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 sound — 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
A vinyl-led listening bar tucked into Melbourne’s Meyers Place, LB’s Record Bar blends late-night cocktails, local DJs, and a social approach to sound where records quietly lead the room.
A vinyl-led listening bar tucked into Melbourne’s Meyers Place, LB’s Record Bar blends late-night cocktails, local DJs, and a social approach to sound where records quietly lead the room.
Bar Orai is a vinyl-led listening bar in Midtown East, New York City, offering a rare pocket of focus and warmth where records are allowed to unfold with patience and...
Bar Orai is a vinyl-led listening bar in Midtown East, New York City, offering a rare pocket of focus and warmth where records are allowed to unfold with patience and...
Music For a While is a vinyl-led listening bar in New York City, offering a rare space of patience, warmth, and collective attention where records are allowed to unfold without...
Music For a While is a vinyl-led listening bar in New York City, offering a rare space of patience, warmth, and collective attention where records are allowed to unfold without...
Drop Sociale in Beirut’s Gemmayzeh is a music-forward izakaya audio bar where sound, stone, and social rhythm align into a slow-burn nightlife experience shaped by listening rather than noise.
Drop Sociale in Beirut’s Gemmayzeh is a music-forward izakaya audio bar where sound, stone, and social rhythm align into a slow-burn nightlife experience shaped by listening rather than noise.
TRACKS & TALES
Le Trio Joubran doesn’t play at you — it plays with itself, three voices moving like one mind. The oud arrives like a memory from a previous world, but the feeling is immediate: patient, tactile, quietly electric. This is music that make...
Blue Maqams sounds like a voice carried forward through centuries, arriving quietly in the present. The oud speaks without urgency, asking you to slow your breathing, to listen past habit, until time itself seems to loosen its grip.
A quiet Afro-Peruvian masterpiece where voice, guitar, and cajón move with patience and restraint — Retablo rewards close listening, treating silence, touch, and memory as part of the music itself.
A reflective review of MONO’s Hymn to the Immortal Wind — a slow-burn post-rock landmark where restraint, silence, and emotional gravity do the real work.
At Home is a study in restraint and presence. Avishai Cohen pares his sound back to tone, breath, and silence, creating an intimate jazz album that rewards patience and low-level listening. It’s a record built on trust — between musician...
Personal Belongings is jazz that trusts the listener. Omer Klein plays with restraint and intent, allowing space, silence, and touch to shape the music as much as melody. It’s a record that unfolds slowly, rewarding stillness and attenti...
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
From rare jazz to warm electronica and late-night soul, these are the records that unfold with time — chosen for their depth, their detail, and the way they shape a room.
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.
Some instruments don’t arrive on time — they arrive when you’re ready. The oud doesn’t rush you forward; it pulls you gently backward, until listening feels whole again.
Some instruments don’t arrive on time — they arrive when you’re ready. The oud doesn’t rush you forward; it pulls you gently backward, until listening feels whole again.
A brand doesn’t earn the right to grow by expanding quickly, but by staying useful in someone’s life. Virgin understood this early: records came first, then tapes, then spaces, each...
A brand doesn’t earn the right to grow by expanding quickly, but by staying useful in someone’s life. Virgin understood this early: records came first, then tapes, then spaces, each...
Some ideas resist scale by design. A few chairs, a living room, a record played with care. This one isn’t trying to grow fast or reach far — it’s trying...
Some ideas resist scale by design. A few chairs, a living room, a record played with care. This one isn’t trying to grow fast or reach far — it’s trying...
Tracks & Tales is becoming an essential guide to finding a place to listen — refining cities, venues, and spaces shaped by sound, not speed. Less noise, more orientation. A...
Tracks & Tales is becoming an essential guide to finding a place to listen — refining cities, venues, and spaces shaped by sound, not speed. Less noise, more orientation. A...
Rafi Mercer explains the thinking behind the Tracks & Tales Star — how we listen, choose, and award.
