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
December 10, 2025 • 5 mins
At night, in a bamboo grove in Kyoto, the wind threads its way through the tall stalks, bending them until they sway and knock together with hollow tones. The sound is both delicate and immense — a shifting chorus of rattles, sighs, and murmurs that rise and fall like waves. Each gust carries a new texture: sometimes a low, resonant moan as the bamboo bows deeply, sometimes a fine, trembling hiss as leaves brush against one an...
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December 10, 2025 • 7 mins
Inside the Klimahaus museum, which is dedicated to telling the stories of climate and the environment. The exhibition called "The Journey" takes you around the world on a line of longitude from Bremerhaven with interactive installations and exhibits that make extensive use of sound to be as immersive as possible. Here we are in Niger, experiencing a video installation based on desert village life.
Recorded by Cities ...
Recorded by Cities ...
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December 10, 2025 • 12 mins
A recording of Holy Communion taking place in the iconic surroundings of Westminster Abbey, with the service audible both from the priest directly and piped through the surrounding speakers, as tourists pass the worshippers on all sides, and the epic reverb of the space threatens to swallow up everything in the soundscape.
Recorded by Cities and Memory.
Recorded by Cities and Memory.
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December 10, 2025 • 11 mins
"This raw desert field recording, resonating from the halls of the Klimahaus Bremerhaven in Germany (Climate House Museum Bremerhaven), sparked a vision of musical imagination within me.
"It drew me into a hidden world of untold stories, and from its pulse and breath, I shaped a soundscape I call Meridian. A sonic journey tracing the secret heart of the desert and revealing an oasis born of imagination.
"I c...
"It drew me into a hidden world of untold stories, and from its pulse and breath, I shaped a soundscape I call Meridian. A sonic journey tracing the secret heart of the desert and revealing an oasis born of imagination.
"I c...
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December 10, 2025 • 13 mins
"I recorded and played all sounds. One of sound is coming from my home town Sapporo, when my grandmother was gone. Some of instrument is bass clarinet, Bb clarinet, tenor sax, handmade instrument, keys. Especially the wind instruments were recorded while I listened to the source sound."
Westminster Abbey communion service reimagined by Ayane Sato.
Westminster Abbey communion service reimagined by Ayane Sato.
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December 10, 2025 • 19 mins
"I was inspired by the beauty in the percussive sound of the bamboo, and how it contrasts with harsher rustling of the wind and rain. I decided to use the recording as the only sound source: everything you hear in the piece is the original recording, manipulated.
"Most of the piece was improvised by running and looping the 5 minute recording of the bamboo forest through my Eurorack modular synthesizer. I tried to foc...
"Most of the piece was improvised by running and looping the 5 minute recording of the bamboo forest through my Eurorack modular synthesizer. I tried to foc...
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December 10, 2025 • 6 mins
"The Red Sea is a place with such rich history and significance, it felt overwhelming to try and encapsulate it fully. The field recording reflected to me an origin point. I imagined some type of primordial soup. The biodiversity that bubbles up and flourishes in the red sea despite the salinity feels like an overlooked triumph of nature. I wanted to layer the beautiful sounds of life within the red sea with the noise of trade...
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December 10, 2025 • 11 mins
"After being initially drawn to the rhythmic sounds of the sea and the tumbling rocks, I wanted to explore that process of erosion through the slow breakdown and transformation of the original field recording. In my research I learned this type of coastal erosion is called ‘attrition’ - this word is also used in a military context when the strength or effectiveness of a people is slowly reduced through sustained attacks and pr...
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December 10, 2025 • 2 mins
A stag vocalises in some woods in the Chiltern Hills, and in this recording you can also hear the distant sounds of shotguns as hunting season has commenced. There's also birdsong, and the sound of an aircraft flying overhead, which is an unfortunate and very common unwanted sound in this otherwise idyllic rural location.
Recorded in Turville Heath, England by Cities and Memory.
Recorded in Turville Heath, England by Cities and Memory.
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December 10, 2025 • 8 mins
"From the title I had imagined a wild open landscape with heather and peat bogs. But no, Turville Heath is more bucolic. So I felt it represents a loss of habitat, and the man made sounds have replaced other sounds except the stag and birds.
"The piece is a lament and I have used the sounds of the jets, the stag and birds and the wind noise. All sounds bar the piano are sampled from the original source."
St...
"The piece is a lament and I have used the sounds of the jets, the stag and birds and the wind noise. All sounds bar the piano are sampled from the original source."
St...
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December 9, 2025 • 15 mins
"A sonic meditation beneath the Apple Tree. Blossom surrounds you, falling softly from the branches. You are content, the sweet flesh of the apple satisfies the deep hunger within you, sweeter than any from a mortal realm.
