Towards the end of last year, Paul Thomas Saunders got the opportunity to support Blue Roses on a national tour.It was a mixed blessing for Saunders, who got to bring his music to wider audience, but could not give his excellent EP a proper launch.
On Friday, that was finally put right as, just a couple of blocks from the Brudenell Social Club where the tour began, Four Songs In Twilight belatedly received the party it deserved.
The venue was nothing more than the warmly-decorated basement of a student house, but 40 or so Saunders fans jammed themselves in to hear an artist who has started to get national recognition with airplay on Lauren Laverne's tremendous 6Music show.
Gary Stewart provided sympathetic support with a set of lilting folk songs that seemed at home on an improvised stage lit by fairy lights, table lamps and tiki lanterns.
Imparting over his intricate guitar work nostalgic wisdom like "there we were fancy free, at the age of 17" to a congregation of students, the set took on the warmth of story time at primary school.
"I'm going to finish with a song that's eight days old, so be gentle," he cautioned - but the warning was unnecessary as he launched into a final song as elegant as those that went before it.
The space looked cramped enough for one man and an acoustic guitar, but somehow Saunders crammed his entire band, The Fever Dreams, into it.
The musicians are appropriately named - there's a definite dreamy quality to their music, from Saunders' lightly echoing vocals to the wails Max Prior elicits from his guitar by playing it with a bow.
Perhaps perversely, Saunders opened with a non-EP track - Getting Loose With The Obtuse from the recent Dance To The Radio compilation - and any concerns about sound quality in the ad hoc venue melted away as ethereal loveliness filled the room.
At the Brudenell there was a sort of detached warmth to his music which seemed like it would be hard to replicate in such intimate surroundings, but replicate it he did.
Saunders is a baby-faced, final-year music student who seeks comfort behind his fringe when performing, but there's an occasional rasping edge to his vocals, which by turns seem to sound like both Simon and Garfunkel.
And the complexity of songs like Fruit Of The Poisonous Tree show this is an artist to be reckoned with.
Highlights included Rings On Your Fingers, Scars On Your Toes, which positively shimmered with delicate beauty, and the meandering closer, Waking & Evening Prayers For Rosemary-May, which set the room glowing warm with collective pride from his admirers.
Yes he was preaching to the converted, but it's hard to imagine anyone not being converted by Saunders who is surely destined for big things.
