Cities, venues, and places to stay shaped by sound.
A guide to cities, venues, experiences, and places to stay chosen for how they sound. “I started Tracks & Tales to answer a simple question: Where does music actually sound right? Not where it’s loudest. Not where it’s trendiest. But where sound is treated with care — rooms designed to listen, systems tuned with intention, and music given the time it deserves. Think of it as the Michelin Guide to Listening — if such a thing existed. I travel, listen, return, and write. The rest is the map you can now explore.” — Rafi Mercer, Founder of Tracks & Tales
Bar Lis is a Hollywood rooftop venue where DJ-led programming and Riviera-inspired design create an energetic listening environment above Los Angeles. While more social than traditional listening bars, its curated...
Bar Lis is a Hollywood rooftop venue where DJ-led programming and Riviera-inspired design create an energetic listening environment above Los Angeles. While more social than traditional listening bars, its curated...
Monarch is a two-level nightclub in San Francisco’s SoMa district known for curated electronic music programming and carefully tuned sound systems. The venue combines an upstairs lounge for early-evening DJ...
Monarch is a two-level nightclub in San Francisco’s SoMa district known for curated electronic music programming and carefully tuned sound systems. The venue combines an upstairs lounge for early-evening DJ...
Madrone Art Bar is a long-running music venue in San Francisco known for vinyl DJ nights spanning soul, funk, hip-hop, and disco. Located on Divisadero Street, the venue blends art-gallery...
Madrone Art Bar is a long-running music venue in San Francisco known for vinyl DJ nights spanning soul, funk, hip-hop, and disco. Located on Divisadero Street, the venue blends art-gallery...
Audio is a sound-focused nightclub in San Francisco’s SoMa district, known for its carefully tuned Funktion-One system and underground house and techno programming. The venue prioritises sonic clarity and dancefloor...
Audio is a sound-focused nightclub in San Francisco’s SoMa district, known for its carefully tuned Funktion-One system and underground house and techno programming. The venue prioritises sonic clarity and dancefloor...
TRACKS & TALES
A young voice searching for purpose over sun-drenched soul loops, Below the Heavens captures the fragile moment when ambition meets reality. Blu and Exile didn’t set out to make a classic — they simply told the truth.
Sometimes a record doesn’t arrive like a statement. It arrives like a broadcast — warm, slightly crackling at the edges, as if someone somewhere has tuned the dial just right and suddenly the whole room fills with groove. That’s the feel...
Discover Azymuth (1975) — the Brazilian jazz-fusion classic blending samba, funk and electric piano grooves into one of the smoothest listening records ever made.
Discover Khruangbin’s The Universe Smiles Upon You (2015) — a hypnotic blend of psychedelic funk and Thai-inspired grooves perfect for late-afternoon listening.
Discover Shintaro Sakamoto’s How to Live with a Phantom (2012) — a dreamy blend of psychedelic soul and soft funk that drifts perfectly through late-night listening spaces.
Discover Philharmonics by Agnes Obel — a 2010 album of piano-led restraint and northern European clarity that rewards deep, intentional listening.
Tracks & Tales runs on curiosity and caffeine. One coffee at a time keeps the stories and soundscapes flowing.
By Rafi Mercer
Listening is a quiet luxury. A reflection on why sharing music without expectation has become one of the most generous acts we can offer each other—and why attention now matters more than ever.
By Rafi Mercer
Not the loudest records, nor the fastest risers, but the albums readers returned to with intent this March — a chart shaped by curiosity, slow listening, and the quiet pull of lasting sound.
In 1987, CHANEL created its first watch for women: the PREMIÈRE, inspired by the codes of the House. Its octagonal case evokes the stopper of the N°5 perfume bottle. The original bracelet, interlaced with leather—like the chain of the iconic quilted bag—has been reinterpreted in chain, ceramic or velvet-finish ribbon versions. A timeless, feminine timepiece to slip on your wrist day and night.
Discover the moment Tracks & Tales drifted onto Monocle Radio’s The Stack — a quiet signal that the global movement around listening culture is beginning to travel beyond its origin.
Discover the moment Tracks & Tales drifted onto Monocle Radio’s The Stack — a quiet signal that the global movement around listening culture is beginning to travel beyond its origin.
Listening has never belonged to one person.Every record carries thousands of invisible stories — the rooms, the cities, the moments when the music found us. Today, Tracks & Tales opens...
Listening has never belonged to one person.Every record carries thousands of invisible stories — the rooms, the cities, the moments when the music found us. Today, Tracks & Tales opens...
Discover how De La Soul’s NPR session reveals the subtle power of rhythm and frequency — a reflection on groove, listening, and the moment the room changes.
Discover how De La Soul’s NPR session reveals the subtle power of rhythm and frequency — a reflection on groove, listening, and the moment the room changes.
Discover how Tracks & Tales quietly became a global map of listening culture — two thousand pages exploring the cities, venues and moments where music still asks us to slow...
Discover how Tracks & Tales quietly became a global map of listening culture — two thousand pages exploring the cities, venues and moments where music still asks us to slow...
Rafi Mercer explains the thinking behind the Tracks & Tales Star — how we listen, choose, and award.
