Episode 124 John Wills (POSITIVE AMBISONICS)
Announcement
We’re excited to share that we’ll be presenting “Audible Dimensions: Expanding Story Through Spatial Audio” at SXSW 2026 in Texas.
Our panel will be moderated by the creative lead at Resonant Interactions and Immersive Audio Podcast co-host, Monica Bolles, and will feature special guests: The Director of Content Creation & Distribution Solutions at Dolby Laboratories, David Gould. The Director of Immersive Media at Meta – Eric Cheng. Senior Sound Technologist for Immersive Media at 1.618 DIGITAL – Oliver Kadel.
As storytelling expands into extended reality media, such as immersive films, VR, MR, AI glasses and location-based installations, spatial audio is emerging as one of the key narrative forces. With today’s advanced head-mounted display technology, audiences expect not just 3D visuals but equally rich immersive sound that conveys presence, space and movement. This panel explores the latest innovation in immersive sound technology and practical application from three different perspectives: software and hardware capabilities of hosting platforms, the spatial audio formats and content production workflows that bring these experiences to life.
See you soon in Austin!
Summary
In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Monica Bolles is joined by the musician, sound engineer, educator – John Wills from Tayvallich, Scotland.
We discuss John’s initiative, Positive Ambisonics, a non-formal creative and educational residency programme focused on developing practical skills in recording and working with spatial audio.
John has been experimenting with sound recording from an early age. Starting with a family reel-to-reel tape recorder, before moving on to multitracking and looping cassettes on several machines. He spent the summer of 1978 at The Slade School of Art, helping his friend to make soundscapes for his finals with a VCS 3 synth and an eight-track recorder and was hooked. In the early 80’,s he discovered Eno’s ambient speaker system and recreated it with thirty car speakers for a very early spatial installation in London. He is also a musician and has toured internationally with two art noise bands on the Beggars Banquet label (Loop and The Hair & Skin Trading Co.), achieving top 40 albums. In 2017, John went to Orkney to work with BBC sound recordist Chris Watson, creating a quadraphonic piece for the Orkney Festival at St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. During this time, Chris introduced John to ambisonic recording, and since then, he’s specialised in spatial sound production, working on spatial installations. During the COVID lockdown, he presented The Great John Cage Project Podcast, playing 4:33-minute recordings that people sent in of their environment. He co-created with Pinkie Maclure a live musical, ambisonic performance for eight speakers involving audio capture and manipulation performed four times as part of her three-month exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. Now he has created a small eight-speaker ambisonic studio called +VE on the fringe of the Scottish rainforest in Argyll, inviting artists of different disciplines to record in the studio and on location to experiment with spatial production techniques. Future projects are in Arctic caves and Irish bogs.
Show Notes
Positive Ambisonics Official Website
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Credits
This episode was produced by Oliver Kadel and Emma Rees and included music by Rhythm Scott.