Six Turntables
Workshop and Performance
Six Turntables is an ongoing project that brings together groups of young people to listen to and remix audio archives. Each iteration centers around a unique collection of sound recordings—always tied to the place where the workshop is staged—and culminates in a multi-day workshop and a performance.
Blending sound-making, somatic practice, writing, and dialogue, the workshops explore experiences of collective listening, and historical music/sound practices. Records are approached not as commodity objects, but as shared experiences, reactivated through embodied listening practices and creative reuse. In each session, participants engage in listening exercises that cultivate sonic and spatial awareness, followed by sound making experiments where they manipulate custom-cut vinyl records using turntables and audio amplifiers. Through the process, they develop an experimental form of group DJing, transforming archival fragments into new sonic compositions.
Each iteration ends with an experimental concert where participants perform the soundscapes they've created together. A zine documenting their process is also produced and shared.
The audio recordings used in the workshops include sounds created during past workshops and archival materials specific to each new presentation context. For example, at the Toronto Public Library we worked recordings of experimental music made in Toronto in the 1970’s found in the TPL’s vinyl record collection, and at the Music Gallery we worked with recordings from the Music Gallery Editions label. In 2025/26 we’re planning a new iteration with a music festival and an artist-run centre, reworking audio found in each institution’s archive of past performances.
Six Turntables has been shared in a variety of contexts in Canada since 2017. For more information you can read this call for workshop participants from a previous iteration at the Toronto Biennial of Art in 2024.
Presentation History:
Guelph Jazz Festival, TBA 2025
Toronto Biennial of Art, October 30 - November 7 2024
The Music Gallery, X Avant Festival, October 3 - 11 2023
Toronto Public Library (Albion), February 11- March 4 2023
Toronto Public Library (Cedarbrea), October 1 - November 15 2019
Toronto Public Library (Scarborough Civic Centre), October 12-29 2017
Credits
Project by Christopher Willes, created in collaboration with Akash Bansal (dramaturge). Workshop co-facilitated by Akash Bansal and Christopher Willes. Photo by Kendra Epik.
Music Gallery workshop participants/performers: Aliyah Aziz, Jada Fleming, Julianna Angheloni, Ky Gray, Nikki Gilani and Will Carriere. Toronto Public Library workshop participants 2017-2023: Gian Caracciolo, Gianluca Occhipinti, James Wells, Jason Li, Lucas McCarten, Maria Patricia Abuel, Taggart Quinn, Ximuna Diego, and Nanthini Namasti.
Special thanks to Jenn Goodwin, Roxanne Fernandes, James Baily, Gayle Young, Sanjeet Takhar, Matthew Fava, Max Halparin, Mitchell Akiyama, Seika Boye, Jim Lewis, Michelle Brownrigg, Emerald Ekong, Olang Cerda-Moesker, Joseph Glaser, Keith Stratton, Ellen Furey, Claire Harvie, Joe Strutt, Anne Bourne, Ishan Davé, Kendra Epik, Philip Nozuka, Erika Hennebury, Beau Levitt, Bill Vrantsidis, Radha Shilash, Liz Hysen, and Raymond Bai for helping us to develop this project through it’s various stages.
Photographs by Kendra Epik, Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias
Custom vinyl records cut by Jackson Darby (Personal Touch Vinyl).
Developed with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council - Artists in the Library Program (2017-23). Produced by Christopher Willes, in partnership with Public Recordings.
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Related projects: Listening in the library, Listening at the CLGA, Cheap DJ, Quiet Concerts, Noises