„I was tossing and turning in bed trying to get to sleep. And I couldn't see how I could make both things run parallel - to stay in Deep Purple and have the time to concentrate on and write the kind of music that was more and more in my heart. It was the longest, hardest decision of my life ever to leave the band."

Jon Lord is addicted to harmony. But this time he had to make a decision. For his own life and his own music. Leaving Deep Purple meant leaving his best friends and a life that's "a bubble, a support system", as he himself puts it.

But putting an end to compromises did a world of good to keyboarder and composer Jon Lord. His latest album "Beyond The Notes" is the best proof of this. A free spirit blows through the ten tracks of the album. Pavanes and pop songs are peopled by musicians from drummer to violinist, from a rock band to members of a string orchestra. Oriental rhythms pushing classical melodies forward.

Jon Lord takes things seriously. Until he discovers something that does make him smile. "I call it ‚Jon Lord music'. I think the Americans have a label for it - they call it ‚classical cross-over'. So I'm going to call it ‚crossical class-over'. There's elements of what I love out of orchestral music and there's elements of what I love out of jazz, and what I love out of folk music and rock music. And you throw it all in and that's how you make the cake and experiment."

If you watch him at work in the studio, you quickly realise: Jon Lord loves people. He loves the 16 string players of the Trondheim Soloists just as much as his guitarist Paul Shigihara, keyboarder Matthias Krauss, bass player Urs Fuchs, and songstress Sabine von Baaren. He is friends with co-producer Mario Argandona, with song