Inside Polygon Portal: Soho’s Spatial Audio studio transforms Jeff Buckley’s Grace into an immersive hallelujah

‘I’m lying in bed / The blanket is warm / This body will never be safe from harm’.

There are few albums that invite you into the comfort of its sonic embrace so wholly as Jeff Buckley’s Grace. The seminal debut album is at turns touching and tragic, romantic and heady, so immaculately crafted as to continue to reveal its secrets years after its release.

And there are few rooms better equipped to present it in all its glory than Polygon Portal on Dean Street in the heart of London’s Soho.

Housed in the former private screening rooms of Warner Bros., a multi-million pound makeover has turned the cinema space into the sort of audiophile heaven that Buckley himself would have obsessed over.

Kitted out for full spatial, 360-degree surround sound, the Polygon Portal team is inviting music fans to a curated season of classic album playbacks and meditative sound bath sessions. Its listening room — all soft lighting, cosy togo chairs, blankets and velvet drapery — is equipped with a state-of-the-art 17.1.10 sound system from L-Acoustics. That works out as 17 speakers placed around the audience, each with a dedicated subwoofer, plus 10 speakers directly above the audience backed by a further 6 subs, and 4 more subs at the front of the room.

It’s loud and punchy and, more importantly, precise. This is the sort of sound system usually reserved for millionaire mansions or demanding studio spaces, far beyond the reach of the average music fan, pulling out fresh detail from recordings you’d otherwise know like the back of your hand. And don't let that put you off if you've lost your audiophile card down the back of the sofa, either — so long as you've got a pair of ears and an appreciation for music, even more casual fans will be blown away by the experience.

A secret chord

Most interestingly, Polygon Portal is presenting albums that have never publicly had a spatial audio mix before — Grace being among these. An in-house technician works with partner labels to gather the ‘stems’ for each song (the individual instrument and vocal recording layers that come together to make the final complete track) and remix them to take advantage of the spatial audio format, letting each instrument inhabit a specific space in the room, and move freely around the listener. We’re not just talking about left and right stereo, but sounds that are present over, behind, around and across the listener.

In the case of Grace, it’s revelatory. There’s always an argument to be made against spatial audio when it comes to an artist’s original intention for a mix — an argument that has more weight in a case like Jeff Buckley’s, who sadly passed in 1997. But Polygon Portal’s spatial mix of Grace is truly — to use a word thrown around all too freely — immersive.

From the opening whispers of Mojo Pin, letting you hear the breathy passion in Buckley’s voice, to the hidden mandolin I’d never noticed before in Last Goodbye, it’s like peeling back the layers of an onion — and just as likely to make you cry. Indeed, even in the dark of Polygon Portal’s acoustically treated playback room, we could hear the quiet, adoring sobs of fellow fans as the album played through.

The spatial mix avoids being gimmicky. It’s much closer to a live performance in some respects, letting you more easily pace individual instruments among the whole. But the added movement of sound brings some additional drama to proceedings — the swirling breakdown of So Real bellowing like a helicopter overhead, the weaving sitar on Dream Brother adding an other-worldly quality to the album's denouement. It helps that the songs are this good (Grace is a ‘My Perfect 10’ if ever there’s been one), and the mix walks a well-judged line between reverence and playfulness.

There’s much to look forward to in the future from Polygon Portal, too. Classic albums from Suede, The Doors, Manic Street Preachers, De La Soul, Pink Floyd and many others are getting the deluxe spatial treatment — as well as a truly special Prince playback, airing unreleased tracks for the first time.

I left Polygon Portal with both a renewed appreciation for one of my all-time favourite records, and a slight sadness that I’d probably never get to hear it quite like this ever again. Like Buckley’s all-too-short career, I guess some things are just too good to last. Music lover? You should come over.

Visit the Polygon Portal website for this season’s full listings and to buy tickets.

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