Beneath Dean Street in Soho, a new venue is trying to change the way people hear music.
The Polygon Portal, described as London’s first dedicated 360-degree spatial audio listening room, has opened as a space built around concentration rather than distraction. Audiences sit together in near darkness while albums and performances unfold inside an immersive multi-speaker environment.
At a time when live music often competes with conversation, phones and crowded bars, Polygon’s approach feels unusually focused. The idea is simple enough: listen properly.
The venue has been created by Polygon Productions and sits below 75 Dean Street in Soho. The room uses one of the UK’s most advanced spatial audio systems, designed to place listeners inside the music rather than directly in front of it. The emphasis is less on spectacle and more on detail, texture and space.
For jazz audiences, one forthcoming session stands out. On Monday 25 May, Donny McCaslin and Richard Spaven come together for immersive playbacks of their recent albums Lullaby for the Lost and Light Of Day. McCaslin, still widely associated with David Bowie’s Blackstar period, has long explored the territory between contemporary jazz and electronics, while Spaven’s work connects broken beat, fusion and UK club music. The session also includes a live Q&A with both musicians.
That event fits neatly with Polygon Portal’s wider programme, which mixes landmark album playbacks, essay-led listening sessions and sound-based wellbeing events. Planned presentations include immersive explorations of Grace by Jeff Buckley and Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, alongside themed sessions such as Jazz: The Turning Point 1959 and Inherited Trance & Sacred Rhythms.
The jazz connection makes sense. Spatial audio technology can easily become gimmicky, but jazz has always depended on close listening, interaction and sonic detail. In the right setting, hearing ensemble music unfold with greater physical depth could be genuinely revealing rather than merely novel.
Polygon Portal may not suit everyone. Silence and attention are now oddly demanding things to ask of an audience. Still, the venue’s commitment to communal listening feels refreshing. Soho has no shortage of places to hear music. Fewer spaces are designed simply to let people absorb it.
MORE FROM MARLBANK
