Listening Not Hearing: Music Mediation through Immersive Tokyo Jazz Joints Listening Events

Abstract

This paper is based on a series of immersive listening events, in particular KIKU, an iteration that took place in the Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge in April 2025. The event was created and hosted by photographer and researcher Philip Arneill (in collaboration with HebTroCo and Coin and Club 15 Sound Selectors) and was the latest in a series of music mediation events inspired by his acclaimed Tokyo Jazz Joints project, through which he has been documenting photographically the unique world of Japanese jazz kissa (coffee shops) and jazz bars since 2015. This paper weaves autoethnographic reflections through an explanation of the origins of the project and how it has informed these subsequent immersive listening events, a Japan-influenced manifestation of music mediation with transformative power.