Cicely Fell and I were commissioned by Cities and Memory to co-produce a piece of sound art for the C40 Summit of Mayors in Buenos Aires. The brief asked us to imagine the sound of cities in the future if health and wellbeing were put centre-stage. We also had to include a field recording from a selection - we chose one taken in Nairobi airport.

About the Piece: Departures

Starting with a field recording made in Nairobi Airport, this piece imagines a departure lounge for all the birds we have lost and stand to lose in the face of the climate crisis. A child quietly contemplates how we, as humankind, might learn from birds to create built environments that better serve the natural world, by making less noise and more space for them, not us. As we drift into her daydream of an airport for birds, we catch a glimpse of the possibilities whilst hearing a rich sonic world made up of archive recordings of threatened and extinct birds recorded in Kenya and elsewhere. The piece explores some of the metaphors at play in a departure lounge and navigates the sometimes jagged borders between humans and nature. Don’t get too comfortable, the gate is closing…

Original field recording: ‘Waiting in Jomo Kenyatta’ by: Giulia Biasibetti

Additional recordings by Flora Zajicek, Cicely Fell
Archive recordings by A.R Gregory (with thanks to the British Library for their kind permission to use)