PodcastsArtsCities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Cities and Memory
Cities and Memory - remixing the world
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1349 episodes

  • Cities and Memory - remixing the world

    The Golden Gate Bridge sings

    2026/05/11 | 1 mins.
    The slats in the Golden Gate bridge will resonate at certain wind speeds and directions. the first is a low-pitched + low-frequency tone between 280-700hz created by westward ~22mph winds while the second tone is of a higher pitch + frequency of 1.1khz created by ~27mph winds. 
    This is the singing as heard from Lone Mountain, during a rainy night.
    Recorded by wwjd (Jason Talsma).
  • Cities and Memory - remixing the world

    Golden Gate Bridge sings of madness

    2026/05/11 | 8 mins.
    "I used the original ethereal recording to run through the entire piece while also finding and recording a few more Golden Gate bridge sounds. These include the fog horns coming in as the melody and a couple others nearby the bridge.
    :The field recording inspires a warped sense of reality... dreary... a bit crazy. The bridge is a passage for those marching into a city of multiple faces and realities.

    "There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere." - Hunter S. Thompson Golden Gate Bridge reimagined by wwjd (Jason Talsma).
  • Cities and Memory - remixing the world

    Out of the woods

    2026/05/06 | 2 mins.
    "In “Out of the Woods” new and old swirl together. The primary inputs are field recordings from a violin workshop near the river. All of the percussion sounds come from the wood instrument construction sounds from the workshop. The rhythms were already so compelling, I took long clips of them and did very little processing. The voices are also all from the workshop visit, in the field recording. Voices in the workshop blended four languages, discussing craft and location. “Acero” means maple in Italian. Wood was harvested nearby, connecting nature and human process. Soft sandpaper rubbing underlies the vocals.
    "The only sound I added was viola da gamba, an early bowed, wooden, stringed instrument that was popular in Europe in the Renaissance before the onset of modern strings. This instrument had a musical culture of being played in the home and in small groups, emphasizing soft richness of tone and polyphonic shaping before more modern priorities of loudness and soloists. Visually the instrument looks similar to the violin family, but has more sloped shoulders, 6 strings (generally) with frets, C holes instead of F holes, and all sizes are played upright held between the knees. Strings are tuned mainly in fourths, with the historical tuning of A a bit below modern standards (415hz vs 440hz or higher). The instrument went out of fashion being gradually replaced by the violin family in the Baroque period, though viols started to regain interest in the 20th century. I added reverb and effects to this early music sound, linking past and future. Along with other dedicated players and composers worldwide, I write and play new music for the viola da gamba to keep this instrument alive.
    "In “Out of the Woods,” wood is nurtured by water. Wood is flooded by water. Wood resonates. Wood transforms. Wood speaks. Wood connects. Wood remembers. Wood forms new memories."
    Section of the river Lech reimagined by Heather Spence. 
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    Part of Flow, a creative exploration telling the story of a river through the power of sound. Explore the full project at https://citiesandmemory.com/flow.
  • Cities and Memory - remixing the world

    The Lech waltz

    2026/05/06 | 4 mins.
    "My background as a singer/songwriter often dictates how I start my work, but my affinity for experimental music helps to push my compositions into odd or unusual places.
    "For this composition, The Lech Waltz, I created a simple structure. And yet, it was missing something.
    "That’s when I decided to push the entire song a minute or more down the timeline, adding a number of layers and then playing without a click track, mixing in some long drones and melodies.
    "It’s become one of my favourite parts of the composition, sounding like what a river feels like.
    "I was thrilled to hear about Salma Caller’s idea of sharing small musical moments with other composers on this project. It evokes the connectivity of a river that changes with time.
    "I used a bell-like sound from Giuseppe Cordaro, a sample that I turned into a random, descending 4 note melody. From Salma, a rowing noise became a percussive element.
    "The original field recording (Segment 1) of the Lech River by Riccardo Fumagalli was turned into a lovely, noisy beat."
    Section of the river Lech reimagined by Bill McKenna. 
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    Part of Flow, a creative exploration telling the story of a river through the power of sound. Explore the full project at https://citiesandmemory.com/flow.
  • Cities and Memory - remixing the world

    Spirits of the wild river

    2026/05/06 | 6 mins.
    "Rushing currents, echoing depths — where the haunting calls of water spirits appear and dissolve like currents in motion.
    "This dramatic, immersive soundscape was inspired by Riccardo Fumagalli’s field recording captured at Section 5 of the Lech River at Stanzach, Austria, “where the river bed is at its largest and the water caresses the vegetation around it”. Here the river has been braided, dividing the flow into five groynes that restrict the river’s lateral movement. “They are built to train and constrain the lateral movement of rivers within the surrounding floodplain. Braided rivers tend to be very wide and, under natural conditions, highly dynamic. I believe the groynes were built in the first half of the 20th century, mainly to reduce the active river area, expand farmland, and provide flood protection.” (Martina Cecchetto).
    "I was immediately drawn to this sound by the purity of the bubbling water recording and by the beauty of the “String of Pearls” river shape created by human intervention, clearly visible in satellite images. This section is the second deepest part of the entire Lech River, and I wanted this sense of power and depth to play an important role in the composition.
    "Further research revealed that the Lech River is commonly referred to by locals and tourists as the “last wild river”, due to its untamed, braided and largely natural state, often characterised as a living, flowing spirit of the Alps. In Austrian folklore, the famous shapeshifting female water spirits are called Nixe. The title and soundscape of this piece reflect these two aspects of the river.
    "The form of the work is inspired by the five “pearl-shaped” sections of the river where the sample was taken. The climaxes in the piece mark these five sections, corresponding to the human intervention that created the groynes restricting the river’s flow, represented by more metallic and destructive sounds. Vocal elements evoke water spirits calling and luring, drifting and disappearing into the distance. The soundscape was created by transforming the original sample into 22 different sounds using effects, combined with an additional 44 sound and vocal tracks, making a total of 77 tracks.
    "Through my compositions, I enjoy drawing attention to the importance, fragility, and beauty of the natural world. Conservation efforts, such as the LIFE Lech project, have focused on removing bank stabilisation structures and giving the river space to redevelop its natural dynamics, ensuring the long-term success of habitat and species conservation. However, Section 5 has not yet been included in the restoration project."
    Section of the river Lech reimagined by Amanda Stuart. 
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    Flow is a creative exploration telling the story of a river through the power of sound. The project is a collaboration between the University of Padova and the University of Würzburg, with support from Cities and Memory. Explore the full project at https://citiesandmemory.com/flow.

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About 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
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