The national beat
"Tortillas are the food base of rural Mexico, made by female hands in a completely sensory ritual: sound, smell, taste, sight and taste. The sound of the palms shaping the dough is very characteristic of the rural regions of Mexico, a beat that has been heard for hundreds of years and that unfortunately is disappearing. "For the composition, we isolated the sound of tortilla-making and one par...
7m Mar 27, 2025
7m
The rhythm of cicadas
"The rhythm of cicadas on the backdrop of electronic music has a very tight connection in Japan. That's why I chose this sound and used the cicada sounds as a fun rhythmical element." Cicadas in Derbent reimagined by Bob Rogue. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https:...
12m Mar 27, 2025
12m
The memory of water
"Thinking of how tourism is now a major industry for Madeira I started with the now, the field recording submitted to the Sonic Heritage project. Already rhythmic in the sound of the footsteps I looped parts of this, and brought it back in at the end. I really liked the image the recording brought up of walking the narrow Levada (waterways) and the muffled greetings and people saying 'sorry' an...
3m Mar 27, 2025
3m
Walking and waiting to pass
This recording captures my experience walking along a "levada," a traditional water channel originally built to transport water from the north of the island. These networks of aqueducts stretch across many kilometres and are accompanied by narrow walking paths, open to the public and popular among tourists. In the recording, you can hear a unique aspect of these trails: the interactions with f...
1m Mar 27, 2025
1m
Cicadas and tourists in the citadel
While on an excursion to the citadel, you can hear the sound space that is now the main one for this place. The centuries-old history has transformed not only the stone and architecture, but also the sound that once filled this place. UNESCO listing: Citadel, Ancient City and Fortress Buildings of Derbent Recorded by Pavel Lopatin. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, e...
4m Mar 27, 2025
4m
Stare Miasto
This soundscape from Kraków’s Old Town reveals the heartbeat of a city steeped in history and animated by modern energy. Formerly Poland’s royal capital, this UNESCO World Heritage site continues to captivate with its medieval streets and enduring charm. Echoes of tradition weave seamlessly with the rhythm of everyday life: ancient clock towers toll above the hum of trams, mingling with the so...
1m Mar 27, 2025
1m
Tortillas made at Michoacan
Traditional home made tortillas process. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Traditional Mexican cuisine - ancestral, ongoing community culture, the Michoacán paradigm Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/...
3m Mar 27, 2025
3m
Dark hours
"The sound of the bells playing in the background created an eerie feeling that I wanted to expand on. I used effects such as chorus and reverb to make the bells sound more dissonant and ghost-like. I felt that this sound worked well as a build up to something much more heavy, so I created a metal composition that uses the sound of these bells to provide atmosphere for." Stare Miasto, Krakow r...
3m Mar 27, 2025
3m
Keep on running
"Originally I had my heart set on making a more upbeat track, but me and my mate came up with a more mellow chord progression and then it all came together. There is not much story behind this beat, I want the listener to make their own story, letting the beat help them reimagine an event or time, whether it is a good or bad memory. The overall message for this beat is to keep going in life, no...
3m Mar 27, 2025
3m
The trek to Machu Picchu
My journey to Machu Picchu was a grueling five-day trek through some of the most challenging yet breathtaking terrain in the Andes. Descending from the high mountains into the lush jungle, I was surrounded by the rhythmic squelch of muddy paths underfoot, the cheerful chirping of dawn birds, and the distant roar of rivers carving through valleys. This soundscape captures the essence of an epic ...
6m Mar 27, 2025
6m
Machu Picchu paces
"Machu Picchu Paces is inspired by my own trek along the Inca Trail in 2024, a journey of beauty, grandeur, and mystical setting culminating in Machu Picchu that left a deep impression on me. The raw beauty of the young Andes Mountains, the shifting terrain and biomes, and the sacred sense of place – a perfect integration of architecture into the landscape – resonated deeply with me. "My compo...
10m Mar 27, 2025
10m
Horses at Machu Picchu
After days of trekking through the Andes, the sight of Machu Picchu is unforgettable. Nearby, the horses that carried supplies for the arduous journey graze peacefully, their heavy breaths mingling with the faint, ghostly hum of the valley below. The stillness and raw power of the landscape create a profound connection to this historic wonder. UNESCO listing: Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu...
