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.
[3] Shifting their base of operation to Bowness' own Burning Shed label, Darkroom released three albums in the "Fallout" series between 2001 and 2002.
The results were eventually released in 2004 on The DAC Mixes - remix contributors included centrozoon, DJ Dictaphone, Theo Travis, Nemeton and Steven Wilson's ambient project Bass Communion.
"[4] In addition to his Darkroom work, Andrew Ostler owns and runs audio software and hardware vendor Expert Sleepers and has remixed tracks by No-Man and Bass Communion.