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 8,000 sounds featured on our sound map, spread over more than 140 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
"I retained, without adjustment, the field-recording of chanting on a football terrace. My initial sense was of masculine celebration, the chants serving as a barometer for pride and rivalry. However, with the rhythmic fluctuations, my layered loops and snatches of dialogue shifted the celebratory mood. Repetitive, loopable refrains began to drone and persist with what I perceived as a tense 'possibility of emotional volatili...
The Lardy Boys, also known as the Lardy Army, is the name of the supporters at Horsham FC. This is a sample of them singing on a match day.
Recorded by Pauline Howley.
"I found the idea of candy cutting and the cheerful voices on the original recording very reminiscent of a childhood memory. The fact that I cannot understand the Japanese being spoken makes it further seem like a hazy memory.
"I wanted to retain the cheerful, nostalgic tone that I perceived while adding a melodic component on top of the rhythm created naturally by the candy cutting."
Candy cutting in Kawasaki reim...
On the street leading to Kawasaki Daishi, the sharp, percussive sound of hand‑cut sugar candy forms a steady rhythm.
Shopkeepers’ voices enter from both sides, calling out “Welcome” and offering tastes of candy just cut moments before.
Recorded in Kawasaki, Japan by Miduno.
| A wild night at Lake Masek in Ndutu, Tanzania. Hear hyenas whooping, lions roaring, jackals calling, hippos grunting, zebras barking, and flamingos vocalizing-all in one incredible soundscape. Perfect for immersion, study, sleep, or experiencing the true chaos of the African night.
Recorded in Ngorongoro, Arusha, Tanzania by David Joseph.
"I spend a lot of my time leading community choirs and singing protest songs, rousing anthems of freedom and liberty - and now, more than ever, they are needed. This is not a protest song, it is a plea. Ask yourself, which side are you on?"
Together Alliance protest in London reimagined by Rebecca Denniff.
"This is my second attempt at producing a piece of music using the source sample. The original sample contains a clean, distinct loop of tribal drumming, and at first I constructed a piece based on that loop, with rhythmic and melodic elements stacked, and arranged into an EDM piece.
"That was a bit too obvious, so instead I took the loop, deconstructed it, and applied pitch-shifting, filtering and other processing to el...
"This is a collaboration with pianist and composer Leah Floyeurs. We worked with sensitivity to honour the vibrational signature of this location in space, the Auschwitz Death Wall, which holds the memory of the Holocaust. The piece uses electronics and piano."
Auschwitz Death Wall recording reimagined by Helen Copnall and Leah Floyeurs.
"Spend the day at Lake Masek, join The Northern Synthesizer Orchestra on an audio journey from dawn to dusk. Created collaboratively by The NSO which is Becky, Jordan, Dom, Julie and V. "
Lake Masek soundscape reimagined by The Northern Synthesizer Orchestra.
The very beginning of Together Alliance's march against the right wing. This protest took place in central London in March 2026. I was located in the centre of Piccadilly near the Ritz hotel. The recording consists of chanting, drumming and many voices passing by as they made their way down Piccadilly towards Trafalgar Square. The rig I used to catch this recording was a pair of DPA 4060s into a Zoom H6 Essential. The mic con...
Tribal drumming heard from a distance in the large Georgengarten park in Hannover, getting louder as we follow our microphone, identify the source of the sound and follow it. The sound stops before we get all the way to the source, but then we hear footsteps on the gravel path and birdsong.
Recorded by Cities and Memory.
Ambisonics recording of acoustics and environmental sound at the "Death Wall" in Auschwitz I. The condemned were led to the wall for execution. SS men shot several thousand people here.
Recorded by Anders Vinjar.
"I listened to the busker a lot here and loved his energy. It then made me think about how much I travel to and from work on the train daily and how attached I am to train travel, the same sounds and words I hear every day. The comfort of it. So I wanted to give it a quiet eulogy. I brought the busker in to help."
Parisian metro busker reimagined by Dermot Fitzsimons.
"One of the first things that jumped out at me about this recording was the sheer joy it conveyed, slight warts & all. I love the off note in the initial section of the piece, and started off with the notion of taking that discordance & slowly bringing it into harmony. That was stymied however, by initial processing of the discordant note resulting in something beautiful.
"The other striking aspect of the recording is ...
"I've always been captivated by the organic quality of atmospheres... so the meaning of FX soon became completely intertwined with it... and that's exactly what happened this time too..."
Sermon in Dundas Square, Toronto reimagined by Lajkó András Bence/ACiDBENCI.
IMAGE: Kang-min Liu, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Nothing unusual in hearing the plaintive song of a busker on the Parisian metro, and this one has a nice voice. What strikes us as we leave the carriage is how even buskers now give out their Instagram and TikTok handles at the end of songs. Tag us on social or it didn't happen.
Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory.
At Aker Brygge on a Saturday afternoon in Oslo, a parade kicks off celebrating the muticulturalism of the city, with representation from many different groups and countries, all of whom are communities living there. The parade sets off to walk through the city centre with a celebratory tone, and in this recording many different groups walk past, with multiple forms of music including a brass band, drum troupe and various othe...
Dundas Square is a major intersection in downtown Toronto. It has a high population of buskers and other entertainment. This particular evening turned into a sermon.
Recorded in Toronto by Scott Bennett.
IMAGE: Kang-min Liu, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
"Built around a recording of the feminist collective Nous Toutes in Paris, who formed in 2018 to speak out against and draw attention to gender-based violence. For one hour every Saturday, the group speaks while sounding a klaxon at regular intervals; these intervals reflect the findings of a 2022 survey by the Ministère de l’Intérieur, which states that there is a rape or an attempted rape in France every 2 minutes and...
"When I heard this field recording it reminded me of a similar recording my wife and I had done several years ago where we played an Iron bridge with mallets. I took this as a perfect opportunity to graft pieces of each together to create a cohesive recording of similar elements.
"The playful running of the children on the bridge formed the central musical theme which suggested the direction of the harmonies heard in the...
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