Anyone who heard Ben Howard’s late-night guest slot on Radio 1 earlier this week would have gathered pretty quickly that the 31-year-old singer-songwriter is not your average rock star. Speaking in hushed and hesitant tones, Richmond-born Howard played music from cult American folkie Chris Smither, avant-garde cellist Arthur Russell and Eighties experimentalists Talk Talk. Mainstream it most certainly wasn’t.

Having won two Brit awards in 2013 for his hazy indie-folk, Howard has followed his musical muse down the road less travelled with admirable conviction. His third album, Noonday Dream, released last June, was a dreamlike collection of musically intricate songs that delved inwards as much as his contemporary Ed Sheeran’s songs have gone the other way and reached outwards for maximum appeal.

Yet, despite having a public profile as low key as his music, Howard remains extremely popular. His first night of a four-night residency at London’s Brixton Academy showed that there’s mileage in woozy melancholia. In a blue artist’s smock, Howard took to a stage interspersed with 10 lighting poles, giving the impression of a gig among stalagmites or hanging vines. We were somewhere else. Somewhere exotic.

The opener, Nica Libres at Dusk, set the tone. Slowly pulsing, the music swooned and swooped in and out of focus. The murmured lyrics were fragmentary, suggesting summer sunsets and eagles soaring in perpetual circles. All evening, Howard’s music created a feeling of being adrift. Images of islands, coves, the sea and the moon were constantly conjured.