The Stay
A quiet ledger of stays and sanctuaries — fragments from journeys where listening turns into living. Each note lingers on the feeling of arrival, the rhythm of rest, and the spaces that hold us still.
The Stay
More Reads From Tracks & Tales-
Technology Isn’t the Enemy — It Just Needs to K...
Listening culture shows that technology isn’t the enemy of hospitality — it simply needs to know where to stand, supporting human presence rather than replacing it.
Technology Isn’t the Enemy — It Just Needs to K...
Listening culture shows that technology isn’t the enemy of hospitality — it simply needs to know where to stand, supporting human presence rather than replacing it.
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Designing Silence — How Hotels Can Shape the So...
Silence is not the absence of sound — it’s the design of it. Rafi Mercer explores how hotels can shape rest through sound, crafting rooms that listen as much as...
Designing Silence — How Hotels Can Shape the So...
Silence is not the absence of sound — it’s the design of it. Rafi Mercer explores how hotels can shape rest through sound, crafting rooms that listen as much as...
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The Sound Within — How Every Hotel Holds Its Ow...
Every hotel has its own quiet song — the hum, the hush, the harmony between architecture and air. Rafi Mercer explores how sound defines sanctuary, and why the best hotels...
The Sound Within — How Every Hotel Holds Its Ow...
Every hotel has its own quiet song — the hum, the hush, the harmony between architecture and air. Rafi Mercer explores how sound defines sanctuary, and why the best hotels...
The Silence They Forgot
The new frontier of hospitality — a world measured not just by taste and stars, but by tone, silence, care, and stars. The sound of the future begins here.
Discover and book listening bars selected by the TRACKS & TALES Guide
More Reads From Tracks & Tales-
Baroke Mumbai — One Floor Above a Road That Los...
Rafi MercerBaroke in Grant Road is Mumbai's first vinyl-only listening bar — over 200 records, Klipsch La Scala II speakers, and no digital fallback. A Tracks & Tales venue listing.
Baroke Mumbai — One Floor Above a Road That Los...
Rafi MercerBaroke in Grant Road is Mumbai's first vinyl-only listening bar — over 200 records, Klipsch La Scala II speakers, and no digital fallback. A Tracks & Tales venue listing.
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Dill Pickle Club: Vinyl, Reel-to-Reel, and Tasm...
Rafi MercerTooker Alley was a short lane off Dearborn Street in Chicago's Near North Side, and for most of the 1920s the loudest room on it was a converted stable where...
Dill Pickle Club: Vinyl, Reel-to-Reel, and Tasm...
Rafi MercerTooker Alley was a short lane off Dearborn Street in Chicago's Near North Side, and for most of the 1920s the loudest room on it was a converted stable where...
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The SoundBar OKC — A Living Room on Broadway
Rafi MercerThe SoundBar OKC — Oklahoma City's vinyl lounge on N Broadway Ave, with a serious sound system, drink-and-record pairings, and 12,000 albums to browse and buy.
The SoundBar OKC — A Living Room on Broadway
Rafi MercerThe SoundBar OKC — Oklahoma City's vinyl lounge on N Broadway Ave, with a serious sound system, drink-and-record pairings, and 12,000 albums to browse and buy.
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Memphis Listening Lab — The City That Gave Its ...
Rafi MercerMemphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse — a free public listening library with 75,000 recordings, a reference-grade SoundRoom, and regular listening events. The T&T guide to Memphis's civic listening room.
Memphis Listening Lab — The City That Gave Its ...
Rafi MercerMemphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse — a free public listening library with 75,000 recordings, a reference-grade SoundRoom, and regular listening events. The T&T guide to Memphis's civic listening room.
The Daily Read
More Reads From Tracks & Tales-
Marks in the Dead Wax
Rafi MercerThe run-out groove was never meant to be read. Engineers scratched matrix numbers into the dead wax for other engineers, and time turned bookkeeping into meaning. A small change to...
Marks in the Dead Wax
Rafi MercerThe run-out groove was never meant to be read. Engineers scratched matrix numbers into the dead wax for other engineers, and time turned bookkeeping into meaning. A small change to...
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Records In, Books Out
Rafi MercerThe records for the sessions arrive in stiff cardboard built to survive the post. The books go out in the same boxes. Four today, and one more sold — nothing...
Records In, Books Out
Rafi MercerThe records for the sessions arrive in stiff cardboard built to survive the post. The books go out in the same boxes. Four today, and one more sold — nothing...
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Someone Asked If They Could Take It With Them
Rafi MercerA member asked whether the sessions could exist without the video. The honest answer was yes — and it opened a door onto the part of the work nobody sees.
Someone Asked If They Could Take It With Them
Rafi MercerA member asked whether the sessions could exist without the video. The honest answer was yes — and it opened a door onto the part of the work nobody sees.
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The Fourth Order
Rafi MercerA fourth print run, placed almost absent-mindedly, for a book that has sold twelve copies. The number is small. What made the book exist in the first place was not.
The Fourth Order
Rafi MercerA fourth print run, placed almost absent-mindedly, for a book that has sold twelve copies. The number is small. What made the book exist in the first place was not.
Notes on Listening Culture
More Reads From Tracks & Tales-
Kiku Hifi, Liverpool — A Jazz Kissa in the Rope...
Rafi MercerKiku Hifi, Liverpool — a Japanese-inspired jazz kissa on Gradwell Street. Speciality coffee by day, vintage hi-fi and full-album listening by night. Opened July 2026.
Kiku Hifi, Liverpool — A Jazz Kissa in the Rope...
Rafi MercerKiku Hifi, Liverpool — a Japanese-inspired jazz kissa on Gradwell Street. Speciality coffee by day, vintage hi-fi and full-album listening by night. Opened July 2026.
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The Cold Shelf
Rafi MercerThe street gave up around four, and nothing in the flat wanted to be loud. What I was after wasn't calm — calm is a tempo. It was cold, which...
The Cold Shelf
Rafi MercerThe street gave up around four, and nothing in the flat wanted to be loud. What I was after wasn't calm — calm is a tempo. It was cold, which...
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Six Degrees of Tracks & Tales, No. 002: Kingsto...
Rafi MercerA route from a Kingston record made for open windows to a small Bristol room modelled on a Tokyo listening café — following the singer whose voice made the crossing...
Six Degrees of Tracks & Tales, No. 002: Kingsto...
Rafi MercerA route from a Kingston record made for open windows to a small Bristol room modelled on a Tokyo listening café — following the singer whose voice made the crossing...
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Six Degrees of Tracks & Tales, No. 001: Tokyo t...
Rafi MercerA route through the archive rather than a search of it. Six reads, in order, from the jazz kissa of post-war Tokyo to a Leeds bedroom built from car boot...
Six Degrees of Tracks & Tales, No. 001: Tokyo t...
Rafi MercerA route through the archive rather than a search of it. Six reads, in order, from the jazz kissa of post-war Tokyo to a Leeds bedroom built from car boot...
