In Japan they're called jazz kissa - bars and cafes fitted out with high-quality sound systems and libraries of hundreds of vinyl records. They became popular after World War II when many couldn't afford luxury items, such as imported jazz albums or record players. Here, you could drink tea and coffee during the day - and sake, whisky and beer at night - while quietly listening to music selected by the owner.
When the phenomenon peaked in the '70s, there were more than 250 of these places in Tokyo alone but, with an ageing population and gentrification, fewer than a hundred remain in the city today. You can still find them, from Meikyoku Kissa Lion in Shibuya, which plays classical music and is the city's oldest listening cafe, to Dug, a basement jazz joint in Shinjuku that featured in Haruki Murakami's 1987 novel Norwegian Wood.
While these old-world establishments are in decline in Japan, overseas visitors who've stumbled across the remaining jazz kissa are embracing the concept and opening listening bars when they return home, including here in Australia. One of those people is Sean O'Neill, a music teacher who, in 2022, opened the 75-seat Astral Weeks inside a former herbalist's shop in Perth's Chinatown district in inner-city Northbridge.
"It's borderline impossible to do exactly what they do in many places in Japan, with six seats in a tiny bar, and no one talking," he says, taking a break from spinning reggae on a Friday evening. "It's a slightly different experience here. While I don't expect people to be completely quiet, the point of the bar is to listen to good music on a great system and still be able to have a conversation you can hear."