Lingua Ignota
Earth, Hackney
★★★★★

KRISTIN HAYTER casts a phantom-like presence as she glides into view in a flowing green gown, occasionally carrying around various standing white beam lights that dot the stage while exorcising her pained lyricism in a spectacular showcase of latest album Sinner Get Ready.

The classically trained multi-instrumentalist, known as Lingua Ignota (“unknown language”), takes heretical aim at her now lapsed Catholic faith in much of her new release, with lyrics frequently touching on themes of God-fearing, judgment and atonement.

Launching into Many Hands, she sings the foreboding opening lines “sinner, you better get ready” in a song about God returning to Earth to manhandle her.

A survivor of domestic violence, she achieved acclaim and notoriety for previous album Caligula that fearlessly addressed themes of abuse and misogyny in a collection of “survivor anthems.”

Now she adopts the persona of a woman in a state of divine madness as she sings Repent Now Confess Now and a solemn version of 19th-century traditional hymn Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus, perhaps in a nod to her early years as a church cantor.

Performing in front of a video projection displaying various artworks, including medieval pastoral scenes that feature images of praying nuns, at one point she leaves the stage to sing from the steps leading to the audience seating, or should we say pews.

An impressive open grand piano, which so far hasn’t been touched, is played and plucked to the hilt for the second half of her set.

She bashes out The Sacred Linament of Judgment, The Order Of Spiritual Virgins, and If the Poison Won’t Take You My Dogs Will in quick succession before playing another traditional, this time folk song The Wayfaring Stranger.

But some of the best moments are in her more plaintive tunes. The Solitary Brethren Of Ephrata, is a hymnic beaut, and Pennsylvania Furnace captures her mournful soaring vibrato in full glory.

Her dark themes and sometimes harrowing singing style are reminiscent of the great avant-garde singer Diamanda Galas, who also has a troubled relationship with her Greek Orthodox upbringing.

Returning for an unforgettable encore, in which she sings the bleakest cover of Jolene you’ve ever heard, wraps up a faultless show of performance art.