Say it loud, say it clear
November 2017, Portland, OR - anti-Trump chants following the election in Portland, with this particular chant about welcoming immigrants to the USA - "say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here!" Recorded Benjamin Glas-Hochstettler. Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration. For more information and to explore the project...
26s Jul 22, 2024
26s
Joseph's story
This is testimony from Joseph, an asylum seeker from Nigeria, onboard the charity rescue ship the Ocean Viking. Joseph along with over a hundred other people was rescued from an unseweaworthy rubber boat headed for Europe from Libya. Several days later, he sat down to record his story, leaving from Nigeria, across the desert to Libya and onto that rubber boat headed North. He describes sufferi...
14m Jul 22, 2024
14m
Opera of Qingdao
"Qingdao was once a German colony and the city is an exotic place with Western-style buildings. It is also relatively close to Japan and has historical ties. The recorded opera is probably Peking Opera, judging from the language. "Mainland China is so vast that the West could completely fit in it, and it is likely that the performers of this opera toured around the country." Local music at a ...
4m Jul 22, 2024
4m
And I know this distance between us
"I wanted to capture that sense of secrecy and tension that seems to exist within the narrative of the story. This idea that you cannot record in these areas and also the idea of stress associated with travel and border control etc. This idea that it's illegal to cross a border without going through this process but also illegal to record the process you go through to remain legal. The whole fe...
7m Jul 22, 2024
7m
Saippuakivikauppias
"We used most of the whole of the recording as the recording is so poignant and beautiful. "We generated and overlayered soundscapes, and a reverse of the recording we used an envelope follower (MI Ears) to trigger the piano essentially then two overlaid soundtracks in a journey in opposite directions; some lows and highs undulate. "We hope traveller to one day reverse his journey and return ...
9m Jul 20, 2024
9m
Just me
"I chose a clip of an interview of a man from Brazil talking about his experience with jumping the US border, adjusting to life away from his family, not understanding the people around him, and trying to act straight. The reason that I chose this clip is that his story immediately interested me, and I thought that it was such a strong point of inspiration; I immediately had ideas of how I coul...
4m Jul 20, 2024
4m
Samarkand old city
This recording was made in the midst of my migration from Russia to Uzbekistan, through Kazakhstan. This recording was also made in the Hamida guest house in Samarkand, but in the internal open courtyard. In the recording, you can hear the hum of the air conditioner, the quiet conversation of guests and the distinct speech of the muezzin coming from the mosque on the next street. Despite the ...
15m Jul 20, 2024
15m
Hum in the air
"The source field recording was captured in the Alpha King, a vibrant barbershop in the heart of Kasarani, a bustling district in Nairobi, Kenya, owned by a Congolese refugee. Hum in the Air was composed using only sound from the field recording. "The composition reflects the warm camaraderie, the connection through music, and the idea of the hum of the barber’s clippers vibrating in the air, ...
4m Jul 20, 2024
4m
Shimoliy
"I was deeply moved by the recording and text of this artist as soon as I heard and read them. What an incredible sense of space and movement in the recording. It let so many different feelings coexist, a sense of frustration, of feeling stuck but also of hope for what this particular journey will bring. It gives the listener a deep sense of nostalgia in that suspended waiting time, but is also...
6m Jul 20, 2024
6m
Raindrops on the roof
 The recording was made from the window of my room in an Aks Sado emergency residence for sound artists in the village of Ulugbek, a suburb of Tashkent. At the moment of this recording I have been in emigration for 2 months, and after the initial inspiration upon arrival in Uzbekistan, I again fell into a depressive state and time seemed to stand still for me. For me, as a person who has lived...
11m Jul 20, 2024
11m
And though we seem to be sleeping
"My composition “And though we seem to be sleeping” is based on a field recording from Uzbekistan of rain drops falling on a roof in Ulugbek, Tashkent. Reflecting on the concept of migration, being exiled in a new place, and being ultra sensitive to new sounds in new surroundings was my inspiration here. "The listener feels like this place is a dream, and even though they try to look forward, ...
5m Jul 20, 2024
5m
Tashkent, Yangiobad flea market
This recording was made in the midst of my migration from Russia to Uzbekistan, through Kazakhstan. At this moment, I have been in a position of forced exile for a little over a month. If I were to describe my condition, the words would be shock, depression and complete confusion. But at the same time there is hope for the best. The recording was made at probably the main flea market in all o...
