Sounds by Devon Turnbull aka. OJAS

Upon entering Devon Turnbull’s Hi-Fi Listening Room Dream No. 1, one can easily mistake where one is located. There is an immediate feeling of being transported to the listening bars in Japan where listening bars have been created as dedicated spaces where music is played through high quality audio equipment for the sole purpose of listening to the music and nothing much more. Originating from the 1950s in Japan, listening bars are also known as Jazz Kissa which was born after the war. Music was not a background or accompaniment to the act of eating, but the sole focus of why people visit these listening bars. As a purist, you arrive, sit, relax and simply enjoy the music played on a high quality audio system. Several establishments in London and New York have imported the idea of the listening bar, but the true essence of it is often reduced by the serving of food or worse, distractions from loud customers.

Devon Turnbull’s Hi-Fi Listening Room Dream No. 1 at The Vinyl Factory, 180 Strand. Image by Von Chua.

Talk less, listen more.

Get less distracted, but hear, and really listen to the audio being shared in that space. In a visually driven world, the listening bar provides a meditative space for people to enjoy music and sound together.

In an underground space in London at the 180 Strand, such a listening bar was set up in 2024. Part of The Vinyl Factory’s REVERB exhibition, a multimedia exhibition exploring the intersection between art and sound, the listening bar was the culmination point and highlight of the exhibition. The listening room was custom-made with a high quality audio system by Devon Turnbull, placing audio through and through at its heart, in a visually appealing manner too if I may say so, the Hi-Fi Listening Room Dream No. 1 was revealed as part of the REVERB exhibition. Is it art? Does art have to be visually apparent? I do not think so, and the Hi-Fi Listening Room Dream No. 1 was a perfect example of a visually invisible art.

Curated as the final room in the REVERB exhibition, the steward had to guide and remind the crowd that there was one last room in the exhibition. The space holding the Hi-Fi Listening Room Dream No. 1 invites visitors to remove their shoes before entering the carpeted exhibition space. The act of removing one’s shoes immediately changes the pace and comfort level of visitors. All of a sudden, you might feel like you are entering a friend’s house or a sacred space. Before entering from a dark space, one hears music and smells the burning of incense too. Coupled with the zaisu - chairs with a back but with no legs, it further reinforces this emotion and encourages one to shift their mindset. There is a welcoming feeling, a feeling of being invited to a small and intimate space where you are sitting very low down, almost on the carpet. Perhaps these were inspired from Turnbull’s trips to Japan. The presentation of Devon Turnbull’s work in this exhibition is presenting the audiophile’s sound system within an art setting.

Devon Turnbull from New York, more commonly known through his pen name OJAS or through fashion or celebrity collaborations, the main point of his work is through the invisible art of sound. One cannot, however, overlook the visual refinement that earned him the installation of Ojas Listening Room at the USM Showroom in New York. In a Financial Times article published in November 2023, Turnbull was quoted as saying

My client base is, I’m sure, a big part of the visibility of my practice. I initially wanted to shy away from my background in fashion because I was afraid of people in the high-end audio world dismissing me as just being fashionable. I don’t doubt that there are plenty of people that this drives crazy, but it’s not by design. I didn’t set out to create a brand and attract people by working with X, Y and Z - that’s just my peer group.

Turnbull is placing the vintage audio listening experience within an art exhibition or a boutique lifestyle setting. One clear point of differentiation with Turnbull’s work is that he is tuned in to the spatial environment where his sound systems are installed. His engagement with the sensorial aspects and how one uses space - the understanding of the human connection to spaces provides a superior experience between his Listening Room and other listening bars.

The cherry on top in the future would be a drink to go with the listening experience. Serviced in a similar manner as those cinema experiences that allows viewers to order food or beverages to the seats, delivered discreetly, would be the perfect way to spend a few hours to recharge.