John Grant / Mountain Man @ Union Capel, London

This evening’s entertainment is made up entirely of Bella Union artists and, therefore, to an extent, you can guarantee their quality. Indeed, newcomers Mountain Man (from varying Stateside locations) are a perfect example of what this most hallowed of labels does best – tiny extensions of what you know is musically possible, but accessible nonetheless.

A female trio of bluegrass sweethearts (confusing, given their name) begin at opposing corners of the nave, harmonising effectively and sweetly. The effect is slightly dulled by bum heads arriving late, but they can’t quite ruin it for everyone else. As they progress, Mountain Man prove themselves to be increasingly naïve, but charmingly so. The un-amplified harmonies are accompanied by occasional acoustic guitar and become increasingly loose, but the choicest cuts from album Made The Harbor are still treasures.

John Grant is another Bella Union success story, perhaps not quite in the same league as Beach House and Fleet Foxes, but he ably proves that this reverence is justified this evening. Treating the congregation to the majority of his eloquent, stately and lucid debut album, Queen Of Denmark, his backing band on the record is the wonderful Midlake, and here he has a slightly polite band of hired hands; yet the power of the songs remain.

Grant crumbles blocks of existential import with his lyrics – “I casually mention that I pissed in your coffee,” a particularly deft deflation of a spurned lover on the album’s title track. His back-story seems understood by the seated crowd (previous middle-league indie success, disapproved-of homosexuality, a tendency to wander in and out of relationships) and, whether Grant is the hero or the villain in the song, they are with him entirely.

Rather sweetly, a few people muster a standing ovation at the end, which feels as much for the album itself and the sheer unlikelihood of Grant playing these songs for us at all, as it is for the performance. Either way, it’s a triumphant evening for Bella Union and for John Grant in particular.