11m Jul 20, 2024
11m
Toshkent-Shimoliy railway station
By the time of this entry, I have been in exile for half a year and am forced to draw disappointing conclusions. I never managed to assimilate and form any working contacts. The formats of sound work in which I have worked and want to continue working are not in demand in the local context. I am actively involved in field recording, keeping a kind of sound diaries, trying to record the maximum ...
7m Jul 20, 2024
7m
Divine intervention
"The audio that I selected for this project is of a call to prayer in Uzbekistan. In the sound I created I wanted to showcase the role and the power that religion has for people who are in migration. "This work is drawn on an intersection between the fieldwork I did while working along the Bosnian/Croatian borders and the field recordings I took. These sounds can be heard in the background suc...
6m Jul 20, 2024
6m
Alpha King, the Congolese refugee barber shop
Alpha King is a vibrant barbershop in the heart of Kasarani, a bustling district in Nairobi, Kenya, owned by a Congolese refugee. It serves as a sanctuary for many refugees in the neighborhood seeking a fresh haircut. The hum of the clippers fills the air as skilled refugee barbers meticulously groom their clients. Outside, a lengthy queue snakes along the sidewalk, filled with eager clients a...
6m Jul 20, 2024
6m
Juan Pablo jumped the border
Juan Pablo is 19 years old. I randomly approached him in Dolores Park in San Francisco and asked to record him speaking about what he's learned about himself so far in life. He's explaining his migration from Brazil to the US. This piece explores his journey through the confines of cultural, social, and political borders. Emotions in this story seems to include pensiveness, fear, confusion, se...
1m Jul 20, 2024
1m
I am you, you are me
Somali immigrant speaking to opposition rally, recorded during "Louisville Movement Against Trump" rally to oppose visit by Trump to Freedom Hall at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, Louisville, Kentucky, March 20, 2017. The rally was held along an access road a few hundred yards from the entrance to Freedom Hall, which is located near Louisville International Airport. Recorded by Aaro...
1m Jul 19, 2024
1m
No fascist USA
President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27, 2017 "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States." Thousands around the US protested at airports following the executive order. Many have argued that the order was a Muslim ban. Others contended that it was for the safety and security of the United States. The field recording was captured Jan. 29 during one of...
1m Jul 19, 2024
1m
After the dust bowl
Late summer insects buzz in Cimarron County, the remote westernmost section of the Oklahoma Panhandle. (It is the only county in the United States that borders four additional states: Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. In the 19th century, the region - ancestral lands of the Southern Plains Wichita and Affiliated Tribes - was under the flags of Spain and then an independent Mexico before b...
1m Jul 19, 2024
1m
Migrants leaving El Paso airport
Small groups of migrants (a family with small children, and some young individuals) are at the board at El Paso airport getting ready to board a flight to Chicago. Very likely from Central America, most migrants arriving in El Paso are escaping extreme poverty and crime and risk a perilous journey to get to the southern border and into the United States. At the airport they usually do not carr...
7m Jul 19, 2024
7m
The sounds of Chinatown, NYC
A soundwalk around the streets at the heart of Chinatown in New York. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people, NYC's Chinatown is home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. In this recording we explore the shops mostly selling Chinese products, with conversations happening among the Chinese community all around us. Recorded by Cities and Me...
5m Jul 19, 2024
5m
Community music and games, New York
Columbus Park in Chinatown, New York was created in 1897, but since 2013, the park has served as a gathering place for the local Chinese community, where the neighbourhood meets up to play mahjong, perform traditional Chinese music and practise tai chi in the early mornings. In this recording from 2019, the park is filled with mostly elderly members of the Chinese community meeting up to socia...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
South Williamsburg (inside no mask land)
It was during my first month in New York in July 2020, even with a visa I’ve been received as an alien. I left my country, the country where I immigrated (Denmark), and my continent during a strange period. It was more than coming from outside; all those mouths, lips, teeth, and tongues hidden behind masks created another layer of distance. Can you belong when you cannot touch, face, embrace or...
20m Jul 19, 2024
20m
Low rates leasing quick!, or, notice of pending occupancy
Recorded during the late summer months in a suburban town outside of Phoenix, AZ, a group of mostly migrant workers from Central and South American continue construction on a large-scale luxury apartment complex on a Saturday afternoon. Standing on the adjacent lot, I observe numerous workers precariously standing atop a standing structure as they frame lumber underneath and around them while ...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
A Sense of place
"What makes a person consider leaving their home and migrating to another country? In America, considered a land of immigrants, people came for a fresh start, a better life for themselves and their family. There have been many waves of migration to the United States in our history including for example from China in the mid 1800’s, many settling in New York City, the Irish beginning in 1845, th...
