As one of the world's most famous sacred spaces, Notre Dame in Paris has a very particular effect even on the non-religious, perhaps close to Stendhal Syndrome. But it's not just about the space itself, it's about sharing that awe with thousands of other people concurrently, as an endless snaking line of people enters the space, each to have their own significant experience, whether it's of secular beauty or sacred majesty.

The drone of shuffling feet and low conversation, amplified by thousands of people in such a huge space, can be sonically overwhelming, however. In this piece, I wanted to transform that hubbub created by the presence of people into something that did greater justice to the majesty of the location, a kind of ambient sonic offering back to the physical space in Notre Dame.

Here, the background hum of people becomes an ambient pulse that magnifies attention rather than distracting from it, while the periodic reminders to "shhhh" and be silent punctuate the piece as a constant reminder of the presence of control and administration, even as we communally share an all too rare moment of the sacred. The piece is a magnification of the type of attention we only pay when we are shocked out of ourselves by beauty, and by scale.

Notre Dame cathedral soundscape reimagined by Cities and Memory.

A full walkthrough of the restored Notre Dame, with the drone of thousands of tourists, the clattering of machines dispensing memorial coin tokens, and the unexpected "shhhhh!" announcements calling everyone to keep quiet in this space that is both sacred, and one of the most popular tourist spots in the world.

Recorded in Paris, France in February 2026 by Cities and Memory.

"Earth Horns with Electric Drone" (1974), a piece by Yoshi Wada, recorded at the Minimalism exhibition at the Bourse du Commerce, Paris in December 2025.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.