"Close your eyes, you are safe beneath the tree, safe in the ring of petals. In the distance, bells are calling. To pull you home? Maybe. But perhaps you should rest here a moment longer..."
"Close your eyes, you are safe beneath the tree, safe in the ring of petals. In the distance, bells are calling. To pull you home? Maybe. But perhaps you should rest here a moment longer..."
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December 9, 2025 • 4 mins
As someone who lives in Northern Ireland, one of the most deforested countries in Europe, I was inspired by the forest ambience of Taman Negara in Malaysia, one of the worlds oldest tropical rainforests, and by a particular bird call at the heart of the recording.
The Indian Cuckoo has a beautifully distinctive and musical two tone call, and it was fun to weave orchestral and electronic textures around it, setting it...
The Indian Cuckoo has a beautifully distinctive and musical two tone call, and it was fun to weave orchestral and electronic textures around it, setting it...
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December 9, 2025 • 11 mins
"Immerse yourself in the timeless symphony of Taman Negara, one of the the world’s oldest rainforest, standing tall for 130 million years.
As you close your eyes and listen, you’ll be transported to a lush, vibrant world. The gentle rustling of ancient trees swaying in the breeze creates a soothing, whispering backdrop. Birds, with their exotic calls, flit through the canopy, their songs echoing through the stillness....
As you close your eyes and listen, you’ll be transported to a lush, vibrant world. The gentle rustling of ancient trees swaying in the breeze creates a soothing, whispering backdrop. Birds, with their exotic calls, flit through the canopy, their songs echoing through the stillness....
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December 9, 2025 • 8 mins
Outside the towering gold Buddha, the sound of soft clinking of wind chimes swaying in the breeze can be heard mingling with the sounds of the city and water features in the background.
Recorded in Bangkok, Thailand by Jake Edwards.
Recorded in Bangkok, Thailand by Jake Edwards.
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December 9, 2025 • 6 mins
A group of singers clad in nautical outfits called The Original Fishtown Singers - "Fishtown" is the affectionate nickname given to the port town of Bremerhaven. Here the group change the lyrics of "Sloop John B" to refer to the town of Bremerhaven - a local flavour given to a universally-recognised song.
Recorded by Cities and Memory, May 2025.
Recorded by Cities and Memory, May 2025.
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December 9, 2025 • 1 min
This recording illustrates one of the crucial parts of the March of Light demonstration, which is basically a flash mob based on people showing and hiding their phones with flashlights turned on, which is then shared on social media to draw people's attention to the whole event, which is to support Ukraine in its war against its aggressor - the Russian Federation.
The video with the results of this flash mob can be fo...
The video with the results of this flash mob can be fo...
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December 9, 2025 • 2 mins
Our piece is inspired by a ‘March of Light’, a field recording from Austria. The rhythmic beat resembles a heartbeat. The voices that call out seem to be either a threat or a cry for help. The original piece has more darkness than light, and we worked to combine this with the tinkling melody of a steel band, which we recorded in London’s Angel Islington.
Woven around this is our field recording of the sounds of Cross...
Woven around this is our field recording of the sounds of Cross...
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December 9, 2025 • 3 mins
"The song 'Sloop John B' is sung in many languages and countries, I have sung it with friends in a pub myself, and the tune belies its gritty somewhat tragic lyrics as often happens in the folk tradition. I mused long and hard about how to treat it and decided as it is very much the type of song that becomes an 'ear worm', one that you only remember a few phrases of but sing incessantly, and that it would be perfect as a song ...
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December 8, 2025 • 13 mins
"Naja haje: the way knows the way honours the Egyptian cobra as a guide across myth, land, and memory. Inspired by ancestral ties to Morocco and our life in the Pacific Northwest, we entered into dialogue with the field recording—looping rhythm, layering voice, chalumeau, recorder, and drum—to explore how sound can restore relationships with the more-than-human world.
The piece asks how honouring the serpent—through ...
The piece asks how honouring the serpent—through ...
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December 8, 2025 • 5 mins
"Where does humanity presently sit in terms of faith, spirituality and striving for greatness?
|Our recorded history manifests as a unified drive toward the divine. Modern existentialism folds in elements of increased division and loss of direction on the path to fulfilment.
"We live in an era that measures progression and success with an obsessive focus on wide-spread improvement at every level. Yet, when w...
|Our recorded history manifests as a unified drive toward the divine. Modern existentialism folds in elements of increased division and loss of direction on the path to fulfilment.
"We live in an era that measures progression and success with an obsessive focus on wide-spread improvement at every level. Yet, when w...
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