Elephant 9

It's not often a "jazz" band takes the big step from the club scene to a 1300 capacity rock venue like Oslo's Rockefeller. But then again, Elephant9 is not your ordinary jazz band, often being named as Norway's best live band - surely quite rare for an instrumental band - they are equally popular in jazz and rock circles. Elephant9 is a power trio featuring key figures from the adventurous Norwegian scene, who are comfortable with jazz as well as rock. Their albums on the renowned label Rune Grammofon have drawn comparisons with electric jazz from the early 1970s by for example Miles Davis and Tony Williams' Lifetime. The keyboards playing by Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent, Terje Rypdal) even hints towards Deep Purple and Keith Emerson. Together with drummer Torstein Lofthus (Shining) and bassist Nicolai Eilertsen (The National Bank), this award winning group recorded their most recent album 'Silver Mountain' with guitarist Reine Fiske of the Swedish psychedelic rock band Dungen, after together recording the highly-acclaimed album Atlantis, a varied set with epic pieces as well as heavy, explosive work. 'Progressive rock-leaning, improv-heavy space rock' (All About Jazz). 'Call them fusion, prog, psychedelic, or whatever. None of these tags do justice to what Elephant9 are all about. They create music that is as adventurous and powerful as any I have ever heard, and Atlantis is proof positive that they have only just begun' (Seattle P-I).