Like so many bands, Brighton’s Esben and the Witch came together via a series of chance encounters, coincidences and happy accidents. Daniel met Thomas and the two began to make music; that indefinable kind that’s only explainable through movement, expression and experience. Neither particularly relished the responsibility of vocals, but soon a solution presented herself. Rachel already knew Thomas, and immediately clicked with Daniel: the trio was established.

The plan: simply to create interesting music, to conjure sounds from minds by whatever means possible. Recording with equipment old and new, the three-piece’s first recordings were collected as ‘33’, a demo-cum-EP that immediately attracted its share of discerning ears. Shows with the likes of The xx, Fiery Furnaces, Sian Alice Group and Deerhunter, and festival appearances including End of the Road, honed the band’s stagecraft, and before long comparisons flowed, yet none quite sticks.

Their music is considerably more than the sum of its parts, a concoction simmering with dark desires, marked by glacial guitars and blessed with heavenly vocals atop electronic unrest. However deep you delve, an impression is left. Scratch the surface and it scratches back; become enveloped and suffocate, willingly and serenely.