Amber Arcades @ Liverpool Music Week, 29 Oct

Much has been made of the back story surrounding the release of Amber Arcades' astonishingly accomplished debut album Fading Lines, which arrived earlier this year to pretty much universal critical acclaim.

Amber Arcades is in essence the solo project of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Annelotte De Graaf, who from day one of her first job as a supermarket cashier, through to working as an aide at the international war crimes tribunal, and her current job as legal aide for Syrian refugees in her native Netherlands, has been religiously putting her pennies aside (at her mother's insistence). Many save money to fund expensive holidays, or perhaps to travel the world armed with a stout pair of walking boots and a knapsack, but Annelotte decided she wasn't really the backpacking sort and instead used her savings to fund the recording of the album.

It's a fascinating proposition to see how one of the best albums of the year (recorded with different musicians from the current live set-up) translates to the live setting. To see firsthand how the intimate, wistful beauty and yearning sense of melancholy at the core of De Graaf's evocative songs connect with a live audience. Amber Arcades arrive in Liverpool to play the Arts Academy Loft, and face stiff competition for attention – tonight the venue's main theatre downstairs hosts a sell-out show from local favourites Clean Cut Kid. But those who have opted to catch Amber Arcades are rewarded with a set of musical virtuosity that swirls and shimmers with beauty and elegance.  

Following on from a hugely impressive performance by local band trio Feral Love, whose evolution continues to delight, De Graaf and her band (which includes former Houses frontwoman Ella van der Woude on keyboards) waste no time in charming the audience with a set that already feels like a collection of greatest hits. The majestic sweep of Fading Lines, the intimate, nuanced bittersweetness of White Fuzz and the propulsive rush of Turning Light all hold the audience rapt, managing to sound bigger and bolder than they do on record.

Their cover of  Nick Drake's Which Will is inspired and beautifully executed, showing respect and admiration for the original, but performing it very much in their own image.  As the set unfolds the band really warm to the task, while De Graaf seems relaxed and chatty between songs. She even cracks a Brexit joke: as it's nearly Halloween the band have arrived at the party dressed as something that perhaps rather terrifies those at the boorish, flag-waving, small-minded corner of the referendum... they've come as "Europeans".

It's a triumphant set, which with the help of the wonderful band she's drawn together – incidentally, tighter than Eric Pickles' fist gripping a jumbo sausage roll – really do justice to the beautiful, intelligent music she's created.