Having launched our Future Cities project to map how the sounds of our cities are changing, we’re heading off on a tour of the world to listen in to some of its most fascinating urban spaces. What better place to start than the ultra-modern metropolis of Tokyo? Here we tune into two Tokyo sounds – […]
A rare treat for you today, with the opportunity to listen in to an authentic geiko performance from Kyoto, Japan, as recorded by Giulia Biasibetti. “As a Westerner, it is rare to see a performance by authentic Kyoto Geiko as only a few groups remain who still train and perform traditionally – so it was […]
Here in the UK during the current coronavirus lockdown (as of early May 2020), we’re allowed to go out for one form of exercise per day. As part of my prescribed exercise, I’ve stopped in a few places around our city of Oxford to capture how it sounds in this unique moment, in which everything […]
A familiar location for travellers today – the departures gate, this time at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, recorded by Giulia Biasibetti. You can hear among the normal sounds of bustle and shopping in the terminal the crackle of the security guards’ radios and the feedback as they stand too close together, and a conversation […]
A real treat for lovers of unusual sounds today – a rare chance to listen to the sounds of a traditional geiko performance from Kyoto, Japan, courtesy of a field recording by Giulia Biasibetti. “It’s not easy to experience truly traditional geisha entertainment in Japan these days, so it was very lucky to be treated […]
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"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
