Saunders began experimenting with keyboards and computer soundchips (C64 SID chip in particular) around 1986, composing instrumental three voice music and sound effects.
Inspired by rock'n'roll and the possibilities of audio 'art', in 1989 he took up his 'neighbour's neglected guitar' and began forming bands in the style of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, playing pubs and clubs around Birmingham city centre.
Performing music that required a certain level of calm and concentration on the part of the audience brought with it certain concerns: "We were finding that the quieter tracks were getting talked over to the point where you'd feel like you may as well stop and get up and go to the bar with them.
In March 2000, the band completed their debut LP I Guess Sometimes I Need to Be Reminded of How Much You Love Me, which was subsequently released by 4AD (where they remain signed today) to great critical acclaim in some quarters.
In 2004, Magnétophone's track 'Kel's Vintage Thought', co-written with The Breeders' Kelley Deal, was voted by listeners of BBC 6 Music as the Rebel Playlist winner on the Steve Lamacq show.
In 2008, Magnétophone contributed an instrumental track called "The Old Silver In and Out" to an online tribute compilation to classical and electronic composer György Ligeti, who scored music for Eyes Wide Shut, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining.
Magnétophone's melodies, whether sung or played on an instrument, are supported by dirty, scratchy synths, solid electro and acoustic breaks, detuning guitars and sonic 'artefacts' that blink-in and out of the audio picture-frame seemingly at random.
Much of Magnétophone's music from the early singles to the first LP is notable for its 'challenging' nature (the pounding, broken, distorted beats and unrecognisable bass textures of "I Hear Blonde Falcons" being a case in point), and it is clear that the band at this stage were often concerned with creating original audio 'objects' that have questionable worth outside of pure abstract appreciation; other tracks from this time more clearly reference rock'n'roll's more simple appeal, and the balancing of these two ethics across a record creates a unique and unsettling audio and emotional experience.
"Whichever way a Magnétophone track is leaning in terms of its 'influence' or 'style', there is a tangible thread of intelligent and careful boundary-searching and maverick but conscientious sound construction through it; and always towards the end of creating a slightly uncomfortable environment for a "proper" song to play out in.
Somehow, like Francis Bacon's 'snail trail of human presence' being evident in a painting, Magnétophone's music quietly announces that they have attended there, whilst suggesting it was perhaps other people.
Their work with V23's design-icon Vaughan Oliver and photographer/designer Chris Bigg has produced some unique sleeves, from the three-quarter cut-sleeved, double vinyl LP of "I Guess Sometimes...", to the laser-cut aluminium turntable pillar-disc that accompanied the CD version of the same LP, to the high-quality cardboard, gate-folding digipack of The Man Who Ate The Man, which contained eight small double-sided cards, printed with domestic interior images and cryptic phrases.