The haunting sound of Halls envelopes East London at album launch party

Celebrating the launch of his brilliant debut Ark, and shrouded in a cold blue hue, Halls blend sizable ambient synths with punchy drums and melancholic vocals, best showcased by the utterly touching ‘Reverie’.

There is a real professionalism and tidy calmness to the set, which is brilliantly juxtaposed by sudden emphatic and complex rhythms from natural and electronic percussion alike; not to mention the relative ease that a last- minute 8-strong choir squeezes onto the Birthdays stage for the particularly poignant finale, ‘White Chalk’.

After a one-off show in the Netherlands on Friday, Sam Howard returns with four UK shows next week.

Setlist
Roses For the Dead
I’m Not There
Funeral
Shadow Of The Colossus
Reverie
Life Blood
White Chalk