Inside the Bücherbogen bookshop in Savignyplatz, a fantastic bookshop of art, design and architecture books built under a set of railway arches. A unique soundscape of the quiet of a bookshop, with the flicking of pages, with the deep rumble overhead of periodic passing trains.
Recorded in Berlin, September 2025 by Cities and Memory.
--------
5:51
--------
5:51
Pontis (2025)
"In Latin, 'Pontis' not only refers to a physical bridge, but also a metaphorical crossing - a psychological parallel between lived reality and its parallel, hyper-real counterpart. My work explores the threshold of human imagination, and the subtle ways our perceived reality changes when consuming art. When reading or listening to material, our psychic perception of reality changes: the environment doesn't disappear, but transforms.
"The piece ends in a rhythmic layered flurry of page-flicks coupled with solo pre-recorded harp material (at Trinity Laban, London), turning the field recording depicting a human action of flicking through a book, into something mechanical, experimental and post-human.
"The Bucherbogen bookstore recording is the perfect vehicle to deliver this auditory palimpsest. The mumbled low rumbling of trains acts as a bridge - a 'pontis' - between the outer reality, and the parallel reality that is being formed inside the bookstore. Berlin is the perfect place for such a sonic crossover: everyday life with electro-acoustic touches.
"I increased the presence of these distant rumbles through fragmentation and layering, then reinforced them with low-pitched pre-recorded electronic drones. This serves to merge the documentary-like quality of the field recording with a new sonic layer. The moments of chopped repeated singular sounds in the field recording (steps, book dropping), are complemented by pres-de-la-table harp singular sounds and added reverberation. This serves to de-contextualise the listener and introduce a new sonic reality.
"Chopped sections of recording involving voice are also repeated intentionally: This is then fused with speech from the recording studio at Trinity Laban, when recording the harp material. Speech, especially in the contrast of male (Bucherbogen recording) vs female (trinity harp recording) also adds another layer of duality here.
"The listener is trapped inside these two parallel realities: the Inner reality inside the bookstore (represented by the harp material and pre-recorded electronics), versus the outer, factual reality (represented by the field recording itself, with low rumbling of trains, dialogue, walking). The harp was the chosen acoustic presence because of longstanding musical associations with fantasy, mystery, and wonder, exactly the atmosphere I intended to evoke."
Buecherbogen bookstore, Berlin reimagined by David Balica.
--------
6:00
--------
6:00
Bellemar
"When I listened to this beautiful recording of the Pharo bells of Marseille, I immediately felt transported to the south of France, which I recently visited and adore. The memories of those places surfaced together with the splendid sound of the different bells ringing over the sea, forming a simple and delicate melody.
"This piece grows from that melody and from the sea itself, symbolising how certain moments in our past come flooding back through the tides of memory."
Bells in Le Pharo, Marseille reimagined by Demiurgo.
--------
4:43
--------
4:43
A celebration at Wat Ku Tao
This recording displays the sounds of a local celebration stumbled upon in the city of Chiang Mai. People of all ages gathered together to play music and dance, at a buddhist temple called Wat Ku Tao.
Recorded in Chiang Mai, Thailand by Jake Edwards.
--------
5:43
--------
5:43
Daylight, Waorani Indigenous territory
By day, high atop one of the tallest trees in the Waorani tribal territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the forest opens into a vast cathedral of sound. From this canopy — a sacred perch where countless birds pass by — the air vibrates with a living symphony. Wings beat the open sky, calls echo and overlap, and melodies shimmer in constant motion. Each branch becomes a resonant chamber, amplifying the chorus as if the whole canopy were singing.
From this height, the perspective shifts — the forest is no longer an enclosing labyrinth but an endless horizon of green, alive with voices and breath. It is the rainforest breathing in daylight, radiant and unbroken, a reminder that in these heights, life is not only seen but ceaselessly sung.
Recorded in the Waorani Indigenous territory, Yasuní biosphere reserve, Ecuador by Rafael Diogo.
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
South Africa