Shortly after the second World War, an unlikely trend took hold in Japan. Passing certain of Tokyo’s kissaten cafes, you could, quite reasonably, have come across a room full of people not saying a word to each other, sitting in perfect silence – that is, apart from the sound of a record playing through a well-specified hi-fi system.
Similar locations were opening in Japan as early as the 1920s, but due to the significant interruption of a World War, the widespread popularisation of these cafes would take a little while longer.
By now, it’s old news that listening bars have become a global phenomenon. It’s hard to visit a major city, these days, without stumbling upon at least one such venue. But for Paul Noble, founder of Spiritland – a London-based listening bar, which has just opened a new location at the Barbican Centre – inspiration struck right where things began.
Incredible sound systems
Formerly a sound engineer and radio producer, Noble first witnessed Japan’s listening-bar culture while travelling to the country for work in the 2010s.
“Spending time there, I just fell in love with it,” he says. “I felt that something like this would work in London, where we had this deep music culture, but nothing that combined the sort of really considered programming, incredible sound systems, and service that was aligned in terms of quality.”
Before long, Noble had started a pop-up in Merchants Tavern, a restaurant in Shoreditch, London. “I put in some Tannoy speakers, a huge pair of Westminsters, and had all sorts of DJs play there,” he says. Such was the project’s success, that by 2016, Spiritland had opened its first dedicated location in Kings Cross, London – a venue that would eventually make it onto our global list of listening bars we would love to visit.
“We've spent 10 years refining our offer,” Noble elaborates. “We work across all sorts of genres; you could hear jazz, funk, soul, reggae, dub, but also indie, Americana, ambient, classical – it’s unlikely to be anything too banging.” Crucially, he adds, “There’s always going to be a firm hand of curation.”
Over that decade, the company’s efforts have seen them grow to become one of London’s most well regarded listening bars. The latest collaboration, which recently opened on level two of the Barbican Centre, and is scheduled to run until July 2027, came about quickly.
The birth of a listening bar
“A conversation started,” says Noble, “then, suddenly, this space became available. We moved very quickly.” Looking for an equally snappy audio solution, Noble turned to his long-time collaborator, Kevin Scott, a designer at British high-end speaker manufacturer, Living Voice.
“Kevin had already been building this system for his own purposes, and it became clear that this was going to work well in the room,” says Noble. “So, we whipped [the bar] together with furniture and equipment we already had.”
The sound system you can now find at Spiritland at the Barbican was chosen and tested at a similarly sized space in Living Voice’s headquarters at Definitive Audio, Derbyshire.
“The only unknown was the acoustics of the room at the Barbican,” says Scott, “which we have addressed over a week of listening, using professional acoustic devices with a combination of absorption, diffusion and reflection.” The team have also run ‘soft launches’ with 50-70 guests to “qualify the system under real world conditions”.
There’s certainly no shortage of kit at the new location. Walking into the bar, we are greeted by a hulking pair of Living Voice R252 loudspeakers, a densely packed rack of audio separates and a DJ booth, not to mention the trendy, metropolitan types, who are sure to be found sipping on something from the bar’s carefully curated cocktail list.
Musical artistry as a guiding light
Taking a closer look at the audio set-up, eagle eyed visitors will notice Kuzma record players, network streamers and DACs from APL, amplification from Sugden and SJS Electroacoustics, phono transformers from Consolidated Audio and power conditioning from Audes – all connected by cables from DH Labs.
Explaining how he chose the products for Spiritland’s system, Scott says: “The performance balance of any system is dependent on a sympathetic relationship between each of the components as well as their dynamic interactions and the relationship with the acoustic environment. This system has balanced these considerations with musical artistry as its guiding light.”
Operating in a global city such as London – and within an international cultural hub such as the Barbican – means the venue caters to a diverse, worldwide clientele. According to Scott, the new system reflects this global audience.
“The system has a marked international flavour, with components from Bulgaria, Slovenia, England, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and the US,” he says. “All of the designers have a long-standing history in the audio industry, and each is a leader in their respective fields. More importantly, though, we have chosen these components because they work together as a hand-in-glove team.”
Due to the retro origins of listening bars, some locations opt for an all analogue, vinyl-driven approach. But staying true to their inner audiophile, Spiritland has chosen to keep their options open.
Nothing compressed
“We’re pretty format agnostic,” says Noble. “You could hear music on CD, you could hear hi-res files. We’re not dedicated solely to vinyl. While it’s a great mechanism for curation and finding and filing music, vinyl is not necessarily the most hardy material. There are incredible pressings, there are terrible pressings.”
Despite this broad-minded approach, Noble explains that Spiritland does have certain boundaries when it comes to sound quality. “Our hard and fast rule is nothing compressed,” he says. “Our systems are so revealing. If you play an MP3, you’ll hear it instantly.”
When we visited Spiritland at the Barbican, a vinyl DJ was playing a downtempo mix of jazz and electronica. In the cosy, dimly lit room, tables were packed with couples and friends conversing, drinking and eating small plates of food from the bar’s kitchen. Not quite the intensely focused, pin-drop experience of some of Japan’s original listening bars.
Noble says that the relaxed atmosphere was an intentional choice: “If you go to some of these places in Japan, they’re very, very quiet, and music is front and centre. Everyone’s sitting in rows, staring at the speakers, and the experience is akin to watching a film.
“That’s not what we’re doing and we’re not trying to emulate it,” he says. “You know, we also have elements of the Balearic, Ibiza scene, the sort of New York, David Mancuso world and the reggae sound system world. We’re not just trying to clone what happens in Japan. So, there are people talking, eating, drinking – having a good time. We’re not gonna go around policing people’s behaviour. That’s not what we’re about.”
Accommodating though that attitude may be, some visitors will surely find the hubbub an unwelcome distraction. It is a listening bar, after all.
Thankfully, for such guests, Noble explains that Spiritland runs a regular programme of more music-focused sessions. “We do dedicated listening experiences, too, where we'll listen to an album all the way through, or there will be a talk interspersed with tracks,” he says.
During such events, Scott adds, “Orders can be whispered.”
Entry to Spiritland at the Barbican is completely free, and walk-ins are welcome. The bar is open Tuesday through Friday from 4pm to 11pm. Over the weekend, you can visit from 12pm to 11pm on Saturdays, and 12pm to 7pm on Sundays.
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