★★★★

Laura Mvula spread her hands wide like a preacher, chanting People’s slow-building meditative repetition of “We are a wonder! How glorious!” as golden lights spiraled across the stage, uniting her band and the crowd in a moment of transcendent joy.

There was space at the De La Warr Pavilion for the supportive audience to sway, clap, sing along and finally dance, as Mvula applauded the crowd’s energy.

Since her first album Sing to the Moon, the musician has experienced a difficult divorce and struggled with anxiety and panic attacks. Her lyrics on tracks from new album The Dreaming Room, from Overcome to Flying Without You and Show Me Love, testify to the challenges along her journey and her hopes for the future.

Beginning with her first song in pitch darkness, the lights stuttered on to reveal Mvula behind a colossal keytar. The unusual, jazz-inflected orchestrations provided by her five-piece band, featuring her brother James on cello and sister Dionne on guitar, gained deeper clarity when Mvula sat at the piano for slower, reflective tracks.

Climaxing with up-tempo reworkings of Green Garden and Nina Simone’s Be My Husband and See Line Woman, this performance was unforgettable.