Cities And Memory

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Berber (Ait Haddidu) music and soundscapes made by members of the Oxford University Expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Southern Morocco in 1961.Recorded by Audrey Butt, Michael R. Emerson or Ralph Hudson Johnson.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

The archival field recordings of Bayaka hunters captured by Louis Sarno were the starting point of this work, not only for their sonic richness, but for their ability to convey life and presence across time. The voices, full of rhythm, laughter, and communal energy, immediately suggested the potential to create a composition that honours their vitality while exploring cross-boundary cultures and beliefs. Rather than reconstructing the historical narrative or fixing the recordings in their original context, I was inspired by the idea of non attachment to source: once recorded, sound can outlive its moment and enter new acoustic environments, where it can be reshaped and reimagined.In creating Voices Through Wires, the Bayaka voices form the structural backbone of the piece, alongside ethereal Muslim calls. Their rhythms, call-and-response patterns, and vocal textures guided the pacing and form of the composition. I approached these recordings as living material, letting their natural flow dictate the layering

“Durei-na-mbwe 2.0” plays with notions of time, decay and transformation; with it, I wanted to capture the embodied experience of me listening to and imagining the original recording through a contemporary lens. I listened to the original Durei-na-mbwe by the Broken Consort (1961) on repeat for about three weeks before I started to work with it; the haunting melody of the vocals and panpipes became an earworm and, as I heard these sounds circulating in my head, they started to morph into additional layers of rhythms and harmonies. I created my track entirely using samples of the original recording, which I have sampled, modified and rearranged using an Elektron Digitakt and the Granulator plug in in Ableton, with the aim of capturing and conveying what I could hear inside my head. My first step was to bring out the depth of the drums using EQ and resonators, whilst preserving the key qualities of the original recording, such as the crackle of the reel-to-reel and the roughness of the rhythm, and, at the same

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Chocó music and soundscapes made by students Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith in Colombia in 1965.Recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel recordings of music and spoken language (principally Thulung Rai) made by anthropologist Nicholas Allen in Nepal and India between 1970 and 1981.Recorded by Nicholas Justin Allen.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel recordings of music and spoken language (principally Thulung Rai) made by anthropologist Nicholas Allen in Nepal and India between 1970 and 1981.Recorded by Nicholas Justin Allen.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of cassette tape and digital audio tape recordings of Bayaka music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno mainly in the Central African Republic (and the Republic of Congo) between 1986 and 2009Recorded by Louis Sarno.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

A reflection on distance, time and listening.Morning sounds captured on reel-to-reel tape in Chocó, Colombia in 1965 meet digital recordings made sixty years later in Forest Gate, East London.Morning soundscape among the Chocó people reimagined by Asher Levitas.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

The production process centred on preserving the integrity of the original field recording from Lokhim, Nepal, while building a modern arrangement around it. Spectral Layers was utilised to isolate the vocal line from the background noise and original percussion, allowing the singer’s performance to remain the focal point without destructive editing. Once isolated, Melodyne and a custom built MIDI analysis tool were used to map the vocal’s intonation, identifying the scale to guide the new instrumentation.Structured with a traditional verse and chorus arrangement, the track blends this preserved archival audio with contemporary sound design. The rhythm was programmed with the Air DrumSynth and Synplant provides melodic textures that complement the vocal. The atmosphere is heavily shaped by a number of Eventide effects — including Blackhole, UltraTap, and Physion Mk II — with Temperance Pro transforming processed artifacts of the vocal into a background drone, all arranged in Ableton Live and finalised with i

For this project I challenged myself to create every sound directly from the original recording. Drum hits, textures, bass and even a cowboy guitar were all manipulated extracts from the sample. The recording contains vocal interjections which I reused as percussive elements.The jaw harp has a rich timbre and a compelling rhythmic drive, but it often required careful processing to soften harsh metallic tones.Man playing bināyā (jew's harp) reimagined by Gavin Inglis.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

Inspiration came from both the sound recording itself, and my impressions of the Pitt Rivers Museum. I was struck by the many objects and collections of musical instruments in the museum – giving me the phrases "surrounded by..." and "all around us..." As a wind player I was interested in all the different objects that could be blown through including some very simple pipes with one or two holes. I chose a piece which included a wind instrument and so it became a natural thing to highlight that as part of my piece. After listening extensively to the recording I found myself always wanting to move my feet – it was very much a dancing rhythm with constant movement. I wanted to capture that in my piece, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. With lots of discussions going on among the artists about moral aspects surrounding the collecting of these sounds I had to decide whether I was going to "mess around" with the content to the extent that you couldn’t hear the original. I wanted to make sure that I wa

