NightJam

So, welcome to the London that never sleeps, yeah, will never dream – can’t – and will never see…Yeah, while you’re counting sheep... — MC Utta,  Sleepless City

NightJam was a musical collaboration by acclaimed artist Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) with young people who have been homeless. NightJam presented two music tracks with the voices of MC Utta, MC Marcel, MC Quick Latino, MC Magic & MC Sweetie and a photographic montage, plus a limited edition CD distributed for free through the project's original website at www.nightjam.org.uk.

Over the aching beats and lonely piano of Sleepless City, three soft voices spin bitter words of exhaustion and despair in the dark underbelly of the city: “I’m in the depths of London / Straight up in the depths of a dungeon.” In the elegiac breakbeat song S’alright, two people in very different parts of the night reassure themselves everything’s going to be fine.

NightJam formed part of Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. Scanner invited young people at New Horizon Youth Centre in King’s Cross to collaborate on a creative project that expresses how the city at night looks and sounds to their ears and eyes. Through music and voice workshops they explored the sense of freedom and fear, celebration and solitude of the concealing darkness. Meanwhile, they captured their nights on disposable cameras, taking images that are at times eerie, startling, contemplative and funny. NightJam presents two elusive visual and musical journeys through the city’s ‘quiet’ hours.

Audio: Scanner, Sleepless City

Sleepless City is a track produced collaboratively by Scanner, MC Utta and New Horizon Youth Centre for the NightJam project. 

Available to listen to on Soundcloud.

Image: NightJam: a music and photo project exploring the London night led by Scanner with MCs and photographers from the New Horizon Youth Project for homeless young people in King's Cross. Commissioned by Artangel Interaction, Summer 2006

Audio: Scanner, S'Alright

S'alright is a track produced collaboratively by Scanner and New Horizon Youth Centre for the NightJam project. 

Available to listen to on Soundcloud.

Image: NightJam: a music and photo project exploring the London night led by Scanner with MCs and photographers from the New Horizon Youth Project for homeless young people in King's Cross. Commissioned by Artangel Interaction, Summer 2006.

Video: NightJam: Music Video

'I'm in the depths of London, straight up in the depths of the dungeon'

A music video for songs Sleepless City and S'alright created during Scanner's collaborative music project, set to images of the nocturnal city, using photographs produced with the New Horizon Youth Centre in King’s Cross. Bleary traffic lights, curtained windows, party people and figures moving across the city are captured against the dark backdrop of the night.

Filmed by Scanner, Alexandra Gillespie and Somaya Langley. 

Edited by Scanner and Alexandra Gillespie.

Available to watch on Vimeo and Youtube.

Nights of London

Running for just over a year, Nights of London was a thread of projects exploring the nocturnal life of the city. It ran through cinemas and galleries, was hosted on websites, burned onto CDs, written into letters, performed in nightclubs and broadcast via radio channels, before concluding in an old East End town hall that – for one night only – was filled with bat experts, musicians, cabaret artists and paranormal researchers. We heard stories from the unorthodox side of nightfall. We learned about ways of life that, despite their physical proximity, are all but invisible to most of us, most of the time.

Nights of London projects include:

Night Haunts

Nick Silver Can't Sleep

NightJam

When Night Draws in

To the Man in My Dreams

Radio Nights

Image: NightJam: a music and photo project exploring the London night led by Scanner with MCs and photographers from the New Horizon Youth Project for homeless young people in King's Cross. Commissioned by Artangel Interaction, Summer 2006.

Production Credits

Scanner with MCs from the New Horixon Youth Centre

Original composition by Scanner

Featuring MC Utta, MC Marcel, MC Quick Latino, MC Magic & MC Sweetie

Recorded at New Horizon Youth Centre, London.

Mastered at the Soap Factory London

Music Video

Filmed by Scanner, Alexandra Gillespie and Somaya Langley

Edited by Scanner and Alexandra Gillespie

Special thanks to contributors, especially Robin, Utta, Marcel, Gica, Patrick, Natalie and Stef, and also Taliso, Tanessa, Justin, Richard, Nathan, Yonas and Yohanes and everyone who joined the sessions. Thanks also to all those who helped make this project happen, particularly Cathy, Sarah, PJ, Pauline, Shelagh, Ajay, Vivianne, Nigel, Niall, Alex and Somaya, and all of the staff at New Horizon and Artangel.

Image: Workshop with Scanner as part of NightJam, 2006. Photographer: unknown.

Credits

Artangel is generously supported by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, Guardian Angels and The Company of Angels.

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