Article in The Times:
Apparently people are paying money to listen to whole albums in the dark. Those who are enjoying it are, I suspect, discovering something that many of us here have known for ages - that listening to music intentionally and intensively, on a good system, can be transformative.
Discuss?
Yes
Yes , and with a nice glass of Rioja and in the winter nights scented candles.
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I remember my preferred listening time to Dark Side of the Moon just after it was released was just as dusk started. As I lived in the Caribbean then, by the time we got to Eclipse it was pitch black. It doesn’t work so well in the UK but………..
An ideal use case for a 42 minute fade to black on the smart lighting then…
Completely coincidentally, just came across this quotation:
‘…hearing and seeing do not blend well; they rather compete - in an unequal competition in which seeing usually wins… Only when the distraction of sight is removed can our minds give full attention to what we hear. Our appreciation of sound then becomes far keener and more critical. This is why … many people … find it well to listen to the radio with the room darkened, and to close their eyes in the concert hall’
James Jeans (1937). Science and Music.
The cheapest upgrade, close your eyes and listen.
In my teens I would retire to the music room, draw the curtains, turn the light off, invite the dog to sit next to me and listen to Sibelius. Bliss.
Nowadays I’m often find myself reading when listening to music; however, music is essential when dropping off to sleep.
Eyes closed every time!
I can’t read while listening to music (other than sometimes following the transletion of an opera’s libretto), but I sometimes put music on when I’m reading, especially if there are distracting noises around (of course, the music risks becoming a distracting ‘noise’ itself,).
One interesting thing about the experience that opened this thread, is that they use eye masks not a darkened room (before I started reading and just from first glance at the photo I assumed they were in a theatre or cinema where the lights would just be turned off). The trouble is turning the lights off doesn’t usually facilitate listening in the dark, especially for anyone with a hi-fi system having lots of indicator lights etc. I sometimes listen with my eyes closed, akin to that eye mask though far more comfortable, but I never turn all room lights off and try and listen in darkness that way. That described experience, as someone has mentioned, is interesting because it may be introducing people to something similar to hi-fi sound when all they are used to is earbuds or small wireless speakers etc. it will be interesting to see if it catches on!
Listening in the dark, ie. without any electric lights switched if listening when it is dark outside, may actually lead to objectively better sound due to less HF noise from LED lighting either directly or through the mains path. Then there is also the possibility of a psychological effect. Some people may find it preferable for one reason or another. Maybe they can concentrate better. Personally I dislike it as it seems unnatural and contrived to me. I also can’t listen to music whilst doing anything else. Reading and having music on is like a form of torture to me and the music just becomes an awful distracting, annoying noise. Horrible. When I listen to music I have to sit down and give it my full attention when I become utterly engrossed in it. To me that’s the only way.
Later in the article, someone is quoted as saying that listening to music on a good system allows all sorts of extra details to be clearer and a richer experience to be had. Hopefully this will indeed catch on!
I attended a similar thing at St. Andrew’s Church in Holborn last November. Only with live musicians rather than a playback system. Interesting, but not something I’d go to again. That may have had something to do with the music played (relentlessly bland and inoffensive - Sigur Ros, Coldplay etc). But it was far more enjoyable when you could remove your mask and watch these wonderful musicians actually playing their instruments.
As an early teenager in the mid-1970s I had a grey fold-up record player with a detachable pair of speakers. I also had a very large and solid wardrobe in my bedroom that had a central door. I suspended the speakers on the hanging rails on either end of the wardrobe and sat inside it in the dark to listen to music. Band on The Run and Tubular Bells were particular favourites - it was like being in another world. I still play those albums regularly now, and despite this bonkers-sounding behaviour, I turned out alright! This was possibly the start of my 50-year obsession with audio 
Yes, music has always been better with minimal or reduced lighting in the room.
A bigger thing for me seems to be how amazing music is, even if not top quality, when watching an accompanying video on the big screen. Getting the visual senses involved probably lessens concentration on the music but I honestly find the AV experience often sublime.
Ultimately it matters not as we just enjoy things or don’t.
