Are you ready for some hardcore ukulele action? Sporting ruffled tweeds, playing that painfully unfashionable instrument and singing songs that veer from misty-eyed, old fashioned romanticism to Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, barking, Geoff Gatt is a determinedly different performer. The vaudeville troubadour has a wonderfully rich voice, all understated vocal phrasing and hearty lustre. At times Gatt aims for the whimsical, trying to introduce a little humour into proceedings, but he’s much better when he’s playing it straight. ‘There Is A Small Hotel’ is a bittersweet ode to longing in which Gatt constructs an idyll of memory and desire. There is something beautifully naïve about it, no need for rock histrionics, Gatt’s music is understated, but often deeply affecting.

Armed with just violin and a small artillery of samplers and bass pedals Ruby Colley creates songs of compelling beauty. This is instrumental music that speaks fluently to our hearts, the sound swathed in velvet, soaring to the heavens before crashing back to earth, taking us on a tortuously melancholic journey. It’s avant-garde, but not pretentiously so, rather this is music that connects immediately, forcefully. The audience is respectful, Colley enjoying their rapt attention. There are some horrendous technical difficulties early on, an unwanted screeching cutting into the luxurious vistas Colley has created. However, it doesn’t knock her off her stride, the violin continuing to surge, the orchestral manoeuvres of ‘Requiem for an Ant’ winning more unbelievers to the cause.

Catoan walk a musical tightrope, attempting to balance rock, jazz and classical and produce a cohesive whole. Get it wrong and you end up with an unpalatable pate, get it right and you have a glorious riot of sound and imagination. Thankfully they have enough poise and precision to ensure that, despite the odd ponderous moment, they deliver the latter. The marvellously plucky rhythm section is vital in binding all the disparate ingredients together, their contribution particularly apparent on ‘Femme Fatale‘ and ‘Goodbye‘. Overall the songs are assured and inventive, the widescreen serenade of ‘Scenes From A Park’ is packed with filmic detail, the mournful violins fit to accompany a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, whilst Patrick McKeown’s voice quivers with emotion, instilling instant melodrama. Inventiveness, emotion and equilibrium, tonight Catoan succeed in walking the line.