Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Sites of hope

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is the sound of a midday call to prayer at the Zangi Ota Memorial Complex. The complex, located just outside Tashkent (20 km), is very popular pi...

A pilgrimage

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The recording made me think of a journey through the darkness, trying to find the light, to find the thing that has been searched for. I had the fiel...

Berliner Mauer

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"My composition, titled “Berliner Mauer,” draws inspiration from ambisonics recordings made by Anders Vinjar at the Berlin Wall. "The Berlin Wall...

At the Berlin Wall

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ambisonics recording at the wall, physically separating Eastern Europe from Western Europe in Berlin during the Cold War in the years 1961 to 1989. T...

Shanghai interlude

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I liked the space in the recording, and used it to slot in percussive and electronic elements to create a composition where all elements had parity o...

Nomme

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Estonian autumns arrive with shortening days, cooler air, and long, unbroken stretches of rain. There is also a particular sound to this small countr...

Nighttime In Sabah rainforest

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Estimated to be more than 130 million years old, the ancient rainforest of Sabah comes alive in sound as night descends. The air vibrates with the cal...

The ice on Son Kul lake

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The ice on Son Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan melting with spring coming. Recorded by Melissa Aubin.

Nomme's daily fruit and veg market

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the fruit and veg market in the Nomme district in Tallinn, with shopper buying their weekly groceries on a windswept day. Rain starts midway throug...

Rainy traffic noise, Trabzon

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this recording, traffic sounds increase during thunderstorms and rainy weather. In wet conditions, vehicle engines and tires are more audible. Thes...

Humidity and haze passing thoughts

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I kept the original recording and a filtered it a bit and afterwards I added a pad. Humidity & Haze capturing the feeling of the air and the rain...

Sabah boreal Borneo radio

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 ...

Lake ice meltdown

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 glim...

A better day will come

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 afte...

Diamond I am

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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....

All lands, one voice

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"All lands, one voice drifts like breath through every place at once. "Choral fragments rise and dissolve inside an ambient field, evoking a world wi...

Pomegranates and prose

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"It takes Palestinian prayer and thoughts with repeated phrases including 'so hasten to all that is good' whilst encouraging the people of Palestine t...

Echoes at the wall

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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...

Seven days before

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 Be...

Mount of Olives

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 ...

Wailing Wall, Ḥā'iṭ al-Burāq

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 t...

Al-Hisba market, Ramallah

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The famous market Al-Hisba in Ramallah. Sounds of busy buying and selling. This Ambisonics recording was done exactly one week before Israeli soldiers...

Aṭ-Ṭūr, Mount of Olives

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Dreams not realized

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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 ...

Echoes of memory and silence

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The children of Gaza encounter violence, displacement and deprivation every single day of their lives. Sifting through rubble and debris and fallen b...

The ghosts of Lifta

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Lifta is a historic Palestinian village located near Jerusalem, notable for being the only Arab village evacuated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war th...

Threnody of birdsongs

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Foregrounding Anders Vinjars field recordings of Palestine; the hum of birds, street life, voices, and of hymns and calls to prayers - a Threnody for ...

1: Lifta, depopulated village 1948

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ambisonics recordings at ruins of Lifta, outside Jerusalem, a village depopulated and destroyed in 1984 during Israels ethnic cleansing of Palestinian...

Golgotha

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Ambisonic recordings inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Gholghata, a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusale...

Cities and Memory interview on ABC Radio Australia, 10.08.25

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 hist...

The ghosts of protest

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"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...

Taksim Meydani soundscape

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ambisonics recording at Taksim Meydani, site of the Gezi Park protests in 2013, a very busy city square, people jazzing around. This soundscape-compo...

Acrospire

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"This track started with an idea to use the title converted to Morse code and then to MIDI, using an online tool I wrote (https://constantpool.co.uk/m...

Beer-making inside the Pohjala brewery

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On a visit to the Pohjala artisan brewery in Tallinn, Estonia, we were invited behind the scenes into the brewery itself to record the sounds of beer ...

Funicular

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"My field recording was a cable car journey to the top of an old town. In amongst the hubbub of voices there was snatches of music played on a telepho...

The cable car to San Marino

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The cable car is the only sensible way to travel up to the precipitous heights of the old town in San Marino, which today is hosting a ComicCon-style ...

The same today (Echoes of the Holocaust)

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The piece opens with Anders Vinjar’s recording of the stark ambiance outside Auschwitz's crematoriums. A voice notes a chilling continuity: "the ac...

Crematorium ovens in Auschwitz 1

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The sound is the ambience close to the crematorium ovens in Auschwitz 1, used to exterminate 340 humans per hour. The acoustics is the same today as ...

