“Most songs are slightly magical,” she remarked during her encore but any song would be magical when sang by the extraordinary talent that is Lisa Knapp.

Triple nominated by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including for best folk singer, Knapp performed two sets based around her 2013 album Hidden Seam, which was nominated for best album. But she began with a traditional piece, The Blacksmith, and instantly cast the whole room under her spell.

Knapp is herself magical, a folk version of Bjork, occupying her own world she invites you into with a quiet confidence that is utterly reassuring.

Her four-piece band – “a bunch of London scruffs” – helped Knapp create a raw and earthy sound, rich in texture and colour, and never predictable. Violins, harp, hammered dulcimer, harpsichord, all blended to complement Knapp’s vocal that could be both delicate and rousing. Knapp is as much Sinead O’Connor as she is Shirley Collins; her arrangements are modern.

On occasion she looped her vocal to great effect, as on Black Horse. Whether her own composition, the wonderful Shipping Song, or The Copper Family’s The Month Of May, the spell was never broken. This was an artist at the top of her game.