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Iconic images of cities, from the Sydney Opera House to the canals of Venice, are etched in the public's imagination, but ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service is on a quest to celebrate the often overlooked quality of sound.

From bells, to taxi horns and the shouts of street traders, ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service's new multimedia season Save Our Sounds is on a quest to make people around the world stop, listen and think about the defining noises around them.

The Save Our Sounds website – bbcworldservice.com/saveoursounds – has launched an innovative interactive sound map.

Audiences are able to record and upload sounds on to the world map to become part of a sonic worldview and an online archive of global noises.

Resident Save Our Sounds micro-blogger Kate Arkless Gray will be talking to acoustic practitioners and audiences online and via Twitter – twitter.com/bbc_sos – building a community around the project.

The website will also feature regular sound challenges and a desperately-seeking-sound appeal.

Later in the season users will also be able to create their own soundscapes in a virtual 3D landscape.

As part of this season, a new two-part documentary, Discovery: Save Our Sounds will premiere on Wednesday 8 and 15 July 2009 at 1930 GMT (8.30pm UK time) on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service.

Presented by acoustician Professor Trevor Cox, this series features a range of experts including architects, urban planners, environmental scientists, sound artists, psychologists and social scientists, all concerned with acoustic ecology in the urban soundscape.

The series will examine the impact of sound on people's lives, and question whether some distinct noises, from street markets, to bells and street hawkers, are actually at risk of disappearing, drowned out by new technologies and generic sounds like cooling fans and traffic.

Professor Cox also travels to one of the noisiest cities in the world, Hong Kong, where engineers are pioneering new approaches to acoustic management, as well as meeting an expert in the UK, who has been commissioned to create the urban soundscape of the future.

Other ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service programmes will be involved in the Save Our Sounds season.

Outlook, from Monday 15 June, will focus on sounds from five parts of the world which may be in danger of disappearing, from the fish wives of Angola whose songs resonate through the streets of Luanda, to chai wallahs pouring tea on the streets on Delhi.

Notes to Editors

Save Our Sounds will transmit on Wednesday 8 and 15 July 2009 at 1930 GMT (8.30pm UK time) on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service – UK and Europe schedule.

The documentary will also be available online as a podcast.

Go to bbcworldservice.com/saveoursounds to find The Interactive Sound Map, 3D Soundmaps, and blogs.

The Save Our Sounds Twitter feed is twitter.com/bbc_sos.

Interactive Sound Map: for more information go to bbcworldservice.com/saveoursounds. This site also contains iInformation and tips on recording and uploading material on to the map.

Desperately Seeking Sounds: Save Our Sounds wants to hear from audiences about the sounds they want to hear again. Perhaps a childhood sound or a noise from a favourite longed-for city? Email saveoursounds@bbc.com saying which sound you would love to hear again, and where in the world you heard it. The team will try and match-make you with the sound and you can tell them if they have got it right.

´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service is an international multimedia broadcaster delivering 32 language and regional services. It uses multiple platforms to reach 182 million listeners globally, including shortwave, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels. It has around 2,000 partner radio stations which take ´óÏó´«Ã½ content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones and other wireless handheld devices. Its news sites include audio and video content and offer opportunities to join the global debate. For more information, visit bbcworldservice.com. To find out more about the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s English language offer and subscribe to a free e-newsletter, visit bbcworldservice.com/schedules.

´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service Press Office