Peaceful gardens in historic Mantua

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This recording captures birdsong and locals passing through a quiet public garden in central Mantua. The recording was made on the 29th May 2012, abou...

Emilia

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"In May 2012, two major earthquakes struck Northern Italy, causing 27 deaths and widespread damage. The events are known in Italy as the 2012 Emilia e...

Henal mariacki

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The transitioning nature of the field recording made for some melodic transitioning in the background. The trumpet call ends abruptly but returns aga...

Hejnal Mariacki

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Probably Poland's most iconic sound, the hejnał mariacki (literally "Saint Mary's dawn") is a trumpet call that sounds every hour on the hour from th...

In concrete corridors

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2025 we made a series of recordings in and around the Barbican Centre, with the idea of those sounds being folded back into the Observatory S...

EC2Y 8DS

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I chose to work with a recording made at the Barbican centre in London.  This complex has fascinated me for many years, and I have always been curio...

Train tracks

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"In my area of North America, train journeys are relatively rare. Taking a train feels like a special occasion because I only have the opportunity whe...

American trains

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This recording features train horns as the trains pass by a level crossing just outside Palo Alto train station. The tonality of the train horns and t...

Ember

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Listening to the original field recording, I was engrossed in the dichotomy of the space - the waterfall and open area versus the man-made sounds of ...

A landscape in flames

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Captured during the devastating wildfires of September 2024 in Benfeita, Portugal, this recording reflects the dramatic challenge faced annually. The ...

Kintsugi

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"“Kintsugi” is field-recording-based piece honouring both the original sample (from the Hill of the Buddha in Japan) as well as a form of Japanese...

Hill of the Buddha

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An architectural space of deep spiritual meaning in Sapporo, Japan. Recorded by David Mintom.

Movement amongst the trees

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"A response to a chorus of tree frogs." Frog chorus in Yokohama, Japan reimagined by Alex Vald.

Schlegel's green tree frog

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is the call of the Schlegel's green frog, a frog endemic to Japan. When one of them starts croaking, a call and response begins. The contrast bet...

Aequoreus

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A hydrophone recording from the Adriatic Coast of Italy captures the fascinating and vibrant sounds of marine life. You can hear the clicks, pops, and...

Siennacircle

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"In retrospect, this was a tricky choice of audio file, as the original recording is hard to better in terms of sheer absorbing alien sound quality. I...

Local street market, Mtskheta

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mtskheta is one of the oldest cities of Georgia and its former capital. The beautiful city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, features a winding market ju...

Zulu songs in a game reserve restaurant

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An a cappella performance by the staff in the resort restaurant at the end of the evening meal. The waiters and chefs and kitchen staff gather in rows...

On Gilbert Bridge

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2025 we made a series of recordings in and around the Barbican Centre, with the idea of those sounds being folded back into the Observatory S...

Branches and blades

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I had a passing notion of a ’concerto for chainsaw and strings’ after hearing this recording - this is a fumbling exploratory sound sketch in tha...

Mtskheta

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The voices of the people in the market were so richly expressive and full of life, so I wanted to keep the emphasis on them and utilize their unique ...

Zigzag

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I found out that Imfolozi means “zigzag” in isiZulu, so this was my inspiration to try and make a piece that never sits still, twists and turns. ...

Industrial log disposal

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The extremely loud business of tree and log disposal in Greenwich Park. Trees are trimmed, and the branches and logs are thrown into the back of the w...

Breathe brick ghosts

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"A drone of "stimvocals" and fountains below mechanical concrete."  Gilbert Bridge soundwalk at the Barbican Centre, London reimagined by Dee Fry.

Traditional silk weaving, Skye

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Traditional silk weaving on a countermarch floor loom, as it has been done for thousands of years. Thanks to Skye Silks for letting us record them at ...

Caller ID

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"This piece reimagines a field recording of everyday people calling out, treating their voices not just as source material, but as the foundation. App...

Voices of the Delta

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What began as a simple request for a song became an unforgettable moment. Deep in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, at Gomoti Plains Camp, I asked the staf...

Roaming silence

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As I began losing my hearing, the urgency of archiving memory through everyday sounds became more pressing. This work invites viewers to gain a deeper...

Tucson AZ

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I wanted to take the dreamy, on the road vibe of the sample and put it in a totally different aural world." Hearing aid recording in Tucson, USA rei...

Mountain echoes

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The sound of wood whistles and singing stretched to form a sonic memory of a moment embracing regional songs. Regional music that has been passed dow...

Music in the mountains

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is Angelos, one of the permanent residents of the village of Mikro Papingo, which is one of the 46 stone villages in this mountainous region of n...

96 unread

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I created several samples from the original field recording and used 2 that dictated the direction of the rest of the composition. Silk weaving is tr...

Okavango Delta jam

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The Okavango Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to several indigenous communities, including the Batswana and San people, who have lived ...

