At La Villa, in Alta Badia, the first bar with integrated Alpine design in the world where sound guides the experience: from cocktails based on Hertz frequencies to atypical design
In many listening bars, music simply acts as a backdrop, without really being the protagonist. Not at B-Side Alpine Hi-Fi Listening Barhowever, where the songs they occupy the room, define it, populate it. From 5 December 2025, something new was born on the international scene: the first cal bar in the world with a hi-fi design specifically designed for the Alpine context.
This is not a thematic venue, nor a conceptual experiment as an end in itself. B-Side was born in La Villa (in the heart of Alto Adige) from a very specific intuition: to bring the culture of a passionate and conscious listeningthe one that has roots in jazz kissa Japanese from the 1950s and which today animates some of the most interesting bars in London, Tokyo and New York. With an additional element: the interpretation of this sensitivity through the matter, the rhythm and the identity of an Alpine territory.
The architecture of sound
The audio system is a kind of tailor-made suit. It was in fact developed in collaboration with New Fidelity and resør electronics, carefully calibrated to return depth, clarity and sonic presence without ever overwhelming the conversation. The frequencies fill the room evenly, without peaks or dead corners. And music is perceived with the same quality from every point in space.
A choice that also influenced the architectural project, curated by the interior designer Andrea Guarino by BCOME.Studio. Layout, padding, sound-absorbing materials: everything has been thought of so that the room does not simply contain the system, but is actually part of it. The music selector’s desk, then, is not isolated in a corner, but integrated into the center of the room, within the social fabric of the bar.
But the real heart of the experience is the Frequency Menu: a mixing program built around sound frequencies expressed in Hertz. Each cocktail translates the sensory qualities of a specific frequency into the glass, which can evoke depth, tension or brightness. Next to each drink, a QR code allows you to listen to the vibration that inspired it and discover how it manifests itself in music.
The menu’s visual identity was developed by British audiovisual artist KLSR, who works atintersection between sound and image through real-time generative processes. The result is an object consistent with the philosophy of the bar: sound becomes shape, color, an experience to be enjoyed.
The new alpine design
B-Side deliberately avoids the more predictable codes of mountain aesthetics. For example, there are no hunting trophies on the walls. The design includes dolomite stone, natural surfaces, materials selected from suppliers a few kilometers from the bar: everything refers to the territory without however imitating it. As managing owner Emanuela Pezzei explains, «Alta Badia has a natural rhythm that invites you to slow down»and B-Side was born to respect that rhythm, translating it into something contemporary.
The approach with which the project is carried out is called natural comfort: not a style imposed on the space, but rather a sensation. That of entering a place where everything is coherent, calibrated, in tune with the landscape beyond the windows.
