Jeremy's Indie Music: Saint Saviour, Bill Ryder-Jones Deaf Institute 6th Dec 2014 8/10

Sharon Van Etten talked recently about the way in which music comes directly out of her own therapy, during the process of writing down feelings. She hopes others will be helped as she confronts her own painful emotions, which are of course are a universal part of the human condition. Becky Jones by contrast sounds as if she's put therapy behind her and escaped to a blissful place far away from anxiety. It's a dream land: whilst SVE is confessional and starkly honest, the character of Saint Saviour is a fantastical pop creation. Both singer songwriters ultimately help to comfort the troubled soul, one through a shared engagement with sadness, and the other by providing an escape from it.

Each has been on a journey to reach this awareness. Saint Saviour's first album, Union, alternates between electro pop songs like This Ain't No Hymn and more exploratory, daringly expressive numbers such as the single Let It Go, which we heard towards the close of her Manchester set. With the new album In The Seams, she may have enriched the harmony, but has also simplified the vocals. As she explained to The 405: 'I wanted to create a feeling of intimacy and storytelling, so I stripped back the arrangements, got really up close to the mic and adopted more of a gentle, whispered tone.' I found the way that her voice soared ethereally to be captivating. It felt daringly unearthly in a way that recalled Tom Hickox in this venue earlier in the year, yet avoided sounding contrived.

Her masterpiece Intravenous, when she's 'craving for a love that's simplified and pure', was inexplicably omitted from last night's all too brief set. The lack of length and minimal verbal commentary from Becky was compensated for by an exceptional richness of sound. The Manchester Camerata Quartet, dressed in formal attire, had a ghostly presence as they weaved in and out of her vocals. They were joined by a drummer, guitarist and two backing vocalists who faithfully recreated In The Seams' studio mix. It was classical in its control, and restraint: there was little sense of movement around stage and the audience was hushed. The tension instead lay in Saint Saviour's intense yet delicate, almost frail vocal performance, from a voice that's been compared to Kate Bush's.

The decision to programme co-header Bill Ryder-Jones afterwards was curious, as it meant we journeyed from ecstatic light to gloom. It felt as if he's yet to enter therapy, let alone come out the other side of it. He deals with adversity (including battling a heavy cold last night) through subtly self depreciating Liverpudlian humour, drinking beer, and cathartic song writers. If, his first album, is a musical version of a Cavino novel, each song representing a chapter. The middle solo section of last night's hour long set demonstrated the tenderness of his vocal style, even if though it's a pity the Camerata players weren't still on stage: he's recently performed with an orchestra. Bill's also worked as a film composer, but is most exceptionally gifted as a guitarist, having been lead for The Coral and subsequently played for The Arctic Monkey. The extended instrumental sections were exhilarating, aided by his drummer's tight, but relaxed rhythm.

Bill recently expressed the insight that: 'music is a consolation – it's there out of human need for some kind of comfort. It's really similar to religion.' and there's no doubt that his songs have a bleak beauty of their own. Last night, though, it was the collaboration with fellow northerner Saint Saviour that really transported me to an place analogous to heaven. He plays guitar in Saint Saviour's band, and even more importantly produced In The Seams. Becky described their first meeting as an epiphany, and they've created something of unearthly beauty. Of course, as Sharon van Etten can testify, people are all too painfully capable of hurting each other. The meeting of minds here though shows that at our best, together, we can give incredible insight through art, and show true compassion in consoling each other.