Influenced by cool jazz,'60s pop and classic film-soundtracks, the trip-hop duo Mono formed around vocalist Siobhan De Maré and producer Martin Virgo, a one-time member of Nellee Hooper's production team which worked on Massive Attack's seminal "Unfinished Sympathy" as well as Björk's Debut. After Virgo hooked up with De Maré in mid-1996, the pair recorded the Life in Mono EP and signed to Mercury by the end of the year. After working on their debut album Formica Blues, Mono gained a comparatively high profile through an appearance on the soundtrack to the American film Great Expectations. Formica Blues was released in America in February 1998, six months after its British appearance.