Sounds From The Other City Audio Map
Give us your slice of SFTOC history and become a part of the archive
Powered by Manchester Digital Music Archive
What is the...
Sounds From The Other City Audio Map?
A place for all our lovely community to preserve and share their spoken memories of Sounds over the past 20 years.Our interface allows you to:
- record your voice directly into your desktop computer or laptop and
- pin 60-second sound clips onto a map of Salford at the exact places and spaces where your story originally happened. You can also use some software compatible smart phones to do this.
If you prefer, you can leave your memory as written text.
WHAT KIND OF MEMORIES?
Maybe you were one of ten who saw Sampha perform in a corner of Islington Mill in 2011? Maybe you met the love of your life while swaying under the ornate roof of St Philips Church? Or maybe your mate did something truly embarrassing in the Pint Pot pub garden which you promised they'd never live down? (Now's your chance to live up to that promise).
For this project we are only collecting memories associated with Sounds From The Other City (SFTOC). To learn about or share artefacts relating to other music scenes, events or eras not related to SFTOC, please visit the main MDMArchive website.
We would love to get as many people as possible taking part and contributing stories, to create a living, shifting collective memory of our favourite time and place on earth. For Sounds may only appear on the streets once a year, but here we live forever, baby!
Latest Memories
15 memories on the map so far
How to...
share your memories
DO THE PREP
1. First of all, have a rack of that gorgeous brain of yours to find some of your favourite Sounds From The Other City memories.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Catching acts before they were famous
(yeah, you know you wanna brag about it) - Distant memories of historical SFTOC venues
- Funniest thing that happened to you and your pals
- Favourite interaction with a Sounds-going stranger
- Best-dressed performer who crossed your path
- Best song dropped in a DJ set
- Uniquely SFTOC memories, installations, anything...
3. Where did it happen? Each memory needs to be pinned to a place on our map. We've added all the venues we've ever used, which you can see marked by pins. Use the year filters at the top of the map to show the venues used that year: e.g. click '2008' at the top and the only pins on the map will be venues used at SFTOC 2008.
4. Create an account. This helps us stop spam on the map, but your memory will be anonymous.
GET RECORDING
- Hit the map. You might want to click ‘find me’ just to help you orientate yourself. (To use this feature your location services on your device will need to be switched on)
- Next, click the pin of the place you'd like to add your memory to. You'll see below the map a box that says 'Add a memory here'.
- First give your memory a good title to get people's attention.
- Then choose a category for your memory. You can choose as many as you like, i.e. ‘friends’, 'afterparties' or 'oddball moments'.
- Next click ‘record’. You have a maximum of 60 seconds to share your memory! You can listen back using the play button and record it again if you are not happy.
***We think it's fun to leave memories with a group of mates!***
Latest Places
Energy House – 1 memoryThe White Hotel
No Sounds - Lockdown !
Peel Park
Chapel St – 1 memory
Working Class Movement Library
Vero Restaurant
The United Reformed Church
Salford Arms
The Old Pint Pot – 3 memories
48 places on the map so far
Do's and Dont's of memory recording
Do
- Try and pin your memory to the right place on the map
- Give your memory an eye-catching title
- Do select relevant categories for your memory
- Encourage your friends to join in
- Tell us your story in 60-seconds. Brevity is the soul of wit!
- Stay on topic: this is about Sounds From The Other City
- Share on your socials!
Don't
- Worry about getting a perfect recording – it’s supposed to be fun
- Leave memories that do not relate to SFTOC
- Be rude or insulting. Any derogatory posts will be deleted, this is a positive space!
- Fib (we'll smell it from a mile off)
How do I listen to memories?
To listen to memories simply browse the pins of the map. When you click a pin, the memories associated with it will appear for you to play in venue heading box.You can also use the category filters to find memories that are of particular interest to you.
About Sounds From The Other City
Created for music lovers by music lovers.Sounds From The Other City has been a firm underground favourite since 2005; delivering a unique annual event that champions local promoters and celebrates the off-kilter beauty of Salford, the oft-overlooked ‘other city’ to Manchester.
A creative scene is constantly moving and with a line-up booked by a revolving collective of promoters, Sounds has served as an annual snapshot of the Greater Manchester scene, taking place in the pubs, churches, studios, warehouses and 'in-between' spaces of Chapel Street and the Crescent.
The festival has hosted early-day performances from artists as diverse as Black Country, New Road, Marina, Alabaster de Plume, Alt-J, The Ting Tings, BiPolar Sunshine, Hannah Peel, GoGo Penguin right through to 2017’s Mercury Music Prize winner Sampha, BBC Sound of 2018 nominee IAMDDB and 2019 Mercury Music Prize nominees, Black Midi.
To mark our 20th SFTOC Festival in 2025, we've paired up with the lovely folks at MDMArchive to, to collect and store our audiences' memories of festivals-gone-by. As part of this project, the Sounds From The Other City Audio Map was born.
About MDMA
Manchester Digital Music Archive is an online community archive established in 2003 to celebrate Greater Manchester music and its social history.We are a registered charity run by volunteers. Charity no. 1164179.
Our crowd-sourced archive and website is a place for people all over the world to share Manchester music ephemera and memories, be they fans, musicians or involved with the music industry itself.
We are passionate about celebrating the hidden chapters and under-represented communities within Greater Manchester music. We believe that through crowd-sourcing artefacts we can democratise heritage and provide a platform for multiple versions of history to be shared.
