When Francesco and Maissa reached out to us with their plans for a semi-public multisensory venue in their beautiful Marseille home, we immediately knew that this would be a special project. Their respective backgrounds in jazz and architecture made working with them a pleasure, and we hand-delivered our speakers to them for the collaborative kick-off event.
Francesco had paid our studio a visit after inviting us to one of his gigs as a jazz percussionist at Berlin's A-Trane. It was quickly clear that we would be a good match, and after explaining to us the plans for Marseille, we were on board. As part of our three week tour through southern Europe in spring 2026, we personally delivered the speakers on our way from Milan to Girona – not only is marseille physically in the middle, it also offered a halfway point for us to take a breather in between gigs.
By then, the plans for the location had taken shape under the name of Ascolta Mangia Guarda – Italian for listen, eat, watch. We co-hosted the opening event as a collaborative listening session, paired with savory snacks and wines. Francesco pulled out his extensive collection of jazz vinyls, and we brought some modern music ranging from electronic ambient to trip hop. Although the initial sound was already surprisingly nice for an almost untreated space, we spent the first day of our stay with measuring the room and dialing in the right response. The result paid off: Guests were presented with a clear, rich sound hitting with controlled power in the low end, extending down to 30 Hz thanks to proper placement and advantageous venue geometry – no subwoofers needed.
Although our french skills are frankly stuck at mediocre school levels and not all of the guests understood english, the atmosphere spoke for itself. Every now and then, attentive listeners gifted us with impressed faces, rewarding the work we put into our speakers – this marked their first permanent public deployment, after all. The evening eventually fizzled out with an original pressing of The Dark Side of the Moon, leaving just the four of us to sit contently in the warm embrace of some ambient selections. Truly a special experience, and one that reinforces the recommendation of anyone in the Marseille area to keep an eye out for Ascolta Mangia Guarda's future events.
