Cities And Memory

"The original piece had a feeling to me of drifting through the rainforest canopy, so I thought it would be interesting to contrast these sounds with the "jungle" of empty space between radio signals." Borneo rainforest recording reimagined by {AN} EeL

"Sitting among the glaciers in the living room, my ears are carried away by the enchanting sound of tectonic movements... my mind floats, my eyes glimpse this sonorous place..." Kyrgyzstan Son Kul ice lake reimagined by Philippe Neau.

"Listening to the sound of the market in Ramallah just a week before it was attacked and burnt was a powerful experience - but to hear that later after that the market was repaired, regenerated and back in action was an even stronger feeling of the power of resistance. "The beautiful poem "A better day will come" by Afghan poet Hosnia Mohseni seemed to me to strike the perfect tone of hope and possibility among fear and violence, and the presence of resistance within poetry and within art. "This piece is a prayer for a better day." Featuring vocal readings by Nogol Madani, Rebecca Denniff, Tiurlan Sitompul, and Judith Mann. A Better Day Will Come - Hosnia Mohseni Sister,  The day will come when you and I will fly  Over the proud hills of our land.  A day will come when the doors won’t be locked  And falling in love will not be a crime. You and I will let our hair fly,  Wear red dresses,  And intoxicate the birds  Of our vast deserts  With our laughter.  We will dance among the red tulips of Mazar  In m

When I first listened to the recording of the depopulated village in Jerusalem, what really stood out was the bird song sounding like a voice of hope. I decided to use this as my focus as it was in keeping with the Echoes For Palestine Project theme ’hope, healing and a reimagined future’. I wrote the lyrics from the point of view of the village itself longing for inhabitants to return. The village grieved because of the silence and death, hoping that the homesick people would come back and live there once more. Ultimately, everyone needs a purpose and the village’s purpose was to be a home once again. ‘Diamond I Am’ considers these ideas, focussing on a village full of its people as somewhere beautiful; a diamond. It also recognises the need for people to be honest and talk about the plight of Palestine in order that it may heal. Jerusalem depopulated village recorded by Anders Vinjar, reimagined by Simon Holmes. 

"All lands, one voice drifts like breath through every place at once. "Choral fragments rise and dissolve inside an ambient field, evoking a world without borders. Robert Lax’s line — “the same moment in every place” — guides this sound: a single moment, stretched to gather all lands in one voice." Jerusalem apartheid wall recording by Anders Vinjar reimagined by Paul Beaudoin.

"It takes Palestinian prayer and thoughts with repeated phrases including 'so hasten to all that is good' whilst encouraging the people of Palestine to march forward despite the conflict. Using loops and samples from recent news reports to build a picture of the current situation against a backdrop of hope." Dubberrookie creates ambient dub sounds often with a back story to each composition. Often including his own found sounds he uses loops and samples to build up his pieces. Jerusalem Mount of Olives reimagined by Dubberookie.

"For this track, I used the field recording made by Anders Vinjar on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. This place has always had a mythical resonance to my ears, it sounds like a place of sacred peace, but obviously it is no longer. "What I tried to express through this piece is how a land of peace gradually transforms into a place of conflict, how what was once a sacred site has become a battlefield. After starting calmly, the recordings and sounds become confused, the rhythm breaks, something is wrong… "One day, the Palestinians will return home, but nothing will ever be the same again." Mount of Olives, Jerusalem reimagined by Zuunzug.

"Built from a field recording by Anders Vinjar of Ramallah’s Al-Hisba market, captured one week before Israeli soldiers set it ablaze, Seven Days Before transforms the market’s voices, footsteps, and ambient bustle into a slow-moving reflection on memory, loss, and the fragile beauty of everyday life via modular synthesis.  "The source recording is processed through Make Noise Morphagene and accompanied by melodies provided by Mutable Instruments Rings. Glitchy, fragments of melody emerge and dissolve through further processing. This layered approach allows the original soundscape to remain present yet altered, a sonic parallel to how memory holds onto places that no longer exist in the same form."  Ramallah market, Palestine reimagined by Richard Charles Boxley.

"A meditation on life, disrupted by injustice. I listened to the location recordings and was inspired but saddened by the sounds of life as it goes on under conflict. The two field recordings were used both relatively unprocessed, but also through a feedback network of resonant delays. Location recording by Anders Vinjar." Wailing Wall, Jerusalem reimagined by Logickal. 

