The end of year review season is firmly upon us, so we’re happy to release Sounds of the Year 2015, a free album collecting together some of the highlights from Cities and Memory in 2015! As ever, the pieces are built from field recordings of existing locations, and the source material here takes in traffic signals, car horns, coffee cups and horses’ hooves.
” As I recorded this, absorbing in my headphones the wall of sound emanating from the plane, I considered how if the “broadband” noise of the planes engines contains amplitudes in all frequency ranges, then it must be possible to break them down and isolate just a few, before reconstructing them into that hellish roar.”
“I figured the character in my piece might be making the journey to find solace at a place of worship other than those on Utopia. That perhaps these Utopian colonies have evolved their religious practice through isolation. Or maybe the character is an atheist, fleeing persecution on Utopia, who decides upon one last attempt to absolve his sins before his escape?”
May morning, Oxford – the city’s traditional celebration, rising at sunrise to hear a choir sing from the top of Magdalen College tower. The entire city centre is filled with street performers and music – here, traditional costumed dancers are accompanied by bagpipers, and mixed in with this you can hear the ringing of bells from St. Mary’s Church.
“I was a huge sci-fi fan as a child and films like Alien, The Terminator, Blade Runner etc. were my first exposure to what could be achieved with sound. So in my own small way this is a homage to those great sound designers of eighties sci-fi and horror.”
