Last night I celebrated Samhain with an aptly Hallowe’en flavoured night of ghostly gothic dream-folk in a church, performed by Marissa Nadler.

She’s an artist in both senses of the word: a singer-songwriter / musician and also a visual artist, adopting a blurry monochrome as the signature of her palette in both disciplines, often evoking a mood of desolation and despair. 

Her ethereal mezzo-soprano vocals are the perfect vehicle for spine-tingling tales of terrible tragedy – sample song title: Dead City Emily – the same kind of angelic voice that once lured sailors to their death.

Last night she finger-picked her electric guitar, accompanied by the multi-talented Milky Burgess on bass, guitar – modified to sound have the country twang of a pedal-steel – and all sorts of pedals creating subtle electronic effects, and eerie washes of Hammond organ.

I’ve been talking to her for some time about buying some of her artwork; until then I content myself with her music, of which my favourite album is For My Crimes; and from which this song is my very favourite.

All Out Of Catastrophes sums up a mood of resignation in the face of life’s never-ending turmoil – “I know I’m going to hell,” she sings; “I’ve been planning escape strategies” – with which we are all increasingly familiar.