Recordings of ambience from Aṭ-Ṭūr (Mount of Olives) overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa temple-mount in the distance, the jewish graveyard close by, site of important historic and contemporary events. The recording is from April 2024, while the catastrophic war in Gaza was going on full speed.  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.

The famous market Al-Hisba in Ramallah. Sounds of busy buying and selling. This Ambisonics recording was done exactly one week before Israeli soldiers lit the whole place on fire, destroying everything.  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.

"The sound of Jews performing a ritual at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem on a special day during Jewish Easter celebrations. The recording is done in the middle of the crowd of bystanders, mostly children and family of the praying men." 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.

"Dreams Not Realized | 17,000. 17,000 children have died in Gaza since the beginning of the war. Their voices have been silenced. Their dreams will never become realized. Why children? Did they even know why any of this is happening? Why they died?  Who will speak for the children? Who will mourn their loss? “The morning birds that sing so sweetly are ’out of a job’ when there are no children to wake up.” - Alice Coltrane from Monument Eternal" Bethelem recording by Rafael Diogo, reimagined by Bill Stevens.

"The children of Gaza encounter violence, displacement and deprivation every single day of their lives. Sifting through rubble and debris and fallen bodies, while dodging bombs and bullets and witnessing loved ones murdered right before their eyes, has caused enormous emotional distress and relentless mental anguish. These are innocents with no access to food, medicine and clean water. All hope of a future without war has been taken from them. "Trying to imagine their unfathomable suffering was the impetus behind my composition “echoes of memory and silence.” Through electronic / ambient sound art, I have explored the silence and fragmentation of time that defines their desperate existence." Mount of Olives recording by Anders Vinjar, reimagined by Jeff Dungfelder.

"Lifta is a historic Palestinian village located near Jerusalem, notable for being the only Arab village evacuated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that has not been destroyed or repopulated. It stands as a poignant symbol of the Nakba (the 1948 Palestinian exodus) and a physical reminder of the displacement and loss experienced by Palestinians. The village, with its well-preserved stone buildings, agricultural terraces, and spring, is also recognized for its unique cultural and historical value, and is currently under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status." This piece uses elements of field recordings taken by Anders Vinjar (Mount of Olives / Ramallah Market / Ruins of Lifta), topped with a semi-composed / semi-improvised acoustic guitar line + added synth washes. 'The Ghosts of Lifta' was inspired by these field recordings and current photographs of the overgrown, deserted village. Lifta village recording by Anders Vinjar reimagined by Adam Leonard.

Foregrounding Anders Vinjars field recordings of Palestine; the hum of birds, street life, voices, and of hymns and calls to prayers - a Threnody for Echoes for Palestine. Golgotha recording from Jerusalem by Anders Vinjar, reimagined by Elissa Goodrich.

"Ambisonic recordings inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Gholghata, a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The site where they say Jesus was crucified and as well the location of Jesus's empty tomb." Recorded by Anders Vinjar.

Ambisonics recordings at ruins of Lifta, outside Jerusalem, a village depopulated and destroyed in 1984 during Israels ethnic cleansing of Palestinian arabs from their land. Recorded by Anders Vinjar.

Interview with Cities and Memory creator Stuart Fowkes on the Nightlife show on ABC Australia, diving into Sonic Heritage as well as the ten-year history of the project.   "They say a picture tells a thousand stories, but how far does audio go?  That is exactly what Stuart Fowkes has set out to achieve over the last decade involving the contribution of more than 2,000 artists who are putting together sounds from all over the world.  He shares with Suzanne Hill about how the project came to be and why do the sounds of heritage sites matter."

"Taksim Square in Istanbul has a history of protests and social activism, most notably the Gezi Park 2013 protests, in which 22 people were killed and more than 8,000 were injured, many critically.  "Listening to the soundscape from Taksim Square, life is going on as normal, with bustling crowds, but periodically we hear a police siren, which echoes through the square almost like a spectral reminder of the police brutality, protest and suffering that the space has been witness to in the past.  "The siren swirls through the composition like a phantasm, reminding us never to forget the social context of the spaces in which we inhabit, while the music is intended to evoke a slightly unsettling sense as it loops, repeats, and builds." Taksim Square soundscape reimagined by Cities and Memory. Original recording by Anders Vinjar.