3m Mar 27, 2025
3m
Dawn at Machu Picchu
As dawn breaks over Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca citadel is bathed in ethereal light. Before the rush of tourists, the sacred site is alive with the soft hum of nature—distant birdcalls, the rustle of leaves, and the occasional whisper of wind through the ruins. This is a moment of profound serenity, where the past and present converge in one of the world’s most iconic landscapes. UNESCO lis...
3m Mar 27, 2025
3m
Guinea pigs at Machu Picchu
In the traditional mountain homes surrounding Machu Picchu, guinea pigs are an integral part of life. Their soft chirping fills the air, a domestic melody woven into the cultural fabric of the Andes. Raised by locals as both companions and a cherished delicacy, these small creatures bring a unique charm to the region’s soundscape. UNESCO listing: Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu Recorded by...
2m Mar 27, 2025
2m
Recollecting
"As I listen to the captured birdsongs of Machu Picchu, I wonder how the sonic landscape has changed over the course of 500+ years. Would these calls be the same birdsongs heard long before the citadel's construction, and how long until the birdsongs cease? Will they become nothing but a memory for those who have visited the site? "I emphasize these thoughts of sonic heritage augmenting the so...
5m Mar 27, 2025
5m
Cuy
"The guinea pigs were so musical on their own, and I imagined them kept in a peaceful, quiet village. I didn't add any other sound sources beyond the field recording. The recording was processed with a variety of granular engines, delays and reverbs and the original sound is progressively distorted and altered until it's unrecognisable. I was thinking of the press of modernity and the seemingly...
2m Mar 27, 2025
2m
For horses, insects, birds, and pedal steel
"This recording from Machu Picchu was very beautiful on its own, with the resonant sound of hoof beats, and the sounds of birds and insects seeming to suspend time. I wanted to make sure any transformation of those sounds still honored those qualities. I wanted the piece to linger over those sections, so they're extended--by looping and by dropping pitch, to allow these sounds to touch lower pa...
8m Mar 27, 2025
8m
Jagged and unrestrained
"The tension in the knife sharpening, and the repeated voice, shouting instruction, morphs into a state of freedom, floating in a beautiful state. Familiar sounds blend into patterns and notes to transport us musically." Arequipa knife sharpeners reimagined by Michelle Breslin/Lostworldsounds. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most ...
9m Mar 26, 2025
9m
Raising giants
" was inspired by the human presence, so transient and passing in relation to the constant swirl of the sea and wind. I liked the sound of the natural forces and began to think of power, giants, myths, and stories given to landscape. "When I first heard the sound I was in Llanberis in North Wales, I spend a lot of time there, and often walk through another heritage site, Dinorwig Slate Quarry,...
7m Mar 26, 2025
7m
Bus ticket vendors, Cuzco
In the heart of Cusco, the voices of bus ticket vendors create an impromptu symphony. Their melodic calls, each vying for attention, blend into a captivating polyphony that is uniquely Peruvian. This vibrant tradition brings life to the city’s bustling streets, a testament to its role as a crossroads in the Andes. UNESCO listing: City of Cuzco Recorded by Rafael Diogo. ——————— This sound is...
2m Mar 26, 2025
2m
A droning memory
"Browsing through the audio files and listening to a few, I came across a recording that caught my ear. The sounds of different insects formed an afternoon melody in the desert. "Paquimé is an archaeological site of a long-gone culture, the ruins of a once-thriving city. I try to imagine how it sounded when it was populated—how it must have felt to walk through its streets. As a pre-industrial...
13m Mar 26, 2025
13m
Distant but close
"The field recording, sounds of individuals selling bus tickets in Peru, reminded me of similar sonic experiences I have had in San Francisco and New York City. Hearing the recording immediately took me to the images I know of Peru and promptly meshed those images with the sounds and imaged from mass transit terminals in the US cities I have lived in and traveled in. It represents, for me, a so...
2m Mar 26, 2025
2m
Knife sharpeners at Arequipa
Knife sharpeners at Arequipa. Stereo 48kHz 24bit UNESCO listing: Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
3m Mar 26, 2025
3m
Clochán an Aifir
The last time that Felicia Barr and I had a "real" vacation was just before the pandemic. We travelled to Ireland in September of 2019 and one of our stops was Giant's Causeway which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. Giant's Causeway is a magical place which features hexagonal columns that form stepping stones which disappear into the sea. According to legend, the columns a...
