Premiere: Watch Clara Mann 'Live In The Royal Albert Hall'

Clara Mann's Rift LP is a gift of song, a collection of threadbare folk tunes that seems to have drifted in from some other time and place entirely. It's not just nostalgia – though the weight of years passed seems to weigh heavily on the album's shoulders – there's just an otherworldly sense of displacement to her songwriting, her voice and words shaped with a quiet strangeness that feels completely gripping.

Once accustomed to her world, however, the songs burn with romanticism, gently blooming like flushed cheeks, spinning stories that unfold through barely-there acoustic guitar and Mann's striking, but always beautifully considered voice.

A new EP takes these songs and reframes them slightly, transporting them into the plush surroundings of the The Royal Albert Hall where Clara sings them not from the stage, but out from the stalls into the hollow darkness. The results are equally bewitching; a performance that turns the idea of such a thing on its head somewhat, again conjuring a mood that feels not entirely comfortable, not easy to parse.

Available to stream in all the many places, the EP is accompanied by a film of the performance, and it's one that we're very pleased to unveil on the blog here today.

Read a few words from Clara here, and then get lost in the beautiful, unique performance of these songs below.

“Shot in, and from, the boxes of the main hall, this film explores what it means to be watched, and how it feels to look back.

Performed with Owen Spafford, and recorded by Fabian Prynn, my friend and collaborator in the making of Rift, these live recordings gave a new lease of life to songs, and renewed my relationship with the record- I hope they will do the same for you.

I made this film with friends and loved ones, people who make me feel witnessed in my real life, as Clara both on and off stage. The imagining and making of it was possible because of all of their commitment to beautiful, meaningful making. I am so grateful to them, and to the team at the Royal Albert Hall, for bringing this to life.”

Explore Clara's work here, via Bandcamp