Kathryn Joseph @ Tramway, Glasgow, 13 Sep

Walking into the black performance space at the Tramway where Kathryn Joseph is set to perform her second album, From When I Wake the Want Is, feels like stumbling into the belly of a sunken ship. Enveloped in a blue-tinged darkness – surrounded by the sound of rumbling waves – the only still light glimmers from the wiry, crooked lamps that ornate the stage. These are backgrounded by a circle of narrow, silvery mirrors, positioned like windows in a cabin, and gathered around a beautiful centre-piece – a stately piano organ, half-hidden in the shadows.

When Joseph appears, she looks like some sort of sea creature risen from the depths herself. Dressed in a corset with rib-like ropes attached to it, yellow and thick like lifejacket safety lines, she surveys the audience with a piercing expression. Then, without saying a word, she sits and launches into a haunting rendition of IIII, the opening track from From When I Wake the Want Is.

Tonight's performance, entitled From When I Wake, is the result of a collaboration between Joseph and the production company Cryptic, and it's stunningly achieved. Joseph performs the songs with an eerie delicacy, playing softly and singing quietly. But her presence on stage is dominant and fierce; she begins by staring into the mirrors as she plays, assessing herself, before turning that razor-sharp look on her audience. It's unsettling having that glare accompany these soft and chilling melodies – between songs, we're too enraptured or unnerved to clap.

James Johnson