A Century of Sounds is a partnership between Cities and Memory and the Pitt Rivers Museum, inviting listeners to explore a century of incredible recordings from the museum’s collections in brand new ways.
One hundred recordings from all over the world, dating back as early as wax cylinder recordings from 1914, were curated to showcase the amazing breadth of the museum’s sound collections.
These recordings were given to 100 artists – from sound artists and poets to composers and songwriters – to reimagine, developing brand new compositions based on their response to that sound, and to the resonances of history, culture, society and emotion that come from it.
Many of these recordings have never been publicly available to listen to before – and they are some of the most extraordinary sounds a Cities and Memory project has ever included.
The final collection presents a new way of listening to these recordings and the stories behind them, and suggests new ways of using sound to help us understand humanity, past and present.
