Cities and Memory – remixing the world, one sound at a time

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 5,000 sounds featured on our sound map, spread over more than 100 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 http://www.citiesandmemory.com
The original field recording focuses on the conversation of one specific speaker, a budding chef who talks about learning how to cook from recipes and cooking his own meals. Behind this, the sounds of New York build and grow, with passing traffic and sirens swallowing up the conversation.

This composition, titled The Chef, starts with our protagonist’s words front and centre over a musical soundscape that represents the movement and urgency of one the western world’s busiest cities. The swelling sounds of the city are painted with huge delays and tape effects, and we allow them to grow, consume and overtake the sounds of its citizens. Sooner or later, the city takes us all over.

Reimagined by Cities and Memory.