Sukhdev Sandhu is a writer for the Telegraph newspaper in the UK. In 2006, with the sponsorship of Artangel, he produced Night Haunts: A Nocturnal Journal through 2006.
It is a wonderfully evocative melange of visuals, sound, and words exploring those who inhabit the nights of London. There are African night cleaners, exorcists, minicab drivers, helicopter police, urban foxes (of which there are some in my neighbourhood), sewers and the Thames.
I like cities at night. Somehow they are more expressive and candid than during the day. You have a feeling of being apart while observing and yet inside a community of sorts.
The music for Night Haunts reminds me of Gavin Bryars, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, especially the final movement where Tom Waits accompanies the tramp's singing. It's terribly moving. (See bottom of post for a clip of this)
Here's a screenshot from the Urban Foxes section:
The meandering dots, like the River Thames, are the chapters in each section which blink when you need to move on.
Night Haunts (also published in book form) reminds of Craig Taylor's Londoners which chronicles the lives of ordinary Londoners. Both follow in the tradition of the late, but always great, Studs Terkel.
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