Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory remixes the world, one sound at a time - a global collaboration between artists and sound recordists all over the world. The project presents an amazingly-diverse array of field recordings from all over the world, but also reimagined, recomposed versions of those recordings as we go on a mission to remix the world. What you'll hear in the podcast are our latest sounds - either a field recording from somewhere in the world, or a remixed new composition based solely on those sounds. Each podcast description tells you more about what you're hearing, and where it came from. There are more than 7,000 sounds featured on our sound map, spread over more than 130 countries and territories. The sounds cover parts of the world as diverse as the hubbub of San Francisco’s main station, traditional fishing women’s songs at Lake Turkana, the sound of computer data centres in Birmingham, spiritual temple chanting in New Taipei City or the hum of the vaporetto engines in Venice. You can explore the project in full at www.citiesandmemory.com

Episodes

Yoi Jacon

November 5, 2025 • 5 mins
Living with an isolated Shipibo indigenous family in the Peruvian Amazon, this recording features an ícaro titled "Yoi Jacon" ("another world") by curandera Ronin Mea. The chant speaks of a realm beyond our own, filled with ancient wisdom, amidst the backdrop of a disappearing way of life due to deforestation and modernization.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.
Mark as Played

Mountain cowbell chorus

November 5, 2025 • 2 mins
The gentle tinkling of cowbells in a field among the Dolomites at the end of a long summer afternoon.

Recorded in Colmean, Italy by Cities and Memory, June 2025.  
Mark as Played

Oud paradox (1)

November 5, 2025 • 17 mins
"The field recording is a completed song, sung to the backdrop of a symphony of sounds apparently arising from the Peruvian Amazon setting where the performance and recoding took place. The chant/song repeats and winds upwards in tonal centre as it journeys through a call and response form. 

"My composition takes shape as a tribute to the eternal, calm yet elegant and alive feeling and state of mind that I experienced...
Mark as Played

Tonal journey across the Willamette

November 5, 2025 • 5 mins
"I liked the tonal qualities of this recording. There is a constantly varying pattern of sound: the cars, trucks and buses never pass over in the same configuration so the tones will always combine differently. Each time I improvised this musical re-creation was also unique. The different patterns of sound could have gone on for eternity, but here I have just reimagined it twice."

Hawthorne bridge, Portland reimagined...
Mark as Played

Tyres on steel over Hawthorne Bridge

November 5, 2025 • 1 min
The Hawthorne Bridge, built in 1910 is the oldest vertical lift bridge in the USA and the oldest highway bridge in Portland, Oregon. I stood beneath it one sunny summer day, as the traffic passed over the open steel grills of the carriageway creating the rushing tones in this recording.

Recorded by Paul Stephens-Wood.
Mark as Played

DJ choristers with added cowbell

November 5, 2025 • 3 mins
"I thought about the cows maybe wanting someone else to jam along with in the Dolomites, and then a bunch of choristers turn up with a wannabe DJ in tow, and they end up getting it together just in time for milking."

Cowbells in Colmean, the Dolomites reimagined by Rod Dykeman.
Mark as Played

The creaking dock performs

October 31, 2025 • 7 mins
Persistent, detailed creaking wood and metal sounds coming from the floating dock structure on Hovedoya island, Oslo, along with gentle wave sounds underneath, September 2025.

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 
Mark as Played

Hovedoya island (Andy Lyon reimagining)

October 31, 2025 • 8 mins
"I really liked the calmness of the sea which contrasted with the harsher sounding creaking wood and metal sounds. I created a track that features and contrasts between these two sounds. 

"I used a variety of samplers, loopers, delays, reverbs and other effects to create an ambient, tape-loop, drone type of track with a stilted - wonky - rhythm created from drum-like sounds and the creaks created from the recording. <...
Mark as Played

Slowing down

October 30, 2025 • 7 mins
"It is a wonderful and relaxing recording that evokes sitting down and unwinding after a long day. I chose to include a few happy and playful guitar tracks, maybe like the music a person would strum themselves or listen to whilst sitting by a river before bedtime. A very joyful recording session for the Autumn Project."

Mara river, Kenya soundscape reimagined by Jeff Brown.

IMAGE: Danijel Mihajlovic, CC BY-SA...
Mark as Played

A night next to Mara river

October 30, 2025 • 15 mins
It is around 11.00 pm at Malaika camp, Kenya. The sound of the river is always present. Different types of birds are singing. Hippos are aroung the area and can be heard. Also in a distance lions calling each other can be heard (7'10) At the end of the attached video you can see the river Mara in the daylight and a hippo coming into the river, recorded from the camp's restaurant.

