News
23rd July 2026
Smart data normally used to improve life for Sunderland’s residents and business is being put to new use… creating a year-long piece of music.
The sounds of a seagull squawking, people’s footsteps, glass bottles being blown, and the trundling of a train. While these are the recognisable sounds of life in Sunderland city, they’re not usually the basis for music. An innovative musical composition – SonOrbitUs – changes that.
Using recordings of the city sounds, Sunderland musicians have created a 365-day-long track that streams non-stop from October 2025 until September 2026. Most of the musical sounds on the track come from noises or actions recorded in the city of Sunderland.
But the track doesn’t only use the sounds of Sunderland – its composition changes based on how busy or quiet the city centre is with people and traffic, as well as other factors like the weather and temperature. The process works by mapping a sound onto a musical melody and then pairing this with an element of real-time city data.
As Sunderland musician and SonOrbitUs producer Peter Brewis puts it, “The track changes because of the people in the city. The city itself manipulates and changes all of the music – it’s something nobody can predict.
“For example, the more traffic goes through Sunderland, the higher the volume and pitch of certain musical elements of the. At nighttime the track is dreamier, then by day it’s a faster tempo linked to the number of people on Keel Square.”
The initiative brings together two disciplines which the city is passionate about – music and technology – highlighting Sunderland’s growing reputation as a hub for creativity, innovation and collaboration while celebrating its status as a Music City.
Sunderland City Council’s Smart City Programme uses a sophisticated data platform to improve daily life for residents, businesses and visitors. The types of data used for the composition include city-centre footfall, traffic, and population data, as well as environmental data such as rainfall, wind speed, and temperature. Sunderland is transparent about the data it collects, providing easy access to a wealth of open data on the smart city website.
Sunderland City Council’s Director of Smart Cities and Enabling Services, Liz St Louis, adds: “This composition is such a fantastic, creative use of smart city data. It demonstrates the real potential of data, not just to improve lives of people in Sunderland, but to inspire us and help us see the city in new ways. Plus it really does show the imaginative nature of Sunderland’s people!”
SonOrbitUs has been commissioned by Sunderland Music City, produced by Peter Brewis, Ed Carter, Tim Shaw and Becky Allen, and funded by Arts Council England. The Sunderland Year of Music builds on Sunderland’s official designation as a global Music City in January 2025, recognising years of grassroots development and cultural success and ambition. Listen to SonOrbitUs on the Sunderland Music City website until mid-September 2026.