Let’s drink to that! Musicians take audience on sensory journey of sound – and cocktails
- Show by The Up:Strike Project combines works from United States, France and Argentina and drinks made from bitter, aromatic Italian spirit
- Hong Kong contemporary percussionists, who gave beer-music pairing concert in 2019, play at New Vision Arts Festival on November 12 and 13
Certain beverages have long been associated with various types of music: whisky in laid-back jazz bars, for example, wine with classical music, perhaps the French, aniseed-flavoured spirit Pernod to accompany singer Edith Piaf and a perfect martini for Tony Bennett-style crooners.
However, that is simply interpretation; in fact, any combination of music and drinks can work.
“It is more about controlling the perception and emotional features across both sensory dimensions, flavour and musical,” says Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho, associate professor at Universidad de los Andes School of Management, in Colombia, whose research centres on multisensory experiences.
Particular musical parameters, such as frequencies, timbres and harmonies, can evoke certain perceptions or emotions associated with a tasting experience, he says. His research shows that we can produce music that people associate with sweetness, bitterness, or alcohol strength.
What I thought might go well with the musical pieces tasted like [cold-and-flu cough syrup] NyQuil, but the mixologist was like, ‘I’m going to add a dash of that’, and it’s a pleasant surprise
“We have seen that most people tend to perceive a beer as more bitter when drinking such beer while listening to one of those songs that we have produced for such purposes,” Reinoso-Carvalho says.
Yet these effects do not depend on a particular cultural context, since these studies have been replicated in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
