Nils Frahm — Paris (2024)
Frahm's first live album from a single evening — ten pieces recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris in March 2024, with nothing rescued and nothing hidden. An album that documents an audience as much as a performance.
A note from Rafi Mercer
"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. Where sound is treated with care — rooms designed for listening, systems tuned with intention, music given the time it deserves. Think of it as the Michelin Guide to Listening — if such a thing existed. A guide to cities, bars, and places to stay, chosen for how they sound. The rest is the map, and it's yours to explore." — Rafi Mercer, Founder
The Latest Listening Cities Not To Be Missed.
More Reads From Tracks & Tales-
Franklin Listening Bars — Front Porch Fidelity ...
Twenty miles south of Nashville, Franklin is where Music City's musicians go home. A Victorian Main Street, a restored 1937 theatre, and a town that measures itself in preservation —...
Franklin Listening Bars — Front Porch Fidelity ...
Twenty miles south of Nashville, Franklin is where Music City's musicians go home. A Victorian Main Street, a restored 1937 theatre, and a town that measures itself in preservation —...
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St. Louis Listening Bars — Blues, Ragtime and t...
St. Louis is where American music learned to travel — blues, ragtime and jazz all moved through the city on their way to everywhere else. Discover why its listening culture...
St. Louis Listening Bars — Blues, Ragtime and t...
St. Louis is where American music learned to travel — blues, ragtime and jazz all moved through the city on their way to everywhere else. Discover why its listening culture...
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Downey Listening Bars — Aerospace Memory, Mid-C...
Downey is more than a Los Angeles suburb. It is aerospace memory, roadside history and California evening light — a city waiting for its own listening room.
Downey Listening Bars — Aerospace Memory, Mid-C...
Downey is more than a Los Angeles suburb. It is aerospace memory, roadside history and California evening light — a city waiting for its own listening room.
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Athens Listening Bars — College Spirit, Indie H...
Athens is one of those rare cities where music feels woven into everyday life. Long before visitors arrived looking for famous venues or legendary bands, sound was already part of...
Athens Listening Bars — College Spirit, Indie H...
Athens is one of those rare cities where music feels woven into everyday life. Long before visitors arrived looking for famous venues or legendary bands, sound was already part of...
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Goodyear Listening Bars — Desert Horizons, Even...
Goodyear sits on the western edge of the Phoenix metropolitan area, where the city begins to dissolve into desert. It is a place defined by openness. Wide roads. Expansive skies....
Goodyear Listening Bars — Desert Horizons, Even...
Goodyear sits on the western edge of the Phoenix metropolitan area, where the city begins to dissolve into desert. It is a place defined by openness. Wide roads. Expansive skies....
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Durham Listening Bars — Tobacco Warehouses, Jaz...
Durham is a city that understands reinvention. Once defined by tobacco warehouses, rail lines, and manufacturing, it has spent the last generation transforming itself into one of the most creative...
Durham Listening Bars — Tobacco Warehouses, Jaz...
Durham is a city that understands reinvention. Once defined by tobacco warehouses, rail lines, and manufacturing, it has spent the last generation transforming itself into one of the most creative...
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Dorchester Listening Bars — Harbour Echoes, Nei...
Dorchester occupies a distinctive place within Boston. It is the city's largest neighbourhood, yet it often feels less like a district and more like a collection of villages woven together...
Dorchester Listening Bars — Harbour Echoes, Nei...
Dorchester occupies a distinctive place within Boston. It is the city's largest neighbourhood, yet it often feels less like a district and more like a collection of villages woven together...
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Pasadena Listening Bars — Craftsman Calm, Mount...
Pasadena sits just beyond the noise of Los Angeles, but it has always felt like a place with its own rhythm. The city unfolds beneath the San Gabriel Mountains, where...
Pasadena Listening Bars — Craftsman Calm, Mount...
Pasadena sits just beyond the noise of Los Angeles, but it has always felt like a place with its own rhythm. The city unfolds beneath the San Gabriel Mountains, where...
