Released as a limited edition single LP with screen print cover + extended digital download for the C and D sides.
Record insert includes a liner notes poem by Pär Thörn!
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.
CHRISTIAN WINTHER
“SCULPTURES FROM UNDER THE CITY ICE”
OUT NOW
order at Bandcamp, SoundOhm, Tiger, Big Dipper and others
“Sculptures From Under the City Ice is a sort of longing, I think,” Christian Winther says of his third full-length solo record. This statement is cryptic but somehow poignant, poetic, and also a little weird. And so is Sculptures From Under the City Ice.
Winther is a highly sought after guitarist and tireless collaborator in the Norwegian avant garde scene. His previous solo release was awarded album of the year by Klassekampen in Norway. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and South America both solo and with various rock bands and experimental ensembles.
Sculptures From Under the City Ice however stands apart. Shimmeringly beautiful, intertwining and deft guitar lines search over the metric pulse of Hans Hulbækmo’s spare drums, all sensitively shepherded by celebrated producer Lasse Marhaug. At times one may feel one is listening to Television in a slow motion dreamstate, though Winther’s plainspoken and crystalline singing leans more Cass McCombs than Tom Verlaine. And though there is something of the spirit of New York 1980 –– echoes of Arthur Russell, Laurie Anderson, Loren Connors –– the context is something else entirely. “
Annie Dillard and a lot of Rebecca Solnit … Norwegian poet Tor Ulven,” Winther says, listing his biggest influences while making Sculptures. “I pictured a very specific place from growing up surrounded by water, strong winds; a kind of majestic place, a nature preserve.” Winther and his partner and collaborator, musician Anja Lauvdal were headed to such a place throughout the year that they were working on Sculptures. Expecting a child, and having bought some land in the country, moved out of their place in the city but not yet settled anywhere else, Winther and Lauvdal were in a liminal state, following intuition and growing new life. Sculptures feels like this, with all its surprising turns and delightful nuances, intuitive but memorable song structures. In fact the “sculptures” of the title are not sculptures per se, but ice floes of the Akerselva River as it passes through Oslo. Incident and intuition as works of art. Longing projected, transformed into open guitar tunings and patently gorgeous mid-tempo rock and roll reveries.
Without compromising its touching sincerity, Winther’s approach is roguish, playful. It’s no wonder that he is charmed by writers like Dillard and Solnit, who are both essayists and poets, who write with sterling tenderness but not without humor. Sculptures From Under the City Ice is like this: tender and approachable, full of surprises, and unequivocally gorgeous.
Reviews
De siste ti årene har Christian Winther (35) fra Ålesund vært blant gitarens fornyere, han er en slags indierock-auteur innenfor rammene av jazz og samtidsmusikk. Og vellydende «Sculptures from Under the City Ice» er hans mest iørefallende soloplate. (…) Arthur Russell, Neil Young, Nels Cline og postrock fra Chicago er peilepunkter, men med årene har han funnet sitt eget rom.
– DN
Faglig tyngde og kvalitet er noen ord som kjennetegner den norske gitaristen Christian Winthers kunstnerskap. (…) Som en slags erfaren snekker med svennebrev bygger han, langsomt og nøyaktig, sine musikalske reisverk – solide nok til å tåle både vær og vind og tidens tenner. Det er noe bunnsolid, noe jordet over alt han foretar seg som komponist og musiker.
— MORGENBLADET
I Winthers gitarspill, preget av både isklare klanger og skimrende toner ispedd taggete hogg, kan [man] høre ekko etter andre eksponenter for storbyestetikk, som salige Tom Verlaine og Sonic Youth på sitt mest dempede.
– KLASSEKAMPEN 5/6
Christian Winther er langt fra å være en konvensjonell artist, og tar med hans tredje soloplate et stort steg mot å bli en av de beste navnene i moderne norsk alternativ rock. (…) Det er en sjelden begivenhet å høre et album som har en så sterk sonisk identitet, og enda sjeldnere er det også at den høres så kjent og nær ut.
– UNIVERSITAS
Ein draum å lytte til. (…) Sculptures From Under the City Ice er komplett. Dette er vakkert, intimt og catchy – slitesterk musikk. (…) ei sånn plate eg vil leite fram i mange år framover.
– BALLADE
Very cool track
– BBC 6 (Deb Grant on “Monochrome”)
Works like a charm all the way.
– SPILL MAGAZINE (CA)