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Hamburg: A day in sound

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Cities and Memory is doing a fantastic project today, called Hamburg: A day in sound.

New digital art project sees 32 artists from across the world reinterpret the sounds of the German city over 24 hours

On 3 November, dozens of sound artists and musicians from across the world will recreate a day in the life of Hamburg of the city as part of the global Cities and Memory programme.

Hamburg: A day in sound is an sonic diary and sound map telling the tale of one day in the life of the real Hamburg, and also its imaginary counterpart. Throughout a 24-hour period artists from ten countries will construct a sonic artifice from their interpretation of the sounds.

Based in ten different countries, ranging from Canada to South Africa as well as natives of Hamburg itself, the sound artists have reimagined, remixed and reinterpreted the sounds of the German port on their own terms. From the pulse of ships through the harbour and underwater recordings of the River Elbe, to the pounding music of the Reeperbahn district at midnight and a major police operation around political protests – the Hamburg recordings recount stories unique to the city. There’s also the world’s largest model railway, the organ of St. Michaelis church and dozens more sounds.

All the sounds were collected during a week in October by the Cities and Memory team and then shared with a wide community of artists for them to develop creative responses to the city’s sounds. The reintepretations range from musical tracks built from the original samples, drone and ambient pieces built from field recordings, abstract interpretations of the original sounds and frantic cutups elaborately constructed from the source sounds.

The project is only one part of global field recording & digital art programme Cities and Memory, aimed at presenting the sounds of the world both as they are, and as they could be. This is realised principally through a map in which every location has two sounds: a documentary field recording and a reimagination of that sound.

More at Cities and Memory.

Miguel Isaza M

Listener, speaker.