"I am always intrigued by church bells, especially as they are a constant sound in many peoples lives and a sound that has not changed as the world is played out around the sonic distance they travel. Their sound is the same as prior centuries, or earlier, in old towns and villages they connect us to those so very long gone. "This is much the case in the field recording now reimagined (with the sound of the bells at the end of the recording now placed at the front of the track and the people's voices swirling around as if hanging in the air). I imagined the bell sound as a beacon leading the track in the piazza, predating the combustion engine, calling people to worship and advising them of time passing over and over again. I layered tones and textures into the samples with more arp layers of synth slowed down courtesy of the Soma Terra (a hands-on hybrid organic synth made from wood). The final track again, I imagine played in the piazza bouncing off the buildings, into the fabric of the surrounding streets and through the namesake of San Marino itself." San Marino bells reimagined by Andy Billington.

In the centre of San Marino, the clock chimes the hour, we shelter from the wind at the top of this high, exposed old town, and the passers-by are a curious mix of the usual tourists and people in all kinds of costumes here for a festival of sci-fi and fantasy.  Recorded by Cities and Memory.

"I’ve struggled with tinnitus,  more specifically hyperacusis, for 26 years. Extremes of loud noise and silence are the enemy. I’ve pretty much given up on my one main passion, live music, but there are some surprising benefits. I can still hear bats, for example.  I’ve recently moved from Bristol, which has 24/7 background noise, to Stroud, considerably quieter. The natural sounds seem more amplified however and I’ve found myself noticing nature much more. The dawn chorus where we live is a particular highlight. There is no hum of a factory, buzz of motorbike or wail of a passing ambulance. Just pure bird sound. Unsociably early for us humans but when the euphonic calls flow down the valley and the local blackbirds, jackdaws, crows hit their rhythm; I get a wave of calm. A feeling unachievable through artificial music." Dawn chorus in Stroud recorded by Mike Bingham.

"This started life as an ambient dawn chorus, but then I heard Michel Faber describing how his tinnitus resembles the "quite harsh electronica" music he really loves during the 30 Oct 2023 episode of Start the Week (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ry9f) and the birdsong mutated!" Stroud dawn chorus reimagined by Michael Lilley.

"The field recording of street vendors in an outdoor market in the Andean high plains of Chile, one of the driest deserts in the world, fascinated us. You could tell there was so much life in the people buying and selling, despite it being recorded doing the pandemic (much of what is sold or talked about in the recording had to do with Covid). So we wanted the composition (for saxophone and cello) to be as eclectic yet mournful as we imagined the field sounds." Calama market reimagined by Camila Guerra and Ruxandra Guidi.

"The field recording runs quietly in the background having had sections copied and brutally mangled / filtered / granulised to make musical sounds. Synths added for flavouring." Cape Town flower market reimagined by Simon Woods.

"My late partner, who was half Swedish and half Dutch, had roots in Rotterdam. Our plans to travel to this city were thwarted by the illness that befell my partner. This composition represents an imaginary trip to Rotterdam that, if it were to materialize, could only happen now under completely different circumstances." Rotterdam morning soundscape reimagined by LR Friberg.

"The Adderley Street flower market is the oldest flower market in Cape Town – a large covered alley where the flower sellers, mostly women whose families have been in the trade for generations, set up their stalls at 6am each day. This recording captures the market’s morning soundscape – a customer buying freesias, people walking through the market en route to other parts of the city; the sounds of traffic in the background, and flower sellers greeting customers, chatting to one another and filling their buckets with water." Recorded by Catherine Boulle.

"In this recording we can hear interactions of the local rotatory food market in Calama, Chile (it has different location, depending on the day of the week) during pandemia. You can hear the sellers offering their's differents products and the interaction with clients, as I walked thourght the market." Recorded by Diego Villalobos S.

"A wet, spring day on my balcony. You can hear the rain drops on a plastic roof, cars driving by on the other side of the canal, the occasional bird that flies by, the ringing of the bridge opening and a big boat pushing the water infront of it, the church nearby signaling noon and a plain flying overhead." Recorded in Rotterdam by Joris Frowein.

