Tip! Monkey Plot is the critically acclaimed trio of Christian Winther (guitars), Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard (bass) and Jan Martin Gismervik (drums) – all notable collaborators on the Norwegian experimental music scene. The band have released three studio albums (two of them on the notable Norwegian label Hubro), toured Europe, Japan and South America, and done collaborations with Swedish sound artist and poet Pär Thörn, Norwegian free jazz pioneer Frode Gjerstad and ECM/Sofa duo Vilde & Inga, among others.

Before entering electric territory (as heard on the album “Here I Sit, Knowing all of This”), the band toured extensively with their acoustic improvised sound: «With acoustic guitar, double bass and drums, they have carved out an expressive idiom which evokes other musical references, but which is at the same time unique.» – Hubro. During this time they recorded a lot of shows, both hi and lo-fi quality. Mid lockdown they decided it was time to do something about this – the band had taken a couple of years break with members focusing on other projects. Involving producer and celebrated noise musician Lasse Marhaug, he was sent hours of recordings which he then selected, cut and shaped into a four sided album, and re-recording everything though his TEAC X2000 tape machine. 


«I wanted the selection to represent the band’s diversity, but I didn’t want the tracks to have a clear starting point or end – that you get into it mid-flight and move on before the band stops. But as the same time, I didn’t want the method overshadowing the music or feel to constructed. So it functions more like a photo album, cuts of different rooms over time, but given a larger form that flows and contains a logic. Sometimes there are abrupt stylistic breaks, other times the expression jumps back and forth (like the last tracks on the C-side, where it almost sounds like its from the same concerts, but its not). I’ve tried to find a sort of unbalanced balance.” – Lasse Marhaug 

2014-2019 represents an until now undocumented live era of Monkey Plot, and signals an anticipated re-grouping of the trio.