Erland Cooper had people in tears from the off at his performance at the Arnolfini on Thursday evening.
The Scottish Multi-instrumentalist took the sold out crowd on a journey to Orkney, where he grew up, via tracks off his two superb albums Solan Goose and Sule Skerry.
Backed up by four fantastic musicians, one of whom was Anna Phoebe, the violinist who performed the warm-up set as part of duo AVA, Cooper not only delivered a breathtakingly beautiful set but showed that he’s as funny as he is gifted, interspersing music with amusing interactions with the audience, fuelled by whisky he sipped throughout.
During Bonxie he took a seat on the front row and admired the musicians before him, occasionally turning to smile at those sat next to him, while occasionally he would leave his piano to conduct them using a white feather - presumably the same feather that makes an appearance in the video for the title track of last year’s critically acclaimed album.
All the musicians, including Erland himself, demonstrated their phenomenal musicianship by playing multiple instruments, moving seamlessly around the stage throughout the performance, which gave it a fluid and unpredictable aesthetic.
Before playing the stunning Maalie, a song which has shades of Cinematic Orchestra to it, Cooper instructed the lighting technician to completely dim the lights, plunging the theatre into darkness, before they were slowly brought back up as the song grew to its powerful crescendo.
This only added to the majestic nature of the song, which represented the viewers' arrival into Orkney following a 'choppy boat ride', said Cooper. After an hour-long set, the encore finished with First Of The Tide, on which Erland offers his vocal talents too.
Afterwards he was keen to meet fans in the foyer of the Arnolfini, sipping on a cup of whisky. It was a performance of overwhelming beauty from a brilliant songwriter and musician - if only it had been a little longer.