"Working with this recording by Diego Espeleta of howler monkeys and birds taken at dawn at the Reserva Conchal in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, was an exercise in recalibrating expectations of musicality in sound.  "The howler monkeys' growls and barks are guttural, not really what we conventionally associate with singing or music, and indeed sound quite scary in their unfamiliarity. Or is it that they sound scary because of their similarity to horror movie sonic tropes? Apparently howler monkeys are not aggressive or scary animals and, this being dawn, assumedly their sounds, as with the birds, are those of family and friends waking up and discussing what's on for the day in the jungle, a place of opportunity.  "So, for a human listener perhaps there's a mismatch between hearing and expectation, one that is culturally constructed. Given that human music is a human construction, this problem carries over into using this recording as source for a musical composition, although I'm not sure why I decided it had to be a 'musical' composition. Anyway, the sounds of the monkeys seem to range over three semitones in conventional well tempered tuning, so I used this as the basis for the chords in the composed piece, which is constructed entirely from the sounds in the recording, no other sounds are used. Such a chord, of three semitones next to each other, is often used in horror movies and such to give a sense of tension and scariness, and generally is completely avoided in music for its fingernails-on-blackboard effect. Instead, I've used it as the basis for what I hope is an immersive sonic journey of awakening to the possibilities of a new day in an unfamiliar place, where paying close attention causes senses to slow down, and unlearning what we've learned about sound might make music more malleable or momentous, to make time, or even perhaps provide a portal into other inner worlds. But it takes time, so if it just sounds like fingernails, just turn it off." Costa Rica howler monkeys reimagined by Adam Nash.

The sun is rising fast and bringing in the heat. It is very early in the morning, but you can start to feel that it will be a hot day. The crickets are chirping, creating a constant melody in the forest, birds are calling and moving around the trees and a gentle breeze hits the leaves. A howler monkey emerges from the canopy, eating leaves and stretching from the night sleep. The sound of her call makes all else irrelevant. Recorded by Diego Espeleta.

Monks and Buddhists chanting during the evening prayer ceremony, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Recorded by Alex Boyesen.

Vumari, Tanzania: birds, insects, wind howling.  Recorded by Douglas Issai Ndanshau.

"The birds singing inspired me to imagine a dystopian world, where they made their appearance for the first time. When the people in the village immediately developed a strong dislike for them we listen to a man planning to return to force them to leave..." Birds in Vumari, Tanzania reimagined by Giovanna Iorio.

An informal evening meditation among falling leaves.  Chiang Mai monks reimagined by Joel Graham.

"The original field recording by Alex Clifford featured a live jazz festival on Bourbon Street - one of the most iconic streets in the world. Although well known for it's 'buzzing' atmosphere, I wanted to try and evoke the rare times when Bourbon Street is quiet - maybe early dawn; the spring sun just rising, and the streets and hotel/bar fronts being washed down and prepped for another busy day and night..." Bourbon Street, New Orleans reimagined by Rod Dykeman.

"With the soundscape of that forest near the Thai city of Chiang Mai, I have reimagined a new space of natural tranquility with granular textures that process the original recording and playful random melodies imitating bird songs and tiny ambient noises." Thai forest reimagined by Marco Maril.

"An old man is riding the sleek new CAT train from central Vienna to the airport. He drifts and dreams, of trains and trams and railyards he has experienced throughout his long life. At one point he falls asleep and finds himself in a station, where he can’t understand a word of what’s on the public address system. Finally the announcement comes of arrival at the airport. Is he relieved?" Vienna CAT train reimagined by John Tenney.

With the CAT (City Airport Train), Vienna offers a rapid connection between city centre and airport. In only 16 minutes, the City Airport Train brings you nonstop from the airport to the Vienna city centre and vice versa – without stress and traffic jams and in an environmentally friendly way. It’s relaxing and soothing with minor hums and clicks and not overcrowded. Let’s take a ride! Recorded by Rebecca Goldberg.