Sonic Seasoning: Harmony of music and food create unique experience and field of science

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A distillery in Washington DC has created a whole new sensory feast -- food, music and drinks mingling together and bringing out the best harmony. CGTN's Frances Kuo brings you more.

Inside this distillery in Washington DC is a whole new world. it's not a bar or a restaurant or a concert but the best of all three -- in perfect harmony.

JOHN DEVLIN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR, GOURMET SYMPHONY "There's not a lot of artistic experiences that you can find that actually creatively involves all five of your senses at once."

Two senses in particular -- Taste and sound.

CARA WEBSTER ONE EIGHT DISTILLING "If you think about it, when you go to a restaurant, and there's no music playing, you notice it and it feels strange."

JOHN DEVLIN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR, GOURMET SYMPHONY "So many of the alternative experiences in the concert hall are so formal that we find ourselves being a little renegade by not being that way."

This concert put on by -- appropriately titled "gourmet symphony" -- is raising its game. yes, there's music and food. but the difference here is -- each musical composition, each dish is designed to complement the other.

MARK MADDEN ATTENDEE "We tend to look at meals as meals, and entertainment as entertainment, and I think that does a disservice to ourselves as human beings because we sense everything, we feel everything."

The theme for this intimate experience is "American expressions" -- providing a slice of Americana through what's called "sonic seasoning." One featured musical piece -- the American composition "Appalachian Spring".

JOHN DEVLIN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR, GOURMET SYMPHONY "Appalachian Spring describes a farm scene and then you go to the spread laid out for you and it looks like a picnic."

Then there's the American classic "hoedown" paired with a beef dish.

MARK MADDEN ATTENDEE "Then we went down to the beef tenderloin, it's the land, it's what says America, we have beef, we're here."

FRANCES KUO WASHINGTON DC "This concert isn't the only place playing off this idea that music can enhance the eating experience. In fact, this concept is also being explored at a research lab thousands of miles away."

CHARLES SPENCE EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGIST, OXFORD UNIVERSITY "What you hear shouldn't, but, in fact, does change what you taste."

Charles Spence is an experimental psychologist at Oxford University focusing on the science behind our senses. For more than 15 years he has studied the specific interaction between taste and sound. he's discovered they don't just work separately but also simultaneously.

"Higher-pitched music will bring out sweetness in a dish, whereas low-pitched brassier sounds will accentuate the bitter notes instead." "Sound really is the forgotten flavor sense."

His research has reached beyond the lab into restaurants.

CHARLES SPENCE EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGIST, OXFORD UNIVERSITY "You find horrendous examples of eating curry in July while listening to Bing Crosby singing Christmas songs, it's all kind of wrong!" "We will be in a world in a few years' time of this total experience, when we want all of our senses stimulated."

Yet another mystery of the human body, we're just getting a taste of.

CARA WEBSTER ONE EIGHT DISTILLING "It really brings everything full circle. The options are endless."

FRANCES KUO, CGTN, WASHINGTON.