Episodes

  • Island Gardens

    Island Gardens
    Nov 21 2024
    "I often focus on the visual nature of sound and music, and when working with field recordings, my aim is always to find the hidden or unexpected connections between the sounds of the recording, musical sounds and other natural sounds. I always try to create expansive musical landscapes that can trigger memories and associations - and hopefully invite the listener to create their own mental images and stories.

    "Trams and trains have music in them. Their electric motors hum and sing, the brakes howl operatically, and the rails and hinges wail and weep. I often lean my head against a window so that the vibrations can sing loudly through my body, and I imagine a choir rising up through the droning hum.

    "In this case, the name of the stop “Island Gardens” was my visual cue - and any further interpretation is left to the listener."

    DLR ride in London reimagined by Kari Telstad Sundet.
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    4 mins
  • DLR from Island Gardens

    DLR from Island Gardens
    Nov 21 2024
    Aboard the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) line of the London Underground, travelling from Island Gardens to Westferry. Announcements, doors closing, the thrum of passengers sounds and the drone of train engines.

    Recorded by Cities and Memory.
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    4 mins
  • Street market and Thai announcements

    Street market and Thai announcements
    Nov 21 2024
    The bustling sounds of the street market with a public announcement in the foreground.

    Recorded in Chiang Mai, Thailand by Alex Boyesen.
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    7 mins
  • City of night

    City of night
    Nov 21 2024
    "I took the recording of the loudspeaker at the start of the recording and broke it down into rhythmical elements. This formed the basis of the track. From them I layered beats and chords around it."

    Chiang Mai night market reimagined by Gareth Evans.
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    5 mins
  • Action from Eights Week

    Action from Eights Week
    Nov 21 2024
    Soundscape from the traditional Oxford University rowing competition, Eights Week, held in May each year.

    You can hear commentary on race preparation, advice for boating crews and race in progress, crowds chattering and cheering and the atmosphere of the event.

    Recorded in May 2024 by Cities and Memory.
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    8 mins
  • RGB (105,105,105)

    RGB (105,105,105)
    Nov 21 2024
    "RGB (Red, Green, Blue) is a colour model used for representing and displaying colours in digital systems. The acronym RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue, which are the three primary colors of light. In this context, RGB (105,105,105) represents the colour DimGrey, and this track serves as the soundtrack for DimGrey.

    In RGB (105,105,105), the audio source from an Oxford race event was deconstructed and then recomposed in loops, so as to embody the enigma of DimGrey. Drone and ambient sounds were incorporated into the track to accentuate the DimGrey texture.

    Oxford Eights Week reimagined by HY Kwan 關栩溢.
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    3 mins
  • Hotel Shadab

    Hotel Shadab
    Nov 21 2024
    A busy lunch service at the Hotel Shadab in Ghansi Bazar, Hyderabad.

    This is a traditional biryani restaurant with open air seating near the street and aircon service upstairs. Even in the closed portion, the bustle of the city can be heard.

    Recorded by Rob Phillips.
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    2 mins
  • Sound of city festivities

    Sound of city festivities
    Nov 21 2024
    "The original field recording was from Hotel Shadab, Hyderabad India. The recording was so humanly rich, with lots of voices, and activities which gave me an aural sense of a city in a busy day. Although I have never been to Hyderabad, the recording presented information about a generic day but of a particular time.

    "So the recording inspired me in a way, that I wanted to illustrate my city, which is Kolkata sonically, but the time, the incidents which I tried to capture with my illustration were not generic, but of a particular period.

    "For the past few months, the city has been ablaze regarding the protests for a horrific incident in RG Kar Hospital, and parallelly the biggest festival of the city, which is Durga Puja, was also coming in. There were two narratives of thought, floating around.

    "The government was trying their best to push the term 'festival' in such a way that it directly opposed the term 'Protest', however, the people were hell-bent on the idea, that a protest against atrocities is a festival.

    "I tried to capture this particular turbulent time of this city, and its gradual shifts during the Durga Puja festivities while parallelly drawing a line with all those familiar sounds with the protest and festivities.

    "I have used the original recording from Hyderabad, in a way where it symbolizes the vocalization of the most mundane human beings, who become not so mundane when they gather in for a collective voice and the voices blend in. "

    Hotel Shadab, Hyderabad reimagined by Prabuddha Mukhopadhyay.
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    9 mins