It puts together original tunes and documented sounds, mapping 120 countries
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The smallest detail can catch us unaware at the most unexpected moment. A familiar aroma, a once-forgotten sight, a sound imbued with memory. The Cities and Memory project is an archive of the third kind of nostalgic sensory detail.
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It puts together original tunes and documented sounds, mapping 120 countries. The documented sounds are recordings of a key moment. For example, the entry from Goa’s Canacona features the sound of gentle waves and beach goers, as they await a spell of rain.
The memory versions in each entry are a musician’s take on what they associate with a city. At Varanasi, it is an interpretation of the offerings made to the Ganga—a calming, rhythmic tune that turns introspective. The submission from Kerala’s Manjeri is a “Corona Pattu” or song about the COVID-19 pandemic—indicating the project’s potential to document history.