History

Keith Nuttall had been in several bands. However, there's only so much you can do with a few guitars and a keyboard. What really excited him was the potential of the recording studio, and the manipulation of sound.

He had gone through phases of playing with tape recorders and electronic kits, as well as finding unconventional uses for traditional instruments. He had written traditional tunes, and experimented with soundscapes. He took a long break.

Stranded on the Moon (1983)

For several years, he felt nostalgic about what might have been, but eventually resigned himself to being a listener, rather than a performer.

One day, he thought about how he adored the charismatic and complex sound of real instruments. Synthesisers and guitars are good fun, and you could do a lot with them (with a bit of imagination), but imagine if you could have every musician and their instrument on the planet assembled in a huge recording studio.

Then one day, he read a magazine which said that, with readily-available technology, anyone could reproduce the sounds of any instrument with unbeilevable authenticity. Not only that, but several instruments could be recorded together, a score could be composed, and the whole thing could be engineered using a variety of effects. This was enough to get him back into the saddle.

Yammer was born. Over a 2-year period, he patiently constructed the Long Division album. In that time, he only once picked up his old guitar.