12 noon at the Lutheran church

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Huge 12 noon Sunday bells peal out over a sustained period from the Marktkirche Lutheran church in Hannover, preceded by a walk along a street with se...

Bells way out of confusion

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I love bells, and this is a beautiful recording. I feel like Bells have a really unearthly sound. I just let the Bells lead me along as bells do. I a...

Gloucester Cathedral bells from inside the antiques market

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It was a Saturday afternoon and I was browsing antiques at the Gloucester Antiques Centre when I heard the muffled sound of bells. I moved to the back...

Where the wild things whisper

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A nighttime recording from the Ecuadorian Amazon reveals the hidden world that awakens after dark. Bats flutter overhead, insects create an otherworld...

Malapascua Island fishing village

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As dawn stretches gently over the bay, the village stirs to life. The soft clatter of fishermen preparing their lines mingles with the playful clinks ...

Takeshita Street, Tokyo

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Takeshita Street, located in Harajuku, Tokyo, is a bustling pedestrian-only street known for its fashion boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. In the re...

Lifeforms in the brush

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"When listening to the field recording I kept imagining movement all around me. Then I began going to a darker place where I felt large unseen creatur...

Takeshita Street (Andy Lyon reimagining)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Takeshita Street is a busy pedestrian street, I've taken a perspective of being someone who is lost in the crowd / distracted by their phone to creat...

An imperfect cadence

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I was inspired by the melancholy and foreboding tone of the bells in direct contrast to the modern chatter like the call of the ancient with the bell...

Malapascua Island (Head Like a Hole remix)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Remix of Malapascua Island Fishing Village field recording merged into music with inspiration from Head Like A Hole by Nine Inch Nails. All samples a...

It happened so fast

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"This is a strange pub scene, the kind where all of a sudden you’re inside your own head, as if flashing back years later. The premise came from the...

Spending the night in a traditional Irish pub

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ambience from inside Kelly's Cellars, a traditional Irish pub in Belfast, including traditional music, pub chatter and the sounds of drinking and gene...

Birdsong from West Street

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The dawn chorus of Balgowlah, Sydney, NSW in the midsummer, about 6:30am. I heard kookaburras, cockatoos, lorikeets, magpies, noisy miners and many mo...

The Amazon's loud frogs

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A pre-dawn soundscape dominated by the loud, relentless chorus of frogs, immersing you deeply in the heart of an indigenous community. The sounds get ...

Extremely difficult

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I've been recently working with an old non-linear editing system that has a few quirks. Sometimes, the system freezes making my stressful job even mor...

A love song from Sudan

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Friday market in Ventimiglia, an Italian town on the border with France, is alive with the bustle of French tourists who come weekly to buy goods....

El espejo de la naturaleza

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Rafael Diogo's recording of the Colombian Amazon sounded so rich to me - and rich in a way that evoked certain things that could happen in my modular...

Exactimo

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I was struck by the many underlying tensions of this recording. The racialized profiling described by Masha Hassan—the dual nature of observation, ...

ExtremelyDifficult03

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The original source recording is from an old sound editing machine that sometimes freezes up on the operator and starts looping at that spot.  "I h...

Balgowlah slowdown

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I slowed down Emma Lambert's field recording progressively and in layers so the soundspace is a gradual stretching of her field recording. At three q...

Music baths in Tokyo

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The original sound is a recording of Sengoku-yu Public Baths in Tokyo: the owner is a musician. On this particular Monday, three musicians are workin...

Fishermen near The Bouche du Roy, Benin

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Songs of fishermen retrieving fish trapped in large nets by force of arms. Recorded by Pierre Costard.

Shut the hell up! (feat. Shoez Plimsoul)

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I wanted to do something a bit synthwave / cyberpunk / Blade Runner influenced. The original clip gave me the feeling of night and neon lights. I had...

Afternoon in Sigri

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

My two italian friends had rented a house in Sigri in the island of Lesvos. The house was just by the sea so one could hear constantly the waves insid...

The sound of 500 wind bells

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

First is the sound of 500 wind chimes suspended on wires. Then you can hear the morning service begin at the temple. The sound of sutra reading, the b...

Public bath cleaning, Tokyo

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This sound was recorded in 2025 at Sengoku-yu, where there is a public bath. The owner of this place is a musician. On Monday mornings, three musicia...

On the New Orleans streetcar

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Riding a classic New Orleans streetcar.  Recorded by Alex Clifford.

Voodoo fishing

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I aimed for making it sound like a disturbing dream. Used the entire original recording with a copy processed with echo and reverb as well. A drone, ...

Mostly goes astray

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Drawing on the lapping waves and flute of the original, I teased out some drones and loops, which I layered and structured using the original recordi...