Barker grew up learning every instrument he could get his hands on, and, by age 13, had started with his own electronic productions. In 2002 he moved to Brighton to study music, and became involved with the flourishing experimental scene there. He started promoting his own events under the name “Instrumentality”, and event that encouraged improvisation, collaboration, and electronic experiments every week for four years. During this time he built up a sizeable collection of analogue hardware that became the backbone for his work as Voltek. In 2006 he started to work for Ned Beckett at the Littlebig agency, and a year later moved with the company to Berlin. Since co-founding Leisure System, which now boasts one of the longest club night residencies at Berghain, Barker’s broad musical vision has guided now only his own Barker & Baumecker release, Turns, as well as further Leisure System releases by the likes of Dopplereffekt, and early EPs by Objekt and Visionist (not to mention his own 2011 EP Like An Animal).

A classically trained musician, Barker is also an active instrument designer and builder who combines coding skills with analogue, electric and acoustic instrument construction under the name Voltek. Most recently he worked together with Underground Resistance’s Ray 7 on a sonic architectural exploration of empty factories in Detroit using self-programmed analogue percussion instruments.