Cities, bars, and places to stay shaped by sound.
A guide to cities, bars, 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.” Every month, The Listening Club gathers around the world. Join here. — Rafi Mercer, Founder of Tracks & Tales
Discover La Gare / Le Gore in Paris — a former railway station where live jazz flows into deep electronic, creating one of the city’s most compelling listening experiences.
Discover La Gare / Le Gore in Paris — a former railway station where live jazz flows into deep electronic, creating one of the city’s most compelling listening experiences.
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...
Every month, The Listening Club gathers around the world. Join here.
A cinematic exploration of Nicolas Jaar’s Space Is Only Noise — a record where silence, space, and sound reshape how we listen. Discover the album that redefined restraint.
A nylon-string guitar moves quietly through the room. On Vila, Fabiano do Nascimento shows how restraint, warmth, and space can transform a simple instrument into an entire atmosphere.
A graceful return from Dakar’s most elegant orchestra — Afro-Cuban guitars, warm horns and patient rhythms drifting through the night air.
A spiritual groove where Senegal meets reggae, soul and the night air By Rafi Mercer Some records feel like a crossroads. Different roads arrive from different directions — rhythms, histories, instruments, languages — and somehow they me...
A luminous acoustic masterpiece where Baaba Maal’s voice and gentle guitar rhythms capture the quiet landscapes of northern Senegal.
A landmark mbalax album where sabar drums and soaring vocals transform Dakar’s traditional rhythms into modern West African pop.
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.
Every month, The Listening Club gathers around the world. Join here.
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.
A strategic reset grounded in data: narrowing the scope, refining entry points, and restoring the original vision behind Tracks & Tales. By simplifying structure and improving search alignment, the platform...
A strategic reset grounded in data: narrowing the scope, refining entry points, and restoring the original vision behind Tracks & Tales. By simplifying structure and improving search alignment, the platform...
There are days when building feels like movement, and days when it feels like waiting. Not for something you can name, but for a moment where it all lands —...
There are days when building feels like movement, and days when it feels like waiting. Not for something you can name, but for a moment where it all lands —...
Discover the record shops that defined Soho’s vinyl culture in the 1990s — a Rafi Mercer guide to the London stores where house, soul and jazz travelled hand to hand.
Discover the record shops that defined Soho’s vinyl culture in the 1990s — a Rafi Mercer guide to the London stores where house, soul and jazz travelled hand to hand.
Discover the quiet moment when a cultural idea begins to gather momentum. Rafi Mercer reflects on the early growth of the Listening Club and why slow listening culture grows one...
Discover the quiet moment when a cultural idea begins to gather momentum. Rafi Mercer reflects on the early growth of the Listening Club and why slow listening culture grows one...
Rafi Mercer explains the thinking behind the Tracks & Tales Star — how we listen, choose, and award.
