Cities And Memory

At Lonely Beach on Koh Rong, the waves reach the shore in soft, unhurried patterns. Each swell rises and falls with calm consistency, a natural rhythm that soothes the mind. The beach is quiet and open, with only the sea’s gentle presence filling the air. It is a place of quiet retreat, where the sound of the ocean encourages rest and relaxation. Recorded by Jake Edwards.

Ambisonics recordings of the sound at the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate to Auschwitz-I.  This soundscape-composition is part of the HEYR project, presenting 3-dimensional soundscapes from special locations, connected to special events.  Find out more by visiting https://www.heyr.no Recorded by Anders Vinjar. 

Trains passing overhead on a overpass at Savignyplatz on a Sunday morning in Berlin, with light rain clearly audible too. Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

"The trains, from the field recording run, whilst the music represents thoughts of waiting for the next train and run between the train sounds. Some mangles train sounds appear amonst the music." Trains on an overpass at Savignyplatz, Berlin reimagined by Simon Woods.

"In the field recording, there was a conversation that felt like reminiscing. I say it felt that way because I do not speak the language. I loved the contrast between that dialogue and a shouting voice at the start and end that sounded desperate for someone's attention. "The shout itself could have been anything, a chant, a protest, or even a stall holder drumming up business, and it truly captured my imagination. "I wanted to create two opposing parts: the past, represented by a granular, ghostly memory, before moving into the 'now' and beyond, recognising that the present will one day become a memory itself. "I used the chant to move between these two states. I wanted it to represent resistance, protest, excitement, and the march of progress all at once, because change can be simultaneously exciting, scary, and sad. "Beyond the voices, I used other sounds from the recording to create granular rhythms and textures, as well as some more percussive sounds for a beat and finally, I worked on including addit

This intriguingly named street runs along a small river, perhaps now demolished and rebuilt. Once likely a standard six-step-wide street, it’s now a maze of residents’ makeshift additions, typical of old districts but still clean and tidy. At the junction of narrow alleys, elderly voices drift from homes, chatting over lunch in refined Yangzhou dialect, even more elegant than Suzhou’s.  Residents shuffle by in slippers, while a peddler’s calm calls echo faintly. Without the Yangzhou accent, this soundscape would likely mirror the daily life most people heard in the past. Recorded in Yangzhou, China by Digimonk.

"The original field recording is sparse, with snippets of conversation, people walking, cycling and the occasional jogger passing by. I wondered how this would all sound if it were continually layered over in a continuous loop in the style of Frippertronics.  "I used an experimental dual looper to capture and over-dub the original sounds, with each channel using a different length of audio loop. I then used a modular synth to create some slowly evolving drones and pads, all driven by extremely slow modulation." Sofienbergparken bench soundscape reimagined by Barry Cooper.

Ten minutes sitting on a bench in Sofienbergparken in Oslo, just listening to whatever happens and letting the world pass by.  Recorded in September 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

The busy building and streetscape sounds are granulated and diffused into the pulsing patterns of the Moog Subharmonicon, blurring human activity into a kind of civic harmony. These are the sounds of a society assembling itself.  Construction noise in New York reimagined by Alan Cook.

Lower East Side, Manhattan, NYC. A lively construction site with screaming saws, various impacts and machinery echoing off down the side streets near Essex Market in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Recorded with an X-Y stereo pair. Recorded by Casey Danielson.

This recording is taken with an Open Wave-Receiver, a custom made foxhole radio modded from a Shortwave Collective design. The aerial was strung up to the barbed wire fence around Yanchep Substation; the electromagnetic pulse capturing an invisible soundscape, this community’s lifeline to the power grid. Recorded in Perth, Australia by Aliesha King.

"I heard the electronic hum of the substation and the chat from people near it. I supported the recording with a warm drone and proceeded to extract the harmonics and frequencies from the hum and chatter with the MakeNoise Tape and Microsound Music Machine. The improvisations were then edited. A copy was treated with postproduction effects, and both were then mixed together using my Agricultural Terrains strategy." Yanchep substation reimagined by Alan Cook.

A service at Sensō-ji, Buddhist temple in Tokyo, praying to Avalokiteshvara is a highly revered bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism, known as the embodiment of compassion.  The congregation are business men. Tourists pour money into the offering box drawing an omikuji. The sound of the money clinking is juxtaposed with the Buddhist priests chanting and ends with a discussion of the tourists visting and trying to understand the meaning of the sermon.  Recorded by Helen Copnall.

"I chose this recording because I’ve always been interested in reimagining folk music, and I’ve previously created an album that incorporates elements of Chinese folk traditions. The sample of Japanese Buddhist chanting particularly intrigued me. I noticed that while the chanting itself has a strong rhythmic quality, the background voices and environmental noise were quite messy.  "I therefore sliced the recording, altered its speed and pitch, and transformed it into a hardcore-style piece." Senso-ji temple soundscape reimagined by Sanki (Qianhui Sun).

"Inspired by the description of the experience by the collector of these sounds, Andrea Lynn, I explored this recording of a cold, mysterious place inhospitable to humans, yet home to arctic aquatic creatures who rely on the ice above.  "The original soundscape is highlighted throughout with frequency filtering only, and I created sparse added textures of echoing single lines of piano and nebulous vocals: alone, yet not alone."  North Pole ice recording reimagined by Heather Spence.

In July 2024 at 90° N my acoustic equipment slid into a hole 15 cm in diameter that our team had drilled into the sea ice. Midnight sun tossed shadows at the fog, slowing the wind just enough. My fingers trembled, but not from the frigid temperatures. I couldn't imagine what I might hear here, beneath the ice floes at the top of the world. Science aside for a moment; icy droplets blurred white and blue ice, and my headphones hung in my hand at my side. Awe and wonder gratefully stole time.  The underwater radiated noise (URN) emanating from the icebreaker that brought me to this place dominated the acoustic symphony for only a few seconds before geological and biological signals took centre stage and I listened to the otherworldly sounds of animals that make their homes below and on the crackling ice at the top of the world. As I listened, I wondered how life here was dealing with rising temperatures, with thinning ice ... with way too many melt ponds. Recorded by Andrea Lynn.

Fascinating micro-sounds from Coral Beach, when tiny, slow and quiet waves on this unique beach made of tiny stone, coral and shell fragments creates a beautiful "whooshing" sound with every pass.  Recorded on Coral Beach on the Isle of Skye by Cities and Memory, April 2025.  

Recording inside an open air vent inside the two metre-thick wall of the concrete bunker building that forms the Boros Collection. The space has a fascinating past as a shelter, a prison for political prisoners, and a techno and sex club - and now it hosts a conceptual art exhibition.  The sound captures both the muffled sounds of museum-goers on one side, and the passage of air and the sounds from Berlin outside on the other. Recorded by Cities and Memory, September 2025. 

"Taking Brian Eno's chopped tape ambient recordings as inspiration, I chopped up sampled loops of Chopin's 'Nocture C sharp in minor,' creating long and short sequences that I then initially synced, before letting them run in and out of time with each other, gently applying FX along the way.  "The field recording inspired this notion of a paid session pianist sitting amongst the chaos and noise of a grand museum, playing to no one, ignored and quietly letting themselves get a little weird just for their own amusement." Boros Collection soundscape, Berlin reimagined by Dominic Palmer.

Aboard a tourist boat from Loch Coruisk to Elgol, with different tones, speeds and intensity of engine noise blending with the sound of waves. Recorded on the Isle of Skye by Cities and Memory, April 2025.