Cities and Memory live show and talk, Coimbra, Portugal
We’re delighted to be spending this weekend in Coimbra, Portugal as part of the Dar A Ouvir 2022 festival at the stunning Convento São Francisco.
Throughout the weekend, an installation of field recordings from across the Cities and Memory project will form part of an installation called A Voz do Mundo II. (Facebook event here)
On Saturday we’ll be part of a panel discussion on creative uses of sound and field recording (Facebook event here), and on Sunday we’ll be performing a live Cities and Memory set in Sala D. Afonso Henriques. (Facebook event here)
The Cities and Memory installation is as follows:
The voice of the world – as heard by Cities and Memory
Whether we’re protesting or worshipping, joyful or angry, sound is at the very core of human existence – we can hear before we’re born, and sound is perhaps the closest and most evocative sense we have.
Field recording captures the voice of the world in all of its glorious forms, and in this collection we listen to a series of recordings captured by Cities and Memory founder Stuart Fowkes in various countries around the world, and placed in dialogue with one another.
Recordings complement and oppose one another as we are transported from place to place. An anti-terrorism protest in Germany is transformed into a crowd celebrating wildly at a football match. A pagan ritual in a field in England bleeds into a Muslim call to prayer in Saudi Arabia. A pro-Ukraine, anti-war demonstration sits in opposition to a plaintive song by a Russian folk singer. We hear traditional music from performing street troupes, klezmer bands, flamenco dancers and beatboxers, expressing community, hope and sadness in unique and profound ways.
This truly is the voice of the world.
List of sounds (all recorded by Cities and Memory):
1. Pagan ritual at the sacred Rollright Stones, England
2. Maghreb call to prayer in Deera Square, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
3. Traditional performing street drum troupe, Santiago, Chile
4. Michael Jackson beatboxer, Piccadilly Circus, London, England
5. Festival show introduction, Oxfordshire, England
6. Anti-ISIS protest on the Reeperbahn, Hamburg, Germany
7. Amongst the ultras at a football match, Venezia vs. Cittadella, Italy
8. Pro-EU demonstration 2017, The Mall, London, England
9. Jewish band plays Shalom Aleijim in a metro station, Paris, France
10. Flamenco performance at La Carboneria, Seville, Spain
11. Hare Krishna procession, Cardiff, Wales
12. Ukraine anti-war protest 2022, Oxford, England
13. Traditional Russian folk singer in Red Square, Moscow, Russia
14. Evening vespers prayers sung by monks, Abbazia di Praglia, Italy
15. Mass bells on Christmas Eve, Venice, Italy
