Bay Area consumers, yearning to be entertained in novel ways, are no strangers to technological innovation. Robots can make our coffee and deliver our food, virtual reality is constantly mined for new immersive experiences, and Silicon Valley startups in general strive to tighten our relationships with technology. But while concerts often showcase visuals, with impressive lighting rigs and elaborate digital installations, rarely do they alter the sonic delivery beyond the convention of audience-facing speakers from the stage. And given those limitations, what if we remove all focus on the performer, and instead prioritize how we connect to the complex detail of what we’re hearing?
Luckily, San Francisco’s immersive audio venue Envelop SF, a nonprofit within The Midway, does just that. Employing 32 speakers that spatially surround the entire audience, Envelop’s mission is to connect to the community by providing a unique space to “deeply listen, relax, and reset.” My introduction to Envelop was through a listening event featuring a spatial upmix of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ambient experimental album, Async (2017), re-engineered by Envelop director Christopher Willits.
Sakamoto rose to fame in the 1980s as Japan’s equivalent of David Bowie, embracing pop synths as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra and contributing his unique sound to original scores for films such as Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Last Emperor (1987). He’s recently contributed an ambient electronic score to The Revenant (2015) and playful piano tracks to Call Me By Your Name (2017), and is the focus of underrated documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (2018), which showcases his genius approach to appreciating nuanced sound. Async was even influenced by the meditative soundscapes of Russian arthouse filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, contributing further to the album’s masterful ambient production. In short, I couldn’t imagine a better way to first experience what Envelop has to offer.
Upon entering The Masonic, I was warmly welcomed into a dark room reserved for the Envelop setup. At the entrance, all patrons are asked to store their shoes in a cubby and offered refreshments for donations, immediately introducing a relaxing space. I walked into the room sparsely lit by blue light and sat amongst short backrests arranged in inner and outer rings on the carpet. Spaced around all of us in a circle were eight engulfing towers, each with strips of LED lights and three speakers from bottom to top, along with eight more distributed between the ground and the ceiling. The other patrons made friendly conversation quietly amongst themselves, with ambient sound already washing the space with calm wonder. Suddenly, the lights fade to black and the sound dissolves to silence.
A wandering, aching piano melody slowly builds from different parts of the room, each delicate note connected in a pulse of light near speakers they emerged from. As the environment feels calm, a breathy, ambient tone materializes around us and carries the stillness into a glowing layer of deep organ. Only a minute into Async’s opening track “andata,” and the space already feels meditative and mesmerizing— both peaceful and intensely emotional. With each intricate musical component emerging as dancing rays of light, Sakamoto’s microscopic attention to subtle texture and dynamics comes to life vibrantly and powerfully.
The abstract, yet, intimate space was unflinchingly captivating and otherworldly, continuing to persist and morph with every detail for the album’s entire hour. Every song was an immersive dream so rooted in the physical space around us that I often felt the collective presence of each body around me, all united in the communal environment. Yet, I was still in sync with my own abstract emotional journey, guided by light and motion and some of the most stimulating expressions of ambient sound I have ever experienced. Feeling deeply set in both my head and my body, I leaned back to hear the high-pitched piano tick of “disintegration” emanate through the room from directly below my head, and felt a nearly ghostly presence as voices echoed multi-language prose reflecting on the inexhaustible perception of life on “fullmoon”.
Capturing the complex beauty of the entire experience in words feels impossible because of how personal and abstract the state of deep listening feels. It felt powerfully therapeutic, and truly an opportunity to “deeply listen, relax, and reset” if I’ve ever experienced one. When it ended, I couldn’t help but feel transported and renewed, like emerging back into reality from a waking dream.
Needless to say, the immersive approach, especially with Sakamoto’s music, was incredibly moving. And with Envelop’s flagship venue in SF only being a few years old, they are already delivering their immersive sound experiences masterfully. They host multiple events each week, featuring sound baths, restorative yoga, and upmixes of works by artists such as Sade, Philip Glass, and The Flaming Lips.
I was told that Ryuichi Sakamoto is a personal favorite of those putting on the events, so they try to showcase his music sparingly, making that night feel all the more special. Envelop’s website promises that their space “amplifies the social and emotional impact of music,” which was not only exceptionally achieved on site, but also remains accessible to the community through their open-source spatial audio production tools for Ableton Live. If you’re looking for a rich deep listening experience, you can find more information and a schedule of events on their website.
Article by Dylan Medlock
Photos by Alingo Loh