The river remembers

"I was struck by a paradox in this segment of the river's story. How at the same time, the river here is both so heavily modified - by channelisation and with a dam for hydropower - and yet, this reservoir also offers a kind of nature 'oasis'. As Martina Cecchetto explained; "widely lacking in natural geomorphic dynamics - so much so that there is a redirection of the layer of Quaternary gravels (and unpredictable incision rates to the channel bed - )". "And yet, "Whilst the reservoir also here, is artificial and this place is "devoid of millions of years of minerals...it hosts pristine nature in its present form". I was also struck by the maps and visuals showing the once multiple channels of river - now a straightened single channel river, and the beautiful coloured video realisation. "Taking Flow artist Salma Caller's wonderful suggestion, of incorporating preceding segment sounds, this number 20 sound work requotes and resamples from Bill McKenna's segment 1's offered extract and from Anja Kreysing's segment 19's offered extract, and layers segment 20's field recording and resampled versions with original musical compositions to offer a musical, sonic remembering by the river. The river remembering its geological foundation, its forced changes and its ever-present memory of flow and life. "A story of place working across layers of time and sounds simultaneously." Credits: Musicians - Gideon Brazil - saxophones, Elliott Folvig - electric guitar, Miranda Hill - double bass, Elissa Goodrich - compositions and vibraphone. "And so the story of this particular section of the river is a paradox; one that carries beauty and dislocation in equal measure." Section of the river Lech reimagined by Elissa Goodrich. ------- Flow is a creative exploration telling the story of a river through the power of sound. The project is a collaboration between the University of Padova and the University of Würzburg, with support from Cities and Memory. Explore the full project at .

You can listen to The river remembers online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The river remembers is an episode from Cities and Memory.

This episode is 9:29 long.

This episode was published on May 6, 2026.

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