Exploring new approaches to spatial audio composition and live performance

Kirk Barley is Yorkshire-born composer, producer and sound artist, also known for his earlier work as Bambooman and as one half of Church Andrews & Matt Davies.

In September 2026, Kirk joined the XR Stories team as a creative in residence to work on a research and development (R&D) project exploring new approaches to spatial audio composition and live performance.

Much of Kirk’s work as a composer and live electronic musician stems from self-built systems in Max/MSP and Ableton (software tools used in music production), where the technology is not just a way of playing back material, but becomes part of the composition itself. These systems often behave like small ecosystems, with sounds triggering, modulating and responding to one another in real time.

During his residency, Kirk will explore how these existing tools can be used and developed within an immersive spatial audio context. Working with a custom software and performance environment developed with Phil Fisher, the first stage of the residency will focus on calibrating its existing spatial functionality for the XR Stories multichannel speaker system and exploring how it translates from headphone-based development into a physical space.

The wider research will investigate how live sound, sequencing and performance data can interact with spatial movement, and how space itself can become part of the compositional process rather than being added afterwards.

Kirk’s research will explore how spatial movement, speaker relationships and real-time diffusion can become core compositional materials, where space is part of the musical logic from the beginning.

Kirk will also experiment with binaural recording, both as a way of documenting spatial performances and as a format for future headphone-based works.

At the end of the residency, Kirk aims to have tested and calibrated his existing spatial performance system within the XR Stories environment, developed a set of refined spatial techniques, and created a short work-in-progress demonstration.

Longer term, the R&D undertaken as part of this residency could feed into future live performances, binaural releases, spatial installations and interactive audiovisual work, where performance data could also be used to control light, video or virtual environments.

Categories: Audio, Performance, Research, Technology