James Banbury and Paul Morley first met early in the 21st Century in an anonymous room in north London. Together they sat in this room, just themselves and a few machines, and without initially saying much to each other, in fact hardly anything at all - at first, Hello, and eventually, Goodbye - they started to make some sounds. Very quickly it became clear that they liked the same sounds, and the same ways of putting together those sounds. They were both members of groups with names beginning with A - James in the Auteurs, and Paul in Art of Noise - and this was just one clue to the fact that they both belonged in a new group, a group that consisted of just the two of them.
Other clues as to the fact that the two of them belonged in the same group emerged as they started to talk to each other. They both seemed to like the same music - one would mention a group, say Can, or Human League, or Underworld, or Murcof, or a composer, say Messiaen, or Oliver Nelson, or Bernard Herrmann, and the other would enthusiastically respond. They were also from northern areas within some kind of sight of Manchester, and they liked the fact that if they were in the same group, on the quiet, they would be a Manchester band.
Banbury and Morley also instantly assumed the position of a classic studio duo. James at the console, thinking and operating, Paul at the back of the room, thinking and staring into space. As Paul stared into space, he noticed that James knew exactly where it was in space he was staring, and James turned that space into sound and rhythm and noise.