That Mollestad would love to have played on Miles' Live/Evil recordings is the giveaway. This is a guitarist whose writing and playing has such intensity, you fear she may spontaneously combust. Her colleagues in the coven, Bjornstad and Brekken, joyously collaborate in the highly organised mayhem. But Ding Dong. You're Dead, although rich with the riffing that studs previous releases, is also informed by Mollestad's wider vision, as expressed through her Ekidna ensemble or the Tempest II project. ‘The Art of Jon Balkovitch', for example, dedicated to the esteemed Jon Balke (‘he has written music so beautiful you can simply stop existing', muses Mollestad) is a slippery, less architectured piece, confidently sliding across tempos and bar lines, with Brekken's bass elbowing Mollestad out of the vicious self-discipline the guitarist feels she has to impose on herself.

Of course, there are industrial scale rockers like Brekken's ‘Leo Flash' Return to the Underworld', redolent of Red-era Fripp, replete with Bruford's cracked splash cymbal. And to counter-balance frumious belters like ‘Gimbal', there's the splendidly monickered ‘Four Candles'. Only Mollestad could vision this as a ballad, replete with sighing swells, like John Martyn and Terje Rypdal arm-in-arm in a ghost rider's tryst. Throughout it all Iver Bjornstad's sound and fury signifies quite a lot as he and the ever-estimable Brekken push this trio to highly detailed yet rhapsodic delights. A trio to honour, an album to celebrate. Ding dong indeed, as Leslie Phillips may have mused. Andy Robson

Jazzwise spoke to Hedvig about her new album…

As a trio, you've been together for a decade, but the music stays fresh?

One reason was back in March 2020, when lockdown started, I was making music for other projects, for an orchestra, and a commission for a new trio. So some of that writing came into the trio. The process of making the music was different, too. We asked ‘How can we do this guitar trio thing without sounding like John Scofield, or Jeff Beck?' We tried not to ‘evaluate' the music…we tried not to be so self-conscious. At one stage Ellen lay on floor and played guitar and I played bass so we could rip it up and have fun in an almost childish way! On the other hand ‘All Flights Cancelled' we played through once, and that was it!

The title ‘All Flights Cancelled' emphasises the impact of the pandemic…

We wanted to avoid all the songs relating to Covid-19. But the album title Ding Dong. You're Dead comes from the sub-title of a horror film… it [the trailer] had this skeleton finger pointing to a doorbell: there's something in there about what we've all thought over the last few months, about how someone comes to your door and changes everything.

You've always savoured myth and primal stories, as with Ekidna. But you have a mischievous quality too: ‘Four Candles' is inspired by [Brit comic duo] The Two Ronnies!

I love that sketch! I have a British friend showed me that…made me smile for days! I wondered if I should call the song ‘Fork Handles', but that would give away too much…it was a good reference to put into what is otherwise a very moody ballad that goes into the dark feelings and the dark moods we all have had over the last year.

Dark moods indeed, but hope for the future?

The response to Ekidna (last year's release with a larger, bass-less ensemble) was overwhelming, and I want to play more with that band…but now the trio has a tour in Norway, hopefully Germany and perhaps come to the UK. I'd like to drink someone else's beer!