Our intangible heritage

"Our wellbeing in cities is heavily influenced by noise and sound.  We may not always associate noise with melody and harmony but listen carefully and the intangible becomes a bit more tangible. The piece here samples fado, a recognised UNESCO intangible cultural heritage which is renowned for its expressive and melancholic characteristics, a trait often mirrored in the sounds of many cities across the world.

"The chord progressions from this Fado from Coimbra, Portugal are intertwined with other every day city sounds, people, animals, traffic, with the songs fading in and out of the field recordings. As noise levels continue to rise within our urban environments, the sounds of our cities begin to envelope our intangible cultural heritage, but we should not allow them to create dissonance, but ensure that they provide a harmonic counterpoint."

Coimbra fado house reimagined by Moray Newlands. 

Part of the Well-Being Cities project, a unique collaboration between Cities and Memory and C40, a global network of mayors of nearly 100 world-leading cities collaborating to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis. The project was originally presented at the C40 Cities conference in Buenos Aires in 2022. Explore Well-Being Cities in full at https://citiesandmemory.com/wellbeing-cities/