American violinist Sudan Archives brought her unique style of electro-R&B to Rough Trade East with a confident and entertaining performance following the release of her debut studio album, Confessions.

For 45 minutes, Sudan Archives was alone on stage with just her violin and looping pedal. She showed incredible skill as she recreated both album tracks and singles from earlier in her career, singing and playing violin throughout.

She oozed with swagger on stage, at times using her violin as a dancing partner and jokingly teasing the audience with classical interpolations in between her own tracks. ⁣The gig felt like a showcase of Sudan Archives’ talent, with the small venue of Rough Trade really showing off how creatively her music blends genres and her sheer musical talents.

Whilst album tracks such as ‘Confessions‘ and ‘Glorious‘ received great reactions, the best crowd response came in the ‘encore’ (after Sudan Archives had jokingly crawled off stage moments before). Performance of early singles ‘Nont For Sale‘ and ‘Come Meh Way‘, two of the artist’s first viral hits were well received with fans singing along to most of the lyrics. These hits were incredible to see performed live, but did also show that her album tracks potentially didn’t reach the same heights as these earlier singles.

Not a lot of artists nowadays put much effort into their live shows, but Sudan Archives is doing something nobody else is doing in contemporary R&B. Her performance on the violin, looping throughout her live show, was hypnotising and I’m certain she’ll be one to watch in years to come.