Many moons ago I wandered into a humble cafe and was met by the waitress saying: “I had that Jon Lord in here the other day; ooh, he did look peeky…” A week later the Deep Purple Hammond-meister passed away, which I'm sure was no reflection on Hot Gossip's rock cakes. Which is by way of nothing really, other than the spirit of Lord's hi-energy organ pyrotechnics is now safely at home with Ståle Storløkken. His continual invention, primal attack and technical facility allows him, even over these lengthy versions of songs drawn from all Elephant9's previous recordings, to remain fresh and vigorous across over two hours of music. Mind you, it helps to have Lofthus onboard: forget the Duracell bunny, this man is perpetual motion, locked down with Hængsle in a drum/bass adhesion of clatter-tastic proportions. This release works best as a 2CD set, though each concert is individually available. I privileges the trio and Storløkken dominates proceedings, one minute with Lord's classically influenced rambunctiousness, the next with Keith Emerson's bravado. ‘I Cover the Mountain Top’ gently builds from it's Lordly, ecclesiastically framed intro (‘Child in Time’, anyone?) to a maelstrom that morphs into the driven ‘Farmer's Secret’. But when you think the cathedral of sound can climb no higher, in kicks that killer bassline to ‘Habanera Rocket’. A different vision of ‘Habanera Rocket’ powers through II, but now we have Fiske's guitar on board. Storløkken has been Terje Rypdal's keys man for many a year, so has no problem shaping around this extra fretted voice. Fiske, though, is hardly a self-obsessed shredder: what he contributes to II is more a sense of colours and textures, and vividly dramatic counterpoint. There's a lot of notes here, but not a lot of ego. Fiske's presence frees Storløkken from rhythm and harmony duties so he's able to experiment more with a range of keys sounds, and at times he summons the spirit of Larry Young's chilling chordings and pointed anger. His Lordliness would doubtless approve: keep on rocking in the house of blue light.

Torstein Lofthus swaps the drum seat for the hot seat: What took so long to put out a concert recording?

We've been talking about a live album for years, but now seemed like the right time to do it. And when Nikolai came up with the idea of playing multiple concerts at Kampen Bistro for a recording we thought it was time to move forward with the idea of a live album. Every time we play the tunes they are different, something happens with them during the interplay between us and the audience.

Reine Fiske plays on Psychedelic Backfire II. He's a long time collaborator: what does he bring to the dynamics of the trio?

Great guitar playing, long notes, soundscapes and lots of vibe. He blends in perfectly without taking over the show. He just adds to the band sound.

As a drummer you're clearly influenced by Ian Paice in his Deep Purple days, and now, of course, he's guested with the Buddy Rich band. What other heroes do you and the band have?

You mentioned two of them! Influences and heroes relevant for Elephant9 are Miles Davis 1969-75, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Tony Williams' Lifetime and Led Zeppelin.