Khovd in the dead of night
Night soundscape from Khovd, Mongolia recorded by Alfredo Ardia. "At night I could hear from the window a quiet soundscapes made of dog barks, human voices and few cars passing by which would melt all together following the reverberant acoustic of the town. It sounded so unreal, almost like in a dream. I kept listening to it for a while before realizing I was actually awake."
3m Dec 16, 2021
3m
King Khalid airport, Terminal 1
A recording from inside Terminal 1 (international departures) at Riyadh's main airport, King Khalid - the sounds of passengers queuing for checkin, automatic doors and the bustle of a Saudi Arabian airport terminal. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
2m Dec 16, 2021
2m
Koh Phangan night market
A night market in Koh Phangan, an island off the coast of Thailand - a soundwalk through the busy market, with all the bustle and noise of stallholders and customers. Recorded by Paul Virostek.
1m Dec 16, 2021
1m
Traditional music in a Chilean supermarket
In a supermarket in Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile, traditional Chilean music is piped through the speakers as we explore the supermarket for groceries. Recorded by Cities and Memory.
2m Dec 16, 2021
2m
Burocracia Camaleónica
Mexico City street band during lockdown reimagined by deadkousin. "“I found the original recording to be quite abstract - devoid of context and meaning for me, beyond the musical phrasing and my limited knowledge of Mexico and its culture.  I wanted to explore the mood that the recording evoked in me, whilst narrating an imaginary tour of the environs where it was made and beyond…” "Being an...
7m Dec 14, 2021
7m
Duet for Subharmonicon and Hong Kong tram
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. 
4m Nov 22, 2021
4m
Lift me, lift me
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.
4m Nov 22, 2021
4m
Cable car on Monte Capanne
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.
3m Nov 22, 2021
3m
On the Hong Kong tramway
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.
2m Nov 22, 2021
2m
The wolves
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 Isl...
5m Nov 10, 2021
5m
Black waves choking
"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 ...
4m Nov 10, 2021
4m
Rawhide
"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 part...
3m Nov 10, 2021
3m
Squatters and unwanted insects of the Malayan Revolution
"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 mus...
8m Nov 10, 2021
8m
Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26
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...
2m Nov 10, 2021
2m
President Reagan assassination attempt
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
8m Nov 10, 2021
8m
Voice of the Malayan Revolution
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 projec...
4m Nov 10, 2021
4m
The fall of Saigon
"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 a...
7m Nov 10, 2021
7m
Fierce fighting in substantial numbers: ships damaged
"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 cos...
3m Nov 10, 2021
3m
Fall of Saigon
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
17m Nov 10, 2021
17m
British troops land in the Falkland Islands
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 t...
7m Nov 10, 2021
7m
Revolution and DFF Suite (Transmission 16 Mix)
"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 ...
6m Nov 10, 2021
6m
Radio Havana Cuba: spectral formation
"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 rad...
4m Nov 10, 2021
4m
Falcons of Iran
"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 int...
5m Nov 10, 2021
5m
Thank you, miss you, hope to speak soon
"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...
7m Nov 10, 2021
7m
Chapel of the snow
"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 whol...
3m Nov 10, 2021
3m
Radio Havana Cuba (aircheck): 2017
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
7m Nov 10, 2021
7m
The death of Fidel Castro
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 &...
18m Nov 10, 2021
18m
Voice of Iran: December 5, 1976
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 stat...
28m Nov 10, 2021
28m
BBC World Service's broadcast to the 2013 British Antarctic Survey
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 comma...
30m Nov 10, 2021
30m
American Forces Antarctic Network (AFAN): circa 1980s
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
2m Nov 10, 2021
2m
Voice of Peace (Hexany 1-3-9-11)
"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...
3m Nov 10, 2021
3m
Voice of peace, 1990
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 follo...
18m Nov 10, 2021
18m
Planetary inertial orientation
"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
5m Nov 09, 2021
5m
Let us become human bombs to devotedly defend Respected Supreme Leader
"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 th...
4m Nov 09, 2021
4m
There was always music in our home/a partly-fictional memoir
"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 fo...
6m Nov 09, 2021
6m
Number station
"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, d...
5m Nov 09, 2021
5m
Sputnik 1 as heard on shortwave via WTCN-AM
""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, a...
10m Nov 09, 2021
10m
Radio Pyongyang
"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 sid...
31m Nov 09, 2021
31m
Voice of Vietnam interval signal
"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
42s Nov 09, 2021
42s
Russian numbers station
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
8m Nov 09, 2021
8m
Across the ether
"“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 tr...
6m Nov 09, 2021
6m
Nixon helped me write this
"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...
9m Nov 09, 2021
9m
Who is playing with my terror?
"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 th...
4m Nov 09, 2021
4m
Radio contact between W2PVF and Argentine Antarctic Station LU1ZE
"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. Pa...
20m Nov 09, 2021
20m
Nixon's resignation, 1974
"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
5m Nov 09, 2021
5m
Missile attack on Israel
"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 i...
26m Nov 09, 2021
26m
Chimes (Rai Internazionale)
"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 ...
6m Nov 08, 2021
6m
The Broadcasting Service of the Iraqi Republic
"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 throu...
3m Nov 08, 2021
3m
The mother of all battles
"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, Qarqa...
6m Nov 08, 2021
6m
Radio Baghdad: September 26, 1990
"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 casset...
45m Nov 08, 2021
45m