Liverpool's first Tokyo-inspired listening bar opens on Bold Street

Liverpool’s first Tokyo-inspired listening bar has opened on Bold Street, dedicated to sound and a carefully chosen vinyl.

Suono has been created in the basement underneath award-winning cocktail bar L’Aperitivo.

It’s based on a concept which originated in Japan, spreading worldwide and becoming especially popular in cities like New York and London.

The idea is that instead of music being a secondary factor, the choice of vinyl played – and the incredible hi-fi system it’s played on – become the number one priority.

Owner Mike Girling says Suono will be all about the listening bar during the week, with an amazing bespoke sound system hand-built in Liverpool, and then at weekends it’s a place to dance.

He said:

“The listening bar vibe is built around an amazing hi-fi system. We play albums so it’s moving away from the online Spotify playlist to carefully thought-about vinyl.

“All the vinyl is mine, I’ve got tonnes, and every genre is covered so there’s a lot of jazz, funk and soul, some rock and roll.

“Typically what will happen is each week we’ll announce ‘these are the albums that are getting played’ so everyone knows what to expect.

“Then on weekends the furniture will come out and it’s more of a DJ-based offering. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday there’ll be a DJ takeover and I’m working with Ra Cole who’s doing the programming for us at the weekends.”

Mike, who also owns L’Aperitivo, says he’s been thinking about bringing a listening bar to Liverpool for a while.

“L’Aperitivo opened a few years ago and that used to be a bakery so there was a kitchen and bakery downstairs. I always had the intention of doing something with that space, it was just a question of finding the right concept.

“Listening bars originated in Japan, dating back to when jazz musicians couldn’t tour to Japan so they built these bars with incredible sound systems to listen to records.

“There are some quite famous ones in New York, like Dante’s HiFi, and in London you’ve got places like Spiritland, so there’s a worldwide movement around hi-fi and listening bars right now.

“I wanted to open one in Liverpool a couple of years ago but we just weren’t ready for it, now the time is right. I wanted to build something that is sincere, built around sound as opposed to just trying to get people through the doors.

“The music in a listening bar is deliberate, it’s not background, and it’s created around either a beautiful vintage analogue system with a history or a handmade system, and the one we’ve got was hand-built in Liverpool.

“We worked GNK Audio on the dock road, myself and Ra sat in there and tried different things because in terms of the look and feel, I knew exactly what I wanted.”

Suono is Italian for sound and whatever is added, that will always be the focus.

“We’re the first to do this in Liverpool and I know within a year there’ll probably be a lot of copies, but we’ve done it, I’m very proud of it and it looks incredible.

“L’Aperitivo is beautiful, this is the next evolution of that and they’re working really well together.”