Making a return to her old “flouncing ground”, Shoreham-born Josienne Clarke gave nearby Boundstone Community College credit for awakening her love of singing.

And how she repaid the favour. Clarke is a stunning singer, influenced by Sandy Denny, June Tabor and Gillian Welch, but with her own distinctive clipped-vowel style. Her musical partner Ben Walker is just as virtuosic, with a simultaneously folky, jazzy and classical guitar-picking style. Like Clarke, he somehow made it all look easy.

The pair – alongside cellist Jo Silverston and viola player Anna Jenkins – blended original songs with traditional material and a few well-chosen covers, including Welch’s Dark Turn of Mind.

Clarke told the audience she’d “resolved to stop apologising for the melancholy nature of the set”, which says something of its nature.

Songs tended to be short and bittersweet, with the traditional Queen Of Hearts (chorus: “If my love leaves me, what shall I do?”) perhaps the most upbeat.

Fortunately, the sad songs – like the mournful Silverline, “psycho-ballad” Anyone But Me and an emotional Argentinian number – were so beautifully performed that jollity would have seemed crass.

And Clarke’s wry sense of humour – her sales pitch for the CD stall was knowingly woeful – added welcome levity to the evening.