A Phildel gig is a rare thing indeed and when they do hap­pen, you can be sure of expe­ri­enc­ing some­thing orig­i­nal and mul­ti-sen­so­ry. This lat­est show was an immer­sive expe­ri­ence replete with detail and sur­prise touch­es – we escaped to the woods with Phildel, her chil­dren hand­ing out aro­mat­ic leaves for ther­a­peu­tic effect and bis­cuits for our pic­nic, while sculpt­ed birds whirled overhead.

I first saw Phildel at Bush Hall in 2013, her piano adorned with branch­es and an owl. Not a real one, I has­ten to add. Her lat­est album Back to the Woods released ear­li­er this year sees those hints of a love for the nat­ur­al world tak­ing on a greater sig­nif­i­cance, want­i­ng to be at one with nature, respect­ing it and feel­ing its power.

The choice of venue was per­fect – Kar­ma Sanc­tum hotel may be in the heart of Lon­don but is dark and moody and feels like a cocoon. The set began with songs from the new album, with title track Into the Woods fol­lowed by Mono­lith and Child of the Mead­ow, which we dis­cov­ered was about her chil­dren. Songs from her back cat­a­logue sur­faced lat­er, such as Wolf and Moon Sea. Phildel’s vocals were sound­ing, as ever, expres­sive and full of warmth, able to shift from fragili­ty to strength. She was­n’t afraid to touch on dark­er peri­ods of her life, as when she intro­duced the deeply melan­choly Funer­al Bell.

Phildel was accom­pa­nied by singer song­writer Satin Beige, who had pro­vid­ed a won­der­ful­ly enter­tain­ing sup­port per­for­mance with cel­lo and gui­tar, and drum­mer Louis Rodney.

There was so much love for the artist radi­at­ing around the room and the three musi­cians on stage respond­ed and gave it back. And after a sum­mer of fes­ti­vals, with chat­ter­ing going on through sets, it was a plea­sure to be in a silent space with the crowd lis­ten­ing intent­ly to the artists on stage. These are indeed rare moments, and we must catch them while we can.

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