The Perfect Cafe

My perfect cafe doesn't play easy-listening jazz endlessly like a malfunctioning public toilet. It allows a piece of music to be played, to end, and then to let the silences breathe and become a functioning part of the atmosphere.

And then, the customer might suddenly notice some strings playing out a tune, before an orchestral tutti bounces a response, and the Presto from Mozart's Linz Symphony brings a new dimension to the cafe experience.

Seven minutes later we sit with the sounds of the shop again: the customers coming and going, the patrons in gentle chatter, the barista banging, and perhaps some clanking from the kitchen. All normal and 'natural' sounds of the environment we have created. 

When life without background music starts to feel a little too weird, a little 'too' quiet, the opening brushes of Take Five breaks the perceived silence. Five minutes later, and for five minutes afterwards, we sit with the memory of Jazz's all-time biggest selling single caressing our minds.

Time passes, and you and the attendants are left with a clean slate to think through some thoughts, to not be aggravated by music you don't like, or don't want to hear. And you may go now, knowing that you can always come back and sit without music, and maybe hear some music along the path of sitting and sipping.

Maybe then, you might hear quietly in the background the opening buzz of 'Pushit' by Tool, or the electronic pulse of 'Electric Dream' by Shapeshifter, maybe Avril Lavigne, or even The Beach Boys.

The music does sit in the background, but it also does not intrude, and it doesn't niggle and upset continuously like an earworm in the back of your brain. The point is never to override the calm spaces, but to momentarily relieve the quiet and provide alternative listening, maybe a temporary mood resetting; but to always return to the quiet space that brings calm and relaxation that musical sounds can never do.

Cafes are already noisy. And the world we have created adds to all that noise. Music in the background, whether easy-listening or hard-listening just adds up to more noise. Sound on top of sound doesn't improve, or cancel out noise. Sound layered on top of sounds create noise.

There is never any true quiet, but non-musical moments help to cleanse the palette.