3m Mar 26, 2025
3m
Desert insects at Paquime
Desert hum wind and quiet insects at the Archaeological Zone of Paquimé. Stereo 48khz 24Bit. UNESCO listing: Archaeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
4m Mar 26, 2025
4m
Self possession
"The field recording that I chose was of temple bells in a Buddhist Temple in Myanmar. The bells represent calmness and meditation and symbolises the Buddha's voice. I started my composition with just the bells to represent someone being in a clear minded stated, and gradually included other elements into the composition until the bells can barely be heard, symbolising how small daily life stru...
3m Mar 26, 2025
3m
Agave
"The piece is based on a field recording of workers cutting agave near Tequila, Mexico. The rhythmic, percussive sounds immediately captured my attention, as well as the cultural significance of the plant. The composition explores themes of Sonic Heritage, preserving the importance of agave labor, which is deeply tied to Mexica (Aztec) traditions and the reverence for Mayahuel, the goddess of a...
5m Mar 26, 2025
5m
Jimadores cutting agave at Tequila
Jimadores cutting agave at Tequila. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
2m Mar 26, 2025
2m
Temporal resonance: choirs of modulation
"When I first listened to the field recording, I was drawn to its spatial rendering, which made me curious to learn more about the place and its surroundings. Historically, it functioned both as an orphanage and a hospital, with certainly thousands traces of stories. This history, along with the architecture, inspired me to explore the relational characteristics of frequencies, materials, and m...
6m Mar 26, 2025
6m
Ultimo sueño
"The bells of Morelia Cathedral ring out from a beautiful baroque building of pink stone. The deep, rich sounds of these bells was the first inspiration for the piece. But, when I think of the Mexican Baroque, I immediately think of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, so this piece also takes inspiration from her poem Primero Sueño. The whispered text is excerpted from the poem itself, while the sung te...
8m Mar 26, 2025
8m
Efimero
"I have never experienced Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca firsthand, but I have always been inspired by the spirit of this ritualistic celebration. A day of gathering—of families, friends, and ancestors—where the entire community comes together to share food, music, memories, and stories, surrounded by vibrant colors of flowers and costumes. This holiday seems to me a beautiful and consoling way t...
15m Mar 26, 2025
15m
Hospicio Cabañas at Guadalajara
Interior of Hospicio Cabañas, tourist voices with long acoustic reverb. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
3m Mar 26, 2025
3m
Cathedral bells at Morelia
Cathedral bells at Morelia. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Morelia Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
1m Mar 26, 2025
1m
Day of the dead at Oaxaca cemetery
Day of the death at Panteón General cemetery at Oaxaca. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
2m Mar 26, 2025
2m
Echoes of Petra
"The creation of this piece began with a binaural recording from Petra, Jordan—a place steeped in history, where the whispers of the past still resonate in the present. As soon as I listened back to the recording, I was struck by its depth and atmosphere. The natural reverberations of the ancient rock-cut city, the distant murmur of voices, the footsteps on stone—all these elements felt alive, ...
7m Mar 24, 2025
7m
Hagerty incident
"The source field recording is combined with found sounds and field recordings made at a 1965 Hiroshima anti-nuclear protest, a 1968 Tokyo student protest, as well as street performances and 'happenings' presented between 1960 and 1970. "Tobata, an industrial port in southern Japan, was often the site of such demonstrations and protests, many of which were related to the Anpo struggle (安保闘争, A...
3m Mar 24, 2025
3m
Butterfly effect: weeping and flying; llorando y volando: mariposas monarcas
"The butterfly effect: weeping and flying; llorando y volando: mariposas monarcas "What is the sound of butterflies? What is the sound of butterflies? What is the sound of millions and millions of monarch butterflies as they open wings and ascend into the air? What is the sound of zero monarch butterflies? "Monarch butterflies have been part of my life for over 30 years in two places in North...
