Collective (5)

Darkroom originally formed in 1996 under the name Collective. The project featured three musicians who had been working together since the early 1990s: synthesizer player Andrew "Os" Ostler, guitarist Michael Bearpark and vocalist Tim Bowness (the latter being the singer for No-Man, an art-pop band who had by then released six albums on One Little Indian Records, 3rd Stone Ltd. and Voiceprint). Collective was formed in order to provide a live soundtrack at the Nevers Film Festival in France, working via extensive looping of synthesizers, electric guitar and abstract vocals. The project self-released the limited-edition Soundtracks album in 1997, following which there was a name change to Darkroom and an ill-fated performance slot at the Wise Crone Cafe tent at the 1997 Glastonbury festival. In 1998 Darkroom released the Carpetworld EP on the Halloween Society imprint of 3rd Stone Ltd. The EP was followed in the same year by the Darkroom debut album Daylight, which featured most of the tracks from Soundtracks.