Recorded by Christina Antoniadou.
...
Mark as Played

Inside the sweet making process

October 30, 2025 • 9 mins
A unique recording in the kitchen at Bremen Bonbon Manufaktur, as sweet-making maestro Luca takes us through the process of making sweets by hand, including heating up mixtures, adding sugar, manipulating the still-warm ropes of sugary candy into the right shapes, chopping them down to size and more. 

An aural record of a traditional - and delicious - handmade practice. 

Recorded at Bremen Bonbon Manufaktur b...
Mark as Played

Aker Brygge catamaran

October 30, 2025 • 4 mins
"I love port sounds and this had so much more. An untuned bell and a brass band too. I split the recording into four "stems" and then edited it down to 4 minutes, bounced them down then added some effects and some subtly detuning resonant bass."

Aker Brygge harbour soundscape, Oslo reimagined by David Webb.
Mark as Played

Catamaran docking at Aker Brygge

October 30, 2025 • 6 mins
At Aker Brygge in Oslo, a tourist catamaran docks, we hear its engines throbbing as it manoeuvres into the dock. Passengers disembark under instruction from the crew, and all the while we hear the arhythmic bell chimes from the Untuned Bell sound installation to our right.

Recorded by Cities and Memory, September 2025. 
Mark as Played

Bonty Mojangle's sweet factory

October 30, 2025 • 2 mins
"I attached contact microphones to an empty tin of Monty Bojangles chocolates. I used it, together with some kitchen implements, to create the sounds of an imaginary sweet factory and resisted the temptation to process, or add effects to, my contact mic recordings. There are short extracts from the original recording at the beginning and end of my piece."

Artisan sweet manufacture in Bremen reimagined by Roland Pyle.<...
Mark as Played

I am the wind that blows across the sea

October 25, 2025 • 6 mins
This composition is a multi-layered synth improvisation, reacting in real time to the sounds of the breaking waves and calling birds in the field recording. Listening through to the full recording four or five times to immerse myself in the location, I then responded live to the recording on three passes with three separate synth sounds, allowing the emotions I felt listening to the recording to guide the performance, instead ...
Mark as Played

On the edge of the land

October 25, 2025 • 14 mins
The rising tide, gently lapping at rocks, with the quieter general sound of the sea in the background. The recording contains many bird sounds – both land-based such as blackbirds (Turdus merula) and sea-based such as oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus). Recorded at dusk as the birds chorus before nightfall. 

Recorded at Tarskavaig on the Isle of Skye, Scotland by Peter Brooks.
Mark as Played

Murmuration

October 25, 2025 • 3 mins
"The collective murmuring in the original recording filled me with comfort as soon as I heard it. There is something very nurturing about praying together and singing together in a beautiful resonate space. 

"It’s almost like the murmuring becomes a vast benevolent beast. This is an ode to the collective power of the voice, a huge hopeful entity moving against the tide of conflict and division."

Sanctuary at ...
Mark as Played

Sunday devotions at Basilica de Santa Luzia

October 25, 2025 • 3 mins
This recording offers a glimpse into the spiritual heart of Portugal, where tradition and faith come together in a celebration of devotion and praise. Step into the serene atmosphere of the Santuario de Santa Luzia in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, as a Sunday church service unfolds. This recording captures the intimate moments of devotion and worship, as the priest leads the congregation in prayer.

The gentle murmur of ...
Mark as Played

IRCAM in/out

October 25, 2025 • 8 mins
A walk outside IRCAM in Paris around the Stravinsky Fountain at noon, a trumpet player performs in public, a quick chat with a colleague, crowd and water sounds from the fountain, elevator speech synthesis, walking underground inside IRCAM, water splash from a sound installation, walking in the studios corridor, stopping by a closed room with a ventilation mechanism, taking the elevator, door opens. 

Recorded on a sun...
Mark as Played

Compo — décompo — recompo

October 25, 2025 • 3 mins
"I approached the piece by breaking it down into three dimensions: rhythm, texture, and the relationship between inside and outside. What first caught my attention was the richness of the different sonic layers — the interplay between interior and exterior spaces, and the elevator movements that added "depth". 

"The triggering element for me was water.

"In connection with my project Cyclaudio, which involves ...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Crime Junkie

    Crime Junkie

    Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies!

    The Breakfast Club

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.