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

Sunday market in Molenbeek

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

Step into the vibrant streets of Molenbeek, Belgium on a Sunday morning, where the sounds of the bustling market come alive. This immersive sound walk recording captures the sights and sounds of the local community as they go about their day.

The air is filled with the cacophony of vendors calling out to passersby, the clinking of pots and pans, and the murmur of lively conversations in a variety of dialects. The scen...

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Nanjing, Sanqiba Lane

December 12, 2025 • 2 mins

This curiously named lane, marked by a stone archway, hosts an open-air market hemmed in by tall, dense residential buildings. Mobile vendors, traditional snack stalls, breakfast shops, butchers, and seafood stands huddle together, with a central lot crammed with bicycles and scooters. It serves as the local wet market, breakfast spot, and a hangout where elders idly stroll.

Vendors’ calls are swallowed by the bold, ...

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Tranquil afternoon by the water in Sa Pa

December 12, 2025 • 8 mins

High in the misty mountains of northern Vietnam, the sound of water guides you to serenity. A gentle, steady stream cascades from the Love Waterfall as birds call softly in the distance – their contrast providing the perfect melody.

This tranquil soundscape captures the pure essence of Sa Pa’s beauty, where nature sings in tones of peace and clarity, inviting you to breathe deeply and let go.

Recorded in Sa P...

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Bawlmer Penn

December 12, 2025 • 12 mins

This is a simple field recording of passenger hubbub and train announcements at Baltimore Penn Station which was constructed in 1911. They have recently updated the building and they have started to play classical music in the background which I personally adore.

Note: Some people like to affectionately call the city "Bawlmer", thus the file is named "Bawlmer Penn".

Recorded by Bill McKenna.

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Belen's tears

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

In the Belén neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, extreme poverty prevails. Residents live in wooden stilt houses along the Amazon River, vulnerable to flooding, with poor sanitation and limited access to healthcare. This recording captures the ambiance of the street market, where exotic animals are sold, reflecting a community trapped in poverty and neglect.

Recorded by Rafael Diogo.

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The seagulls of Lofoten

December 12, 2025 • 2 mins

Å village is full of seagulls - they never stop talking and singing!

Recorded in Lofoten, Norway by Agapi Zita.

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The wedding begins

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

Walking through the Grønland district in Oslo, a pealing of bells starts up from a nearby church to mark the beginning of a wedding starting inside. The bells end, and we walk through the nearby Bierkelunden park, listening to passers-by talking, and passing close by a fountain.

Recorded in May 2025 by Cities and Memory.

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Athens in turmoil, again

December 12, 2025 • 1 min

We can hear the protest chants of thousands of protesters in central Athens, calling for an investigation into the deaths of Greek citizens in a train accident due to missing security protocol and corruption. The protest took place March 8, 2023 at 16:55.

Recorded by Daniel Beaudoin.

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A peaceful morning in Buergerpark

December 12, 2025 • 5 mins

A peaceful Monday morning in Bremen's Buergerpark, with plentiful birdsong, and the occasional jogger and cyclist passing us on a sunny May morning.

Recorded in May 2025 by Cities and Memory.

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Suzhou, Guanqian Park

December 12, 2025 • 2 mins

Parks draw elderly crowds, each with unique soundscapes shaped by distinct groups, hard to discover without local insight. This recording was a lucky find. Guanqian Park, a refined roadside garden, hosts elderly chess players in tight-knit groups, clearly familiar.

Some laugh, others argue heatedly, slapping chess pieces in excitement, creating a lively buzz. Onlookers watch quietly with poised restraint, embodying S...

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Livestock in a village in Liangshan mountains

December 12, 2025 • 3 mins

Jiwei Cun is a small village in Liangshan Mountains of Sichuan province, China. They are Yi nationality. The local people have pigs, cows and chickens in backyards, under trees. Yi is very very old tribes in history. Because of the mountains, they're a mystery.

Recorded by Digimonk.

