing in the quieter moments. Industrial Manchester." Recorded by Cities and Memory.
5m Nov 26, 2023
5m
Saigon balcony, teacher's call, children's yells
Deep in the city of HCM children can be heard learning simple sentences from their teacher. Recorded by  Kit Wilmans Fegradoe.
3m Nov 26, 2023
3m
Screamers
"This piece evolved out of the orginal field recording. I processed the original recording within Logic Pro and added some instruments that I felt fitted the sound. It seems to have a slight religious overtone to it due to the organ sounds I've used." Screamer kites in Bermuda reimagined by Richard Watts.
4m Nov 26, 2023
4m
Bermuda's traditional screamer kites
The sound of dogs and the traditional Bermudan "screamer" kites – big kites designed to stay up in strong winds and make as much noise as possible. Also the noise of wind in trees. Recorded by Mark Wilden.
2m Nov 26, 2023
2m
Teaching and learning in Ho Chi Minh City
"The recording from the hotel balcony captures the city's atmosphere together with lessons in a nearby school. I manipulated the voices of the teacher and children in their classroom and combined them with percussive sounds together with an additional street vendor's call." Ho Chi Minh City balcony recording reimagined by Roland Pyle.
4m Nov 26, 2023
4m
Cities and Memory Swedish radio interview
"In Oxford, Stuart Fowkes runs the Cities and memory site, one of the world's largest sound projects. Among other things, it is a large world map where you can listen to over 6,000 sounds from 115 countries and for each point on the map there are two sounds - a field recording and a variant of that sound interpreted by an artist. The sounds sometimes become albums and we listen to a humpback wh...
4m Nov 20, 2023
4m
La mer gelée (the frozen sea)
"For my composition La Mer Gelée (The Frozen Sea), I used a field recording from a frozen beach (Munkkiniemi Beach) in Helsinki, Finland. I was immediately drawn to the the idea of sound coming from ice crystals that literally touch the sea. My head filled with ideas for reimagining these frozen sounds into music. "I was focused on glitching sounds, using fragments of electronic and minimal ac...
5m Nov 14, 2023
5m
Wimbledon - mixed doubles action, July 2023
Action from the Wimbledon tennis tournament on 9 July 2023 - here we are on Court Two for the Mixed Doubles, watching Boulter and De Minaur (who have the home crowd on their side as Katie Boulter is British), vs. Vliegen and Xu. This is a tie break in the third set. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
5m Nov 14, 2023
5m
Frozen beach, Helsinki
The delicate creaking and cracking of the sea ice at Munkkiniemi beach. The ebb and flow of the sea water pushes and pulls the ice blocks. Its almost as if the frozen sea is breathing. I had to place the recorder deep into a crevice of the ice to pick up these tiny sounds. The faint rumble of Helsinki city sounds in the distance. Recorded by Chris Bradbury.
5m Nov 14, 2023
5m
An evening in the Wazirpur Industrial Area
"Wazirpur is one of the 29 industrial areas spread across Delhi – NCR. The place is overrun with hundreds of small-scale factories which have attracted thousands of low-income migrant workers – usually from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Bengal. Scattered among the factories are the jhuggis/ slums which these workers call home. "The recording is made one evening on a busy street in the Wazirpur Ind...
4m Nov 14, 2023
4m
New Delhi anti-ambient
"I wanted to use the rhythm and tones of the New Delhi voices and then add something melodic as the track progressed. Its relatively chaotic with all the voices/sounds and the ambient undercurrent anchors and balances this. The voices are the sound of life and I found this inspiring cos its real - unlike a lot of Western noise I am exposed to which just seems to be easy to ignore and filter out...
3m Nov 14, 2023
3m
UnderCourt
"A tennis match is a clash under the sea." Wimbledon doubles match reimagined by Leonardo Santiago.
11m Nov 14, 2023
11m
Cities and Memory - The Week in Art interview
Cities and Memory founder Stuart Fowkes talks to The Art Newspaper's weekly podcast The Week in Art, discussing our brand new project Migration Sounds, and how Cities and Memory uses sound to offer new perspectives on the world. Broadcast on 27 October 2023.
13m Oct 27, 2023
13m
Music for Sleep
"Music for sleep"is an almost hour-length composition constructed from carefully-selected contributions to the Cities and Memory global sound project Music for Sleep. The piece contains excerpts from the following compositions, all of which can be found in full at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/music-for-sleep. 1. Stirring by Keira Simmons 2. Warming ghost by Nicolo Scolieri 3. Adriatic moons...
57m Oct 21, 2023
57m