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Cities and Memory: Oblique Strategies launches today!

Today, 63 sound artists and musicians from across the world reimagine the sounds of the world, using Eno and Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies cards as inspiration, as we launch Cities and Memory: Oblique Strategies.OS_Shareable_3

The project is housed at www.citiesandmemory.com/obliquestrategies,and features:

  • 58 locations over 19 countries, from Bangladesh and China to the USA and Canada;
  • 63 sound artists, musicians and field recordists taking part from across the world;
  • A total of 110 separate Oblique Strategies cards used in the creative process.

Throughout the rest of the month, we’ll be bringing you the highlights from the project, allowing each artist to describe in their own words how they applied the Oblique Strategies to the source recording and how they were inspired by the randomly-chosen cards.

The sounds from across the world are as diverse as the clatter of vintage printing presses, a shimmering chorus of insects, Hawaiian waves, the clamour of an English football match, the busying thrum of an international airport, the calm of a Buddhist temple and the power of a driving thunderstorm.

The remixed versions range from musical tracks built from the original samples, drone and ambient pieces built from field recordings, abstract interpretations of the original sounds and frantic cutups elaborately constructed from the source sounds.

An album of highlights from the project, entitled Cities and Memory: Oblique Strategies, will be released digitally later in April via http://citiesandmemory.bandcamp.com.