The recording I chose is over 50 minutes of cassette tape recordings from the 1970s, capturing interviews and recordings of live music performed by communities living in the Andes in Peru. For the Indigenous communities of Peru, the Andes are living, sacred beings that sustain and protect life and they call the Mountain Spirits Apus. These powerful spirits of the Andes watch over communities and are revered as life-givers as well as ancestors. They are also seen as a spiritual bridge connecting through the veil between the heavens and our world and also the inner world to their ancestors. Music is a language of prayer and deep communication with the sacred Andes.The piece is called ‘When The Mountains Sing’; this is how I hear in my mind's ear the mountains singing back to the people in the Andes. The piece is composed of samples from the recording, processed using the Torso S-4 sampler and some live playing of a tenor recorder woven into the piece. Andean music including flute and drum reimagined by Helen C

"Noriya": a men's generation song from South Sudan ("Praise the guinea fowl Nyitamo/ He's always hard-working").From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of cassette tape recordings of music and spoken language (principally Laarim) made by anthropologist Patti Langton in South Sudan during 1979 and 1980.Recorded by Patti Langton.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

Noriya is a men’s generational song celebrating and praising Ngitamo, the guinea fowl. The original recording of the Larim people in South Sudan in 1979 was from a time of relative peace, with the Ngitamo generation existing alongside the Nyoletiang (gazelles) and Nyitulabok (sheep). The melody, compound rhythm and tempo reflect this balance and resonate as song of celebration and joy, even one to dance to – a port-cruinn perhaps? Port-cruinn (pr. porsht-crooeen) is Scottish Gaelic for "jig" and is intended to sit alongside the joyful Noriya. The main jig melody draws on the Noriya theme, flipping from minor to major, and is carried by an underlying drone. The generational nature of Noriya is reflected in the instruments played. There are two Scottish fiddles from two different generations. The main jig melody is played on “The Annmarie”, a fiddle made by James Dooley in Glasgow in 1987 (named after his daughter who passed away very young). The secondary melody is played on a Dundee fiddle, made in 1918 by J

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a number of miscellaneous or individual ethnographic field recordings (rediscovered during a recent research project).Unknown recordist.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of wax cylinder recordings of songs and spoken language made by anthropologist Northcote Thomas in Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915.Recorded by Northcote Whitridge Thomas.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

I tried to stay true to the recording, at the same time reimagining the setting. It is a threshing song; I changed the setting to be more geared towards sitting around a fire and singing; or a wedding. Even in the mix, I opted for the percussion instruments to be overpowering as it is usually the case in such settings. My idea was not to manipulate the recording as much as to re-adapt it; picking up a part that makes sense rhythmically and recording several percussion instruments.Ait Haddidu threshing song reimagined by Hossam Hilal.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds

Initiation into the Poro, or secret society, constitutes the rites of manhood for the Mende people in Sierra Leone. As a means to develop the emotional landscape of this piece, I sought to put myself in the shoes of initiates, attempting to capture their feelings of excitement and anticipation. I was particularly intrigued by the call-and-response singing between the leader and choir. This inspired me to resample the field recording into a looper/FX unit. I then re-recorded it playing forwards and backwards at varying speeds. Stitching several of these processed samples together into a new sonic tapestry helped to form the rhythmic backbone of this piece. Sounds from the Mende Poro flutter among an energetic and hypnotic drum beat. Psychedelic layers of rich, analogue synthesizer enhance the musicality of the field recording samples, bringing about a sense of wondrousness and mystique.Mende Poro song reimagined by Hellcat Sneer.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 y

For this creative project, my starting point was an archival recording of a Yoruba chant from Nigeria, recorded around 1911. I chose to work with this sound because, living in West Africa, these sonorities immediately resonated in me. They echo my daily environment, my personal history, and my fieldwork, which lies at the intersection of culture, music, and museum practice.In my creative process, I deliberately chose to work with electronic instruments. This choice may appear paradoxical, as I am myself a kora player and am surrounded by traditional artists and musicians. However, this approach was central to my intention: to bring the past and the present into dialogue, to confront archival material with contemporary creation, and to explore the relationship between sonic memory and current technologies.It was essential for me not to alter the sound quality of the original recording, in order to respect its materiality, its texture, and its historical character. The electronic work therefore positions itsel

Cockerel crowing: morning soundscape among the Chocó people of north-west Colombia.From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Chocó music and soundscapes made by students Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith in Colombia in 1965.Recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith.Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.———Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds