Listening in the dark

Ben Gomori, the founder of Pitchblack Playback, on curating the optimal environment to truly hear music

Pitchblack Playback has held world and regional premieres for albums including Daniel Avery and Alessandro Cortini's 'Illusion Of Time', Andrew Bayer's 'In My Life', and the Record Store Day vinyl edition of Ian Brown's 'Solarized'

Even as the creator of Pitchblack Playback, I am still often overawed by the experience of listening to an album from start to finish on a big sound system in the dark with no-one talking, singing or bumping into me. I’ve had transformative experiences with albums I thought I already knew intimately, where I’ve felt like I’ve only truly understood their sonics for the first time after knowing them for years. It’s a simple idea but I am evangelical about it being more than the sum of its parts when it’s done right.

I first had the idea for Pitchblack Playback when I was a music journalist and the mighty electronic label Ninja Tune invited me to hear a pre-release preview of Amon Tobin’s mind-bending album ‘ISAM’ in a cinema screen in Soho. They showed visuals from the campaign in tandem, but what struck me was the quality of the sound, and the focused experience we all shared. I excitedly told some friends that I wanted to start an event where I could bring this pre-release experience to the public. They didn’t really get it—why would anyone pay money for that? Unbeknownst to me, one of them had just been to see Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame, the first act of which is held in the dark. He said: ’are you going to do it in pitch-black darkness or something?’ That was the moment it all came together (thanks, Ben Davis).

The cynic in you might think ‘that sounds like a marketing gimmick’, or might ask ‘can’t I just do that at home?’ Well unless you have a large room with a very expensive sound system, big big subwoofers, acoustic treatment and very understanding neighbours / housemates / partners, the answer is probably a resounding ‘no’. The analogy I always use is: it’s the same as watching a film in the cinema vs watching it at home. You’re not getting the full picture, the large-scale immersion, or the communion of sharing an experience with others (n.b. vital ways in which we differ from the standard cinema experience: we make announcements telling people not to talk — or sing! — we don’t allow latecomers, and everyone is given an eye mask to block out the glow of the fire exit lighting).