Cities and Memory - remixing the world

My last home in the United States stood at the edge of the woods in Worcester, Massachusetts. From the third floor balcony, the house seemed almost suspended among the trees. In the mornings I would sit there to meditate, often joined by my two cats. Mourning doves, owls, sparrows, and woodpeckers intermingled with the sounds of people leaving for work and the nearby rock crushing factory. I remember the light there, especially in autumn, when the upper branches caught the sun while the forest beneath them remained in shadow. I also remember someone I loved spinning barefoot among the trees. It is one of those memories in which a place and a person have become inseparable.
Sanctuary, for me, does not mean a place untouched by difficulty. It means a place in which, for a time, I could become quiet enough to feel protected by the world around me. This was such a place. It gave me the strength to imagine another life, and eventually the courage to change mine and begin again.
Recorded by Paul Beaudoin. 
Part of the Sanctuary project with the Schwarzman Centre and Edmund de Waal - explore the full project: https://citiesandmemory.com/sanctuary

The field recording of the River Pinn acts as the foundation of the piece and is woven through the composition rather than appearing as a single isolated moment.
It provides both atmosphere and a sense of physical place, while the musical material gradually changes the way the listener perceives it. At different points it sits clearly in the foreground, while elsewhere it becomes more textural and almost blends into the synths and harmonic layers around it.
I was interested in the relationship between something documentary and recognisable. A real recording from a real place and music that gradually makes that place feel more subjective.
Recorded by Jupi/ter.
Part of the Sanctuary project with the Schwarzman Centre and Edmund de Waal - explore the full project: https://citiesandmemory.com/sanctuary

In this recording, you can hear the internal acoustic resonance of a large drainage pipe / concrete conduit nestled within the landscape. 
What makes this location notable is its function as a natural "acoustic chamber." From the outside, it is a functional, overlooked piece of infrastructure. But from within, its geometry transforms ambient noise into a suspended, harmonic drone creating an accidental, hidden sanctuary.
To me, this sound embodies "sanctuary" because it represents protection through resonance. Inside the pipe, the harshness of the outside world is muted and reshaped into something quiet, focused, and deeply interior. It reflects the idea that sanctuary isn't always a sacred building, it can be an enclosed, resonant void where time slows down and noise turns into music.
Recorded by whatever51.
Part of the Sanctuary project with the Schwarzman Centre and Edmund de Waal - explore the full project: https://citiesandmemory.com/sanctuary

The location was the home of my much younger sister. It was the first recording we did together. We went to a field nearby, setup the microphones together and then went for dinner and came back much later on to collect the microphones, so the creatures of the fields would be able to sing their songs without feeling any disturbance of threat from us.
Recorded by Amedeo Cappelletti.
Part of the Sanctuary project with the Schwarzman Centre and Edmund de Waal - explore the full project: https://citiesandmemory.com/sanctuary

The field recording is not far from some tall beech trees in a field near the river Cherwell, Oxfordshire. The field is somewhere I sometimes visit near where I live, it also has a lovely oak in the middle. The sound of wind in the trees was the sound of my sanctuary. The sound of the wind in the trees helps me to find an internal space I can call sanctuary.
It took me a while to arrive there, I knew it would be outside in nature, and whenever I felt a sense of peace, the leaves shook and rippled in the wind. Amongst the many thousands of singular movements, a peace is there. The trees remind me where I belong.
Recorded by Hannah Marshall.
Part of the Sanctuary project with the Schwarzman Centre and Edmund de Waal - explore the full project: https://citiesandmemory.com/sanctuary