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The Jiaotong teahouse

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

Teahouses were once hubs of socializing, business, and leisure in towns along the Yangtze, akin to British pubs or Shanghai’s 1990s eateries. At Jiaotong Teahouse, most patrons are retired local men, much like their ancestors a century ago. They trickle in around 5 a.m., chatting, playing cards, chess, or sipping tea under dim wooden beams and brick walls, with scarcely a sound from phones or devices. Some linger all day, swap...

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This stream runs all the way to the ocean

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

" Although sampled, processed, arranged then processed,reprocessed and arranged again, the sound of the stream still persists."

Sa Pa, Vietnam water sounds reimagined by Alex Vald.

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Jiaotong

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

"The people in the teahouse were a focal point for my approach to reimagining this sound, I listened to the cadence and rhythm of conversations and clattering of cups and found a melody, chopped up the audio to accentuate the melody, dialed in some synths and lo-fi drums to act as the vehicle for that melody and took it some weird and wonderful places, here are some interesting points from the piece:

"I wanted to incl...

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Sedimentos que flotan (floating sediments)

December 12, 2025 • 4 mins

"Floating Sediments is a work that uses sounds from a market in Iquitos, Peru. The voices of vendors and customers, fragments of music, and everyday murmurs are extracted through spectral processes to reconfigure this landscape within an expanded temporality. Through synthesis, modulations of speed and pitch, resonances, and reverberations, a state of persistence is suggested, of traces that fix and vanish in a space of their ...

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Molenbeek minute

December 12, 2025 • 36 secs

"The original field recording by Colin Hunter is a layered feast of distinctive sounds - bells ringing, unusual whistles, vendors shouting short phrases repeatedly, people softly laughing and a baby trying out words. I've taken seven of these sounds and set them in opposition to the same sounds found in other places. At times they are swamped, at other times they blend and form a new audio relationship."

Molenbeek mar...

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Sanqiba alley ambience

December 12, 2025 • 14 mins

"The sounds of Sanqiba Alley in Nanjing reminded me of living in Nanjing several years ago, and the sense of the history of this place and its people was really strong. The piece draws on the sounds of conversations and food preparations to suggest a moment that is rooted in time and is also timeless in a way."

Nanjing old town reimagined by Wayne DeFehr.

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Catheed

December 12, 2025 • 1 min

" used the prominent sound of the bells to explore polyrhythms and basic sound effects such as pitch and timing alteration, and reversing. I structured it so that the rhythm is established, then altered, then becomes chaotic, then gives way to more melodic and coherent material. The harshness of sound and the wedding bells are a micro structure, briefly explored."

Oslo wedding bells reimagined by Patrick Duffy.

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Some people believe birds are alien drones

December 12, 2025 • 8 mins

"I like to push myself beyond my comfort zones so as an exercise in avoiding my biases I asked Stuart to choose a sound for me. It's almost as if he knew! Stuart gave me a sound recording of seagulls that really challenged me. It was a difficult sound to work with because it has a very narrow tonal range and was quite repetitive. I found that surprising for a natural sound.

"All of the sounds in this composition have...

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In the belly of the beast

December 12, 2025 • 6 mins

"I was inspired by the guttural sounds of the animals roaring. I decided to investigate the detail of these by slowing the material down. I then layered different components and added plugins including comb filtering, space grain and evolution. The resultant audio suggested to me how it might sound if you were a small creature swallowed by a predator."

Jiwei village, China reimagined by Alison Beattie.

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Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sunday market in Molenbeek

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Nanjing, Sanqiba Lane

Tranquil afternoon by the water in Sa Pa

Bawlmer Penn

Belen's tears

The seagulls of Lofoten

The wedding begins

Athens in turmoil, again

A peaceful morning in Buergerpark

Suzhou, Guanqian Park

Livestock in a village in Liangshan mountains

The Jiaotong teahouse

This stream runs all the way to the ocean

Jiaotong

Sedimentos que flotan (floating sediments)

Molenbeek minute

Sanqiba alley ambience

Catheed

Some people believe birds are alien drones

In the belly of the beast

Popular Podcasts

Sunday market in Molenbeek

Nanjing, Sanqiba Lane