Bio The Monkey Puzzle Orchestra was founded in 1999, when multi-instrumentalists John Rollins and John D'Onofrio began performing as a duo after comprising two thirds of The Sniffing Dervishes, an experimental Jazz-World-Rock trio, active in the Pacific Northwest since 1994. Combining a wide variety of instrumentation from the four corners of the globe with an arsenal of experimental instruments designed and built by John Rollins and guitars, keyboards, and a staggering array of percussion instruments, the duo utilizes the recording process to produce often dense tapestries of sound, layer upon layer, often leading to unexpected and unusual resolutions. Often times, the answer to the question appears to be another question. Although both Rollins and D'Onofrio share writing credits for the group's pieces, a healthy dose of improvisation plays a major role in the process. Influences ranging from Freeform Jazz to Rock to Nordic Folk music to Balinese Monkey Chants and beyond can all be detected by the clever listener. John Rollins studied classical guitar as a student in Washington State and over the period starting in 1972 became one of the foremost builders of Renaissance and Baroque instruments in the United States. He has built a wide variety of Lutes, Baroque and Classical Guitars, Vinhuelos, Theorbos and Chittarones that have been employed by many contemporary masters in performances on concert stages around the world and on numerous recordings. His writings on instrument design and building have appeared in The American Lutherie. After performing in Renaissance ensembles, he discovered the folk traditions of South America and began performing with an ensemble specializing in the music of the Andes. As his interest in a wide variety of world music traditions grew, he began constructing an ever widening array of instruments, both based on traditional designs and more experimental instruments, some based on his own inventions and theories. Many of the instruments used by The Monkey Puzzle Orchestra have been built by Rollins. John D'Onofrio attended Rutgers University where he studied Experimental music with 20th Century composer Dan Goode and music theory with jazz pianist Kenny Barron. He has performed with a wide variety of experimental, avant garde and otherwise generally peculiar groups including Goode's Livingston Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, Livid Moon, The Patty Dukes and The Bangone Ensemble. He fled the east coast in 1980 for California where he joined Solaris, a chamber Jazz group based in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his time in California, he hosted a variety of strange late night radio programs that attracted a small but devoted following of disoriented zealots. He moved north to the Pacific Northwest in 1989 where he met John Rollins when they became founding members of The Sniffing Dervishes.