The second of June marks Festa della Repubblica in Italy, one of the national symbols of the country, with a central celebration taking place every year in Rome. We were there in 2017 to record the sounds of the parade, as every possible branch of the Italian military marched past, each playing their own anthems […]
The idyllic sounds of morning life in a small village in rural Yorkshire, England. It’s 10am on a Sunday morning in Dent, and we’re sitting in a churchyard, overlooking the fields from a hill. We’re surrounded in the trees and bushes by all kinds of birds making their spring announcements, while down in the fields […]
On a trip to Saudi Arabia, we visited the KAUST university complex, about 90 minutes north of Jeddah. As part of the evening’s entertainment, we were greeted by an hour or so of traditional Saudi music, driven principally by multiple drummers and two interacting singers running through a repertoire of what were apparently well-known songs. […]
It’s mid-August in the incredibly beautiful town of Arquà Petrarca in northern Italy (hear more from this town here), where the poet Petrarch spent most of his days. On this balmy, hot day, we listen to the cicadas in the trees chattering out their constant chorus – a hazy, evocative sound that’s truly the background […]
Today’s field recording is a journey to Varanasi, India by Mike Bingham, who tuned into a fascinating daily ritual in the city: “Dashashwamedh Ghat is the main ghat in Varanasi on the Ganga River. Ganga Aarti (ritual of offering prayer to the Ganges river) is held daily at dusk. Several priests perform this ritual by […]
Copyright ©2026 Cities and Memory, Oxford, UK. All rights reserved.
"As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. A description of [the city] as it is today should contain all [the city's] past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the bags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls."
- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Grand Prix winner and Coup de Coeur winner, Académie Charles Cros