7m Mar 24, 2025
7m
Tobata Gion Yamagasa festival
On a warm summer evening crowds line the streets to watch the opening ceremony of the Tobata Gion lantern festival. Several floats can be heard passing as they march through the town. UNESCO listing: Yama, Hoko, Yatai, float festivals in Japan Recorded by Thomas Martin Nutt. IMAGE: JKT-c, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons ——————— This sound is p...
4m Mar 24, 2025
4m
Petra anamnetic (binaural)
Petra Anamnetic presents a stratophonic acoustic mapping of the Petra world heritage archaeological site, located in southern Jordan. This locale has traditionally belonged to the Bedouin B’doul tribe, a clan that continues to play an eminent role within the tourist industry, which is of central importance to the area’s economy. The piece has been recorded ambisonically and rendered binaurally ...
7m Mar 24, 2025
7m
Monarch butterfly sanctuary
Monarch butterfly sanctuary, El Rosario. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
2m Mar 24, 2025
2m
Forest bathing in Kasugayama Primeval Forest
Hike a little beyond the main section of Nara Park in Japan, and you enter the Kasugayama Primeval Forest – also part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara UNESCO site. If you are there during the off season and early enough in the morning, it is possible to hear the forest itself, as the monks and pilgrims of old must have done. This recording was made on 13 December, 2024 on the popular ...
4m Mar 24, 2025
4m
Soundwalk through Siena
This soundwalk was recorded in and around the streets of Siena in Tuscany. We begin in the narrow streets and end at the famous Piazza del Campo, the town's central square and home to the biannual horse race the "palio". UNESCO listing: Historic City of Siena Recorded by Colin Hunter. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous s...
4m Mar 24, 2025
4m
Migrations of people and birds
"The field recording reminds me to listen to the world around in nature and juxtaposed with the sounds of diaspora and migration, it captures the spirit behind the audio - of birds communicating with the audience and with each other, of light footsteps through a forest preserved in present day. Why are other forests not given the same status and how can we preserve the forests and rivers that m...
12m Mar 24, 2025
12m
Barrels
"The sound in my piece is made by striking the inside of an empty prosecco tank in an Italian winery. I created this piece using Ableton and wanted to make something that only used the original sample and no other additional sounds. I used the sampler and granulator to manipulate and edit the sound and then worked to create a short ambient piece that retained some of the character of the origin...
4m Mar 24, 2025
4m
Eavesdropping
"The field recording was interesting to me as it revealed more after several listens. It was a combination of louder, more dynamic voices/human/environmental sounds, and some much more subtle parts. It made me feel like I was visiting another place which I found compelling, and I appreciated the inconsistent sounds and spaces captured. In the composition I wanted to marry abstractions with more...
4m Mar 24, 2025
4m
Rattling chairlift on a hot afternoon
The "seggiovia" chairlift up to a rifugio in Pescul, in the Dolomites on a hot summer afternoon. The sound of the clicking, whirring chairlift interrupts the sounds of buzzing insects and light breeze, and symbolises the intrusion of human construction and entertainment into the natural environments of the mountains. UNESCO listing: The Dolomites Recorded by Cities and Memory. ——————— This ...
3m Mar 24, 2025
3m
Sunset in Naqsh-e Jahan Square
In the heart of Isfahan, Iran, the beauty of Naqsh-e Jahan Square comes alive at sunset, where the fountain glimmers under the fading light, accompanied by the chant of the muezzin in the background. UNESCO listing: Meidan Emam, Esfahan Recorded by Azadeh Nilchiani. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out mo...
1m Mar 24, 2025
1m
Green parrots at Khajuraho
Green parrots at Khajuraho. Stereo 44kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Khajuraho Group of Monuments Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
1m Mar 24, 2025
1m
Inside the Taj Mahal
Tourists in the Taj Mahal interior. Stereo 48kHz 24bit. UNESCO listing: Taj Mahal Recorded by Erick Ruiz Arellano. ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
2m Mar 24, 2025
2m
(re)membering and mending
"I was born in Bolzano, Alto Adige, by the Dolomites, and lived there for the first 11 years of my life. The first breath I took was from the air corralled by the lines these mountains made in the sky; here was my first light, colours, sounds, language. "Hearing the seggiovia reminds me of picnics in valleys with pines and snowy tops. And hearing people joyfully gasping on the moving chairs. ...
12m Mar 24, 2025
12m