5m Jul 19, 2024
5m
That what changes and that what remains the same
"I was almost immediately taken by the sound of an instrument being played, and a song being sung, where both sounded like they have been carried along, as part of one's identity. "In the track that I built around elements of the recording I tried to built small collages of sound around that tune. Different scenes, within which these elements of identity could stand out; set changes, with iden...
3m Jul 19, 2024
3m
War time blues
"My project was a field recording of an anti-Trump protest, the voice of the woman in the recording seemed to hold a lot of power and with the music I tried to give it the sense of hope like she’s pleading to make us understand we are all one and there can’t be racism, discrimination and also in these times war. "The track is composed of a texture sample I created with some mangled sampled voi...
4m Jul 19, 2024
4m
No man's land
"Cimarron County is at the far western tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle, an area formerly known as No Man's Land. The High Plains where the field recording was created have witnessed waves of migration through the centuries: nomadic indigenous tribes following the hunt, travelers and traders on the Old Santa Fe Trail, "European settlers racing to claim land in the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893,...
3m Jul 19, 2024
3m
Gates can't wait
"This piece initially appealed to me because of its location tag. I have always been inspired by airports! I used recordings of my Eurorack synthesizer with samples of the source material, played and recorded live through Rogue Amoeba software on my laptop. "I begin and end with noisy elements to invoke the tension that can be felt waiting to have one's ticket scanned at the terminal gates... ...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
Echoes
"My recorded sample was from the streets of Houston, the voices from the field gave me the inspiration of the Echoes track, represents the timestamps of the humane experience into the time and space. The frequencies, the echoes from the past, the presence, echoing into the future, moments without expire date, life in the here and now, echoing into the cosmos." Houston protest reimagined by Joh...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
Unmask
""Unmask" is an electroacoustic composition that reflects on “masking” experiences related to migration and identity during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The piece draws from a field recording captured in July 2020 in New York City. The recording artist, newly arrived and feeling alienated, navigated a city transformed by masks and social distance, a scenario that resonated deeply with my own j...
5m Jul 19, 2024
5m
Resiliente (binaural)
"Out of all of the choices for field recordings, this one felt the closest to me. I grew up and lived all of my life in Chile, until I came to study in the US in 2017. The scene that is described in the field recording has become very familiar in the academic institutions that I’ve attended, where most of the labor behind the repair and construction of new buildings is carried out by Central an...
9m Jul 19, 2024
9m
Slow trains, Sidi Bou Said
 While traveling by train around Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, I observed a notable influx of refugees from the southern part of Africa seeking opportunities in the bustling city. Due to the high unemployment rate in Tunisia, both Tunisians from various regions and refugees depend on slow trains for their daily commute to Tunis. The sluggish pace of these trains adds an extra layer of challen...
13m Jul 19, 2024
13m
Al-wusool ila al-madina-al qadima
"This composition was inspired by the anticipation and joyous feeing of arrival at a special place. The original field recording is used in many ways ,from the built up manipulated voices providing a sort of spiritual chant and much texture to the piece.It was all recorded using various synthesisers played quite freely to try and convey the idea of movement." Nefta soundscape reimagined by Ale...
4m Jul 19, 2024
4m
The journey
"The music first describes people slowly getting on the train. Although they may be tired, their hearts are full of hope for the future and longing for a new life. The motive symbolizes hope, which gradually develops as the train runs as if people are weaving the most beautiful dream in their hearts. "When the train nearly arrives at the station, they wake up from their dreams. Still carrying ...
3m Jul 19, 2024
3m
Bounce back
"This field recording had a lot to work with. I enjoyed the backstory, learning about Zubin Aroz's reflections as audience to these high-paced basketball matches. To me, the bouncing of the ball in this recording became a strong symbol of the sort of life that a migrant lives, when having a new home in another country. The feeling of being torn in between two geographical places is something th...
3m Jul 19, 2024
3m
Relief
"The audio piece is the way I listen to language that is foreign to me following the notion, that all that is unknow becomes a noise that we try to push away. When I arrived in Germany from Poland I would only hear the melody of speaking not understanding it felt overwhelming, and then remembering a scrap of word that would become an earworm lingering in me. "While listening to the field recor...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
Old town, Tunis
This recording captures the atmosphere of a particularly impoverished area located on the outskirts of the bustling medina of Tunis. Here, I witnessed a significant number of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries who find themselves stranded in their attempts to reach Europe. In the background, the sounds of street vendors and individuals selling their belongings on the ground are promine...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
And the forest remained in us
"The story behind the migration of the Batwa pygmies from the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was quite thought-provoking, and it inspired me to research this migration further. The field recording by Colin Hunter is a living example of the indestructibility of the spirit of the forest that the Batwa pygmies carried with them when they were evicted from the forest land in 1992. Being an immigrant my...
