Last updated: December 3, 2025 (content will be updated over time)

SUMMARY

This is a dining SESSION designed to loosen the boundary between taste and hearing, and to open a new open chain between food and sound.

We layer a single soundscape onto a piece of sushi—or a plate of dessert. From that small gesture, we create time for both makers and guests to observe and enjoy a subtle shift in perception: “It’s the same dish, and yet the sound might change it this much… maybe.”

This SESSION is not limited to dinner courses. It can take many forms—weekend lunch, a café-time experience, and more—across different times and formats.

Not as an experiment, but as an experience

This SESSION takes cues from research on sonic seasoning, proposed by Charles Spence and others.

Findings in crossmodal perception—such as higher-pitched sounds tending to pair with sweetness or acidity, and lower-pitched sounds tending to pair with bitterness or depth—offer strong hints when designing menus and sound parameters.

Reference studies (examples):

• Sonic Seasoning and Other Multisensory Influences on the Coffee Drinking Experience
• A composition algorithm based on crossmodal taste-music correspondences
• Crossmodal interactions between audition and taste: A systematic review and narrative synthesis
• The influence of soundscapes on the perception and evaluation of beers

However, what HASSHIKI aims for is not to trace a “correct answer” exactly as described in papers. In addition to research-based sonic seasoning (e.g., frequency–taste correspondences), we want to actively incorporate sound as direction that slightly exceeds the academic frame: the resonance of the space, tempo and texture, the placement of silence, and narrative soundscapes.

Using scientific frameworks as a starting point—while allowing the chef’s and sound artist’s creations to trigger each other—we explore, session by session, how the boundary between taste and hearing can loosen.

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Co-creation process (from planning to the day)

What matters most here is the collaborative process between the chef and the sound artist. A rough flow is as follows:

1.Planning sessions with tasting (1–2 times)	The chef shares ingredients they want to use, the arc of the course, and the key taste axes for each dish (sweet / sour / salty / bitter / umami / texture, etc.). The sound side proposes sonic images linked to taste (pitch, tempo, texture, environmental sound, etc.).
2.Creating “sound notes”	While tasting together, we develop dish-by-dish ideas—“This dish wants more high frequencies,” or “Let’s emphasize this bitterness with deliberate dissonance”—and build them collaboratively.
3.Finalizing the course structure	We decide the composition of menu and sound while discussing how the course can rise as a single work.
4.On the day (improvisational adjustments)	Grounded in the pre-decided score (structure), we make subtle real-time adjustments to sound and serving timing while observing guests’ reactions.

This is a starting draft; we will reconfigure it flexibly depending on the location and participants.

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Collaborators we’re seeking

1. Chefs / restaurants
   ・Chefs who can build a “flow,” such as a course menu or sushi course
   ・Interested in discussing taste design and ingredients with sound artists
   ・Excited by “small experiments” and observing guests’ responses
2. Musicians / sound artists
   ・Interested in shaping space through ambient / experimental / electronic / sound art practices
   ・Want to tune your sonic parameters using someone else’s work (food) as a catalyst
3. Venue hosts (restaurants / spaces)
   ・Small-capacity restaurants that can offer a course format (sushi venues are very welcome)
   ・An environment where music playback or small-scale performance is possible at volumes comparable to normal business BGM
   ・If neighborhood noise considerations apply, willing to design within those conditions together
4. Videographers / filmmakers
   ・Experience filming live music and documentary work in small crews
   ・Skilled at capturing the atmosphere of a site using natural or existing light
   ・Able to balance long takes that reveal “the flow of time” with detailed shots
   ・Ideally able to handle editing as well (shoot-only is also negotiable)

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LOG

Dec 3, 2025: Concept draft published

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Support / Partner

HASSHIKI welcomes partnerships (collaboration / sponsorship) with companies, organizations, and individuals interested in this SESSION / project. Venue support, equipment cooperation, co-planning for productions, and brand/product collaborations are all welcome. Please reach out via the form below.

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