Murmur Mixes Up Providence’s Music Scene with an Analogue Listening Lounge

The bar at Murmur Hi-fi Lounge changes colors as the night progresses. Photos by Apparition.

Music has always been the main character at the historic WIT Building at 276 Westminster Street in Providence. First, as part of performances at the Providence Black Repertory Company, which operated there from 1996 to 2009, then later at the creative performance spaces Roots Cafe until 2013, and Aurora from 2013 to 2017. The building sat vacant since then, until new owners, Robert Troutman and Allison Johnson, came along to open Murmur HiFi Lounge.

Their goal? To turn the space into Providence’s first Japanese-inspired jazz kissaten, which is a high fidelity, analogue listening lounge derived from traditional tea-drinking/coffee shops from the 1920s where the music experience took priority. The partners were no strangers to entertaining in their own home where they showed off their vinyl collection on hi-fidelity equipment, the sound seamlessly integrated into a mid-century modern aesthetic.

The idea of opening a kissaten started after Troutman fulfilled a lifelong dream of traveling to Japan in the early 2000s. “I went for a month and a half by myself and I really got immersed in the music culture, vinyl culture, hi-fi culture, which they have perfected since the 1920s,” he says. He was also exposed to international cultures through his job as a creative director at Puma, which enabled him to spend six years traveling to different cities around the world doing photo shoots. He was drawn to listening lounge experiences in places like Berlin, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Tokyo.

Sound equipment at Murmur Hi-Fi Lounge. Photos by Apparition.

“I thought Providence needs this. Why does this not exist here?” Troutman says. “Providence is a music city. It’s known for the arts and food, but music has always been the backbone with Lupo’s, The Met Cafe, The Living Room and the Safari Lounge, so it became a ‘why not us?’ moment.”

Troutman and Johnson, who is an architect, decided to be the ones to bring a listening lounge concept to the Creative Capital. The experience at Murmur is an extension of the hospitality they curated at their home on the West End of Providence. “For the better part of eight years, we hosted friends almost nightly, played music, and curated an experience,” Troutman says. “So it wasn’t wanting to open a bar, it was wanting to create an experience.”

The two musicians – Troutman is a guitarist and Johnson a pianist – already owned an exceptional vinyl collection and some high-fidelity equipment, but they added components to it for the opening of Murmur. “Once this concept really took hold, that’s when we started looking with an eye for what would be the ultimate experience,” Troutman says.

The bar at Murmur. Photos by Apparition.

They designed the space themselves and gathered the best equipment they could find on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and Reverb, which is an audio website. Their “secret weapon,” is who they call their “master of sound,” Dave Gardell, who owns a music shop on North Main Street. Gardell had amassed a collection of audio equipment, has a background in punk rock, and was excited to work with Murmur. He became their second employee, allowing Murmur to acquire his audio arsenal. Gardell also worked with an acoustician, Lou Clark, to install the acoustic treatments on the walls to optimize the sound. Now Gardell hosts in The Den at Murmur, which is a separate private listening lounge equipped with quadraphonic sound equipment that has its own bar and an exclusive Japanese whisky and sake menu to match.

Troutman and Johnson planned out the design of the space with a drop ceiling and raised upper lounge with a view of the bar. The backlit bar changes temperature from an orange to deeper red as the night progresses. Troutman calls the white oak backbone that holds the bottles and the vinyl collection the “altar of the church” from where the music emanates, so it must be the focus of the space.

Comfortable mid-century modern furniture rounds out the room with several seating vignettes with low tables like a living room. “We wanted to create a place where we wanted to hang out. When we go places, we notice the details,” Troutman says. “We look at it from a guest perspective, and so everything from design to the carpet samples to the acoustic treatments, it not only had to do its job and sound good, but it had to look good.”

The way it works at Murmur is they plan to play certain albums each night as a “set list.” It is not the type of place where you can bring in an album or make requests, though The Den may eventually be able to be reserved in that way.

