A small collection of recordings made around London during the hours of darkness. So far it includes night-time West End crowds, a few pubs and street scenes, and some festivities in Croydon.
Above: graphic based on a night-time satellite image courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. Each red grid square is 2.5 miles or 4 kilometers across. Left: drawing by Kaffe Fassett, 1966.
File name: Internet cafe Cricklewood
Grid square: Willesden, Kilburn, West Hampstead
Duration: 3:36
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 19 January 2011
Time of day: 8.30pm
Location: Inside an internet cafe on Cricklewood Broadway
Description: Tapping of keyboards by customers, voices of staff and customers, creaks and squeals from the shop's door, traffic outside.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x MM-HLSO/Sennheiser MKE-2 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Millennium Green at night
Grid square: Willesden, Kilburn, West Hampstead
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 19 January 2011
Time of day: 7.30pm
Location: Millennium Green park, Cricklewood
Description: Sounds of distant traffic from Cricklewood Broadway and Edgware Road, faint noises from a rail depot.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Burger King Cricklewood
Grid square: Willesden, Kilburn, West Hampstead
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 19 January 2011
Time of day: 9pm
Location: Cricklewood Broadway, northwest London
Description: Waiting at the counter of a small Burger King branch: voices of staff and customers, background music.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x MM-HLSO/Sennheiser MKE-2 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Kilburn High Road station
Grid square: Willesden, Kilburn, West Hampstead
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: November 2008
Time of day: 10.30pm
Location: Kilburn High Road overground station.
Description: Saturday night-time atmosphere from a platform at Kilburn High Road overground station. A woman sings at a pub karaoke a few streets away, traffic noise from Kilburn High Road.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH mics and PA-3SX preamp, Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: 4dB noise reduction applied.
File name: Kingdom pub Kilburn
Grid square: Willesden, Kilburn, West Hampstead
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: November 2008
Time of day: Around 10pm
Location: The Kilburn, Kilburn High Road.
Description: General ambience inside the Kingdom, an Irish workingmen's pub.
Technical guff: Stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH mics and PA-3SX preamp. Edirol R09-HR recorder.
Additional notes: None.