2m Jul 19, 2024
2m
Do the dunes move with the moon or the moon with the dunes?
"The recording inspired me mostly through the story behind it and through its mundaneness and relatability. The subject of the recording is part of an (originally) nomadic group of people, the Mrazig, which had me reconsidering the notion of migration for this piece. I wanted to know more about the peoples in this area, so I read up on the Mrazig and Imuhar/Amazigh people in the area. "The con...
9m Jul 19, 2024
9m
Stranger butterflies
"Although migration has always been a part of human history, because of catastrophic circumstances there are many people leaving their homelands behind, and starting new lives. Homesickness can bring back piercing memories which can suddenly feel far away and forgotten and later on popping up like plants in the rain. "A familiar butterfly, but different in this new place is a comforting remind...
2m Jul 19, 2024
2m
Cooking ASMR, Sahara Desert
Here, you can listen to a nomadic Berber tribesman cooking his meal deep in the Sahara Desert alongside his camel, providing an opportunity to immerse yourself in the Berber way of life. For centuries, Douz has been a meeting place for nomadic M’razig Berber tribesmen. Today, it is renowned for its dates and palm wine. This specific region of the desert played a pivotal role as a stop on the t...
7m Jul 19, 2024
7m
Filipino expats playing basketball
The field recording is of a group of Filipino expats having a competitive game of basketball. Filipinos form close to 25% of the population in Dubai. Most come to Dubai for work in order to support their families back home. Many of them end up staying longer, eventually bringing their families over and settling in Dubai. One of the most common activities for Filipinos (usually men) to engage in...
1m Jul 19, 2024
1m
Traditional Batwa song
For thousands of years, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in the south-west of Uganda was home to an indigenous people - the Batwa pygmies. The original dwellers of this ancient jungle were known as “The Keepers of the Forest.” In 1992, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest became a national park and World Heritage Site to protect the 350 endangered mountain gorillas within its boundaries. The Batwa wer...
1m Jul 19, 2024
1m
Nomad violinist on the streets of Istanbul
After interviewing a violinist from the nomad cultures of eastern Turkey, he offered to play to me. His virtuosity and feeling were incredible, especially since a malformation in his wrist had forced him to develop a new style of playing with the violin pointing down to his lap. Recorded by Josie Illingworth-Law. Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds...
2m Jul 19, 2024
2m
Medina, Old Town, Nefta
This is a recording from inside the medina of the picturesque town of Nefta, a sacred religious territory where, out of respect for the religion, many mosques can only be admired from the outside. The marabouts in Nefta continue to attract pilgrims from all over southern Tunisia and even from Algeria. This widespread veneration of the marabouts reflects the enduring strength of Sufism, a moveme...
3m Jul 19, 2024
3m
The South Sea narrows
"The original recording has been used pretty much all the way through the song. It is slowed to 1/2 the time and reversed in places. I wrote the whole piece around a single loop of the recording of the guitar. I really wanted to feel the vibrations and to make the piece as tranquil, calm and reflective as I could. "I have added my own electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, keyboards and v...
8m Jul 19, 2024
8m
Ocak
"This composition is inspired by the recording "Migration Soup Preparation" by Görkem Özdemir, a Turkish artist nowadays based in Slovenia. In his recording, Görkem is stirring a soup, creating different rhythms and sounds. This intimate "performance" helps Görkem in the moments of sadness when he misses his family and country. "Often, the cuisine we bring wherever we go represents our traditi...
4m Jul 19, 2024
4m
KaTRyzex
"The field recording made me think of the mixing of worlds and common points of convergence. I used the sound recordings as textures and looped sections to find some rhythmic movement, which worked as a guide to the arpeggios to follow. "In this piece, I explore the concept of migration and how sounds can make a space feel like home. For instance, the sounds of a busy street or the calls of bi...
5m Jul 19, 2024
5m
The Cura cries
"Inspired by the original material I tried to heighten both the emotional and meditative aspects of the playing. My own deep drone has been added under a pitched down version of the original recording. Lightly edited portions of the cura bağlama recording drift in and out and interweave with a distant, haunting new melody." Cura saz in Ljubljana reimagined by Flexagon. Part of the Migration S...
7m Jul 19, 2024
7m