“My title is owner slash music dictator,” says Troutman with a laugh. “It’s a machine, so it’s tuned a certain way. Right now, it’s basically whatever we feel like playing. We have a collection that’s both wide and deep, but it fits the Murmur brand. It ranges from classic rock, jazz, post punk, punk. It’s riding the vibe of the room. I like to think of it as, we’re not necessarily playing what people want to hear, but it’s what they didn’t know they needed to hear.”

But the experience has the potential to become more interactive. “We will eventually have a night that you can reserve The Den and bring in your own records, and whoever’s here will host and put them on the record player and curate the experience,” Troutman says.

The food and drink menu at Murmur also had to measure up to the sound. They hired one of the best bartenders in the business, Parker Luthman (formerly of Gift Horse and The Eddy, and founder of his own venture, Play It Cool), as beverage director and bar manager. Murmur’s head chef, Chris Cronin, founded Little Moss in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and also worked in Boston with Jamie Bissonnette of Toro, Little Donkey and now BCB3 hospitality group fame.

Murmur cocktails are reflective of the atmosphere. The team secured a Toki Highball machine from Japan, and Luthman was charged with creating the cocktail list. “We met with Parker early on and gave him the reins for the cocktail program,” Troutman says. “We said this is what the concept is, a jazz kissaten, and the cocktails should be reflective of that and feel like a part of the experience.”

A Toki highball. Photos by Apparition.

They decided on freezer martinis to limit the shaking of cocktails, which might interfere with the sound. They also wanted to make sure the sake selection was on par for a Japanese-inspired bar. “It’s an experience that has a tradition, so sake is part of that tradition,” Troutman adds. “There are non-traditional sakes that are bending the rules, and we like that because we are bringing a punk rock attitude to everything we do.”

The Toki Highball machine blends “really nice” soda water to make highly carbonated sips. “It’s almost like champagne bubbles. It stays carbonated, and then it mixes whatever spirit you put in,” Troutman says. “We use Toki whiskey, and it’s based on the right ratio that comes with it, which is a perfect blend. They are infinitely crushable.”

The machines are very hard to get, requiring verification that it will be used correctly in the right environment. “They don’t just give it to anybody. They vet you,” Troutman says. “You have to show the plans, and they do a site visit. And it took almost a year to get it.”

The three most popular drinks so far are the Murmur Martini, a twist on a classic with gin, apple brandy, dry vermouth, walnut and white soy, the Social Smoker with mezcal, yuzu sake, salers and celery and the Miso Daiquiri (coconut rum, blanco rum, white miso, white pepper and lime). As for the highballs, you can go traditional with the Toki (Suntory Toki Whisky, lemon oils and “really nice” soda water) or more crisp and refreshing with the Plastic Love (Kiroku Honkaku Imo Shochu, La Caravedo Pisco, Jasmine, Asian pear, yogurt whey and “really nice” soda water).

The Murmur freezer martini. Photos by Apparition.

Cronin’s food menu features shared small plates like shishito peppers, french fries with furikake salt and yuzu aioli, Murmur wings and karaage tenders made with chicken from Baffoni Farm, served with house buffalo or Bulldog sauce. There’s also a jammy egg salad sandwich and yakitori skewers, including red sasso chicken thigh, skate cheek, blue oyster mushroom and more.

For dessert, Hal Bourne, formerly from Glou on Ives Street (pour one out for them), is making magic with mochi doughnut holes in rotating flavors. The latest was white rum with black sugar grapefruit cheesecake mousse and a makrut lime sugar dusting. There’s also a coffee and bourbon castella cake made with Peychaud’s pastry cream, miso caramel, Rainier cherries, fig leaf and Mahleb spice. Bourne also makes the milk bread for other dishes on the main menu.

Everyone on the team is bringing their skills to the turntables whether it’s in the kitchen, on the bar or in curating the musical atmosphere.

“We’ve got a lot of people with special talents here, so we’re going to utilize them for sure,” Troutman says.

Murmur is open six days a week, Wednesday through Monday, from 4 p.m. to close. 276 Westminster St., Providence, @murmurhifi