If you’re anything like us, you don’t need any excuse to visit the Barbican. But should you need a little nudge there’s this: Spirtland is about to open a new listening bar on the arts institution’s second floor, with views of its famed fountains and lake. The new Spiritland comes 10 years after Paul Noble and Sophie Uddin opened one of London’s first listening bars in King’s Cross, and will be in residence for nine months ahead of the Barbican’s upcoming closure and renovation.
Spiritland at the Barbican opens on October 20. As the residency is temporary, the duo won’t be making any structural changes. Instead, they’ll be “dressing” the room. “It’s mostly furniture, we’re working with Tom Dixon, we’re working with a Finnish artist as well, so we have a very specific design bent,” Uddin tells Broadsheet. Expect plenty of perforated woods, deep reds and leather banquettes. “Because it’s temporary we can do something one week, we can take it out the next,” Noble says.
The new space gives the Spiritland team latitude to be more experimental. “We’re going to go much deeper into down-tempo music, classical,” Noble says. “We’ll do a piano week, we’ll focus on certain labels. Also, because of the audiences who are attracted to the Barbican, we can get more esoteric with the music. So we’ve got DJs who are probably just too deep or niche for King’s Cross.”
Musically, the experience will centre around a pair of Living Voice R252 speakers, which Noble says is five times the scale of the system installed in King’s Cross. “The quality of the sound is just beyond anything. We’re redefining the listening bar experience,” Noble says. Each day at 5pm the team will play an entire album, chosen by Uddin or Noble. “I like to focus on new music and new artists, because you wouldn’t ordinarily hear those out in the wild,” Uddin says. But it could also mean an entire week of albums from one label like Rough Trade or Partisan, or any number of artists the pair is currently listening to – they name drop Terry Riley, Parliament, bass player Harold Anderson, an Irish artist called Dove Ellis and more.
The initial programme includes shows by Johnny Trunk, Martin Green and Bill Brewster, as well as a night of early French synth. While it’ll be closed on Mondays, there will be occasional special events, including talks, whisky tastings and listening sessions. There’ll be a semi-regular talk event with Paul West from design house Considered Things, as well as deep listening sessions hosted by Kevin Scott, who’s behind the impressive sound system.
Chef Matt Cranston (ex-Lardo, The Cow) has led the bar menu, which is European- and Japanese-influenced. A bigger kitchen than King’s Cross means more space to play, and a weekend brunch menu. Cocktails will be “really delicious, simple”, Uddin says. There’ll be two-sip versions of larger cocktails, and they’ll feature spirits from Santori, East London Liquor and 58 and Co.
“When we started, the listening bar was not a thing,” Noble says. “No one knew what we were about … people would ask us why we had chairs in the middle of the dancefloor. Now it's a phenomenon, and we’ve stuck to our guns and said no to lots of things. So when something right like this comes along, we can say yes.”
Spiritland at the Barbican opens on October 20.