Crafting a Listening Home, Life & Culture.
Read More From Tracks & Tales
The Listening Club:
We traded our attention for convenience.
Endless playlists. Infinite skipping. Music became something that happens while we do something else.
The Listening Club is a quiet rebellion against that.
One album a month. All the way through. Together.
Founding membership is capped at 200 members worldwide. When the places are taken, this tier closes permanently.
Hello · Hallo · Bonjour · Ciao · Hola · Hallo · Olá · Hej · こんにちは · 你好
Every month, The Listening Club gathers around the world. Join here.
The Listening Albums, Innovation & Tradition.
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Nina Simone at Town Hall — Nina Simone (1959)
Recorded in a Manhattan recital hall in 1959, Nina Simone at Town Hall captures the exact moment a classically trained pianist became one of the great performers of the century. A live album built not on applause, but on silence.
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Caribou — Suddenly (2020)
Caribou's Suddenly is an album that refuses to stay in one place. Moving effortlessly between house, soul, electronica and psychedelia, it captures the beautifully unpredictable rhythm of modern life.
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Coltrane Jazz — John Coltrane (1961)
Coltrane Jazz captures John Coltrane at the exact moment he steps out from the shadow of Kind of Blue and begins the remarkable journey towards becoming jazz's greatest explorer. It is an album about curiosity, evolution and the courage ...
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Here I Come — Barrington Levy (1985)
Some records belong to winter rooms and late nights. Barrington Levy's Here I Come belongs to open windows. Forty years on, its grooves still carry the feeling of possibility — not nostalgia, but the sense that something good might be ab...
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Pink Moon — Nick Drake (1972)
Pink Moon is one of the quietest masterpieces ever recorded. Stripped to voice and guitar, Nick Drake created a record that feels less like an album and more like a private conversation with silence itself.
Worldwide Neighbourhood Guides.
TRACKS & TALES
The Luxury of Listening - A book by Rafi Mercer
This book doesn't tell you what to listen to. It teaches you how to listen again.
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Timeless.
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.
At Home Listening, How & Why.
The Power of Going away.
By Rafi Mercer
What Sade understood about absence, trust, and the quiet courage to disappear.
The July 100 — Albums People Stayed With.
By Rafi Mercer
Not the loudest records, nor the fastest risers, but the albums readers returned to with intent this June — a chart shaped by curiosity, slow listening, and the quiet pull of lasting sound.
The Daily Journal. Discover More.
More Reads From Tracks & Tales-
A Note to Myself, at 100,000 website visits...
This week I sat with a question the dashboards can't answer: what am I actually building, and how does it improve anyone's life? A note written for myself, shared as...
A Note to Myself, at 100,000 website visits...
This week I sat with a question the dashboards can't answer: what am I actually building, and how does it improve anyone's life? A note written for myself, shared as...
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The Cost of Thinking Bigger
The biggest ideas rarely feel comfortable at first. They challenge assumptions, invite doubt and ask us to imagine a future that doesn't yet exist. Looking to the lives of great...
The Cost of Thinking Bigger
The biggest ideas rarely feel comfortable at first. They challenge assumptions, invite doubt and ask us to imagine a future that doesn't yet exist. Looking to the lives of great...
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The City You're Looking For
Something happens when you land somewhere new — a bar, low music, good speakers — and you think: this is what I was looking for. Then you go home. But...
The City You're Looking For
Something happens when you land somewhere new — a bar, low music, good speakers — and you think: this is what I was looking for. Then you go home. But...
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The Thread Between Us — On Doing Less and Leavi...
There was a time when I thought progress looked like movement. More meetings. More plans. More ideas. More miles travelled. More things started. Like many people, I spent years believing...
The Thread Between Us — On Doing Less and Leavi...
There was a time when I thought progress looked like movement. More meetings. More plans. More ideas. More miles travelled. More things started. Like many people, I spent years believing...
What is a Tracks & Tales Star?
Rafi Mercer explains the thinking behind the Tracks & Tales Star — how we listen, choose, and award.