With the Somerset House Summer Series with American Express well underway in London, covering 11 nights of essential sounds from some of the world’s most compelling artists, I headed off on night two to enjoy the spectacular enclosed surroundings of Somerset House’s excellent open-air courtyard, as the live music festival hits 25 years of hosting a diverse range of international talent and genres!

Opener Nell Mescal impresses, proving she’s more than just Paul’s sister, with a set full of charm and emotional punch, and the perfect palate cleanser before the main show and then we’re onto the main event, and Freya Ridings’ show is suitably stripped back. She takes to the stage in a flowing emerald gown, her long red hair like a pre-Raphaelite painting come to life. A piano and just five backing performers complete her ensemble onstage, all setting a mood for a set that’s delicate, cinematic and quietly commanding. Behind her, a huge screen pulses with shifting colour, part ambient art installation, part MacBook screensaver. The minimalism works. It throws all the focus on her voice, that aching cathedral-clear vocal that feels particularly suited to the sincerity of her lyrics.

New material from her forthcoming third album dominates, but Ridings paces the set carefully, slipping in fan favourites like Weekends and You Mean The World To Me, producing a ukulele for an acoustic version of Dancing In My Kitchen in a slow build towards the crowd pleaser she’s arguably best known for, Lost Without You. It’s the inevitable emotional peak, transforming the courtyard into a phone-lit sea of shared sorrow, before a three-strong encore of other songs like Elephant, that reaches its climax with Castles, a refreshingly empowering break-up anthem since it’s a battle cry for building from the wreckage of a finished relationship rather than mourning its demise. “I’m gonna build castles from the rubble of your love,” feels like a lyric we could use more of. 

It’s a captivatingly performed night and in this type of venue, where fruity drinks and a central London sunset make a perfect accompaniment, Freya offers her audience a wonderful night.

Tickets for Somerset House Summer Series are available now: somersethouse.org.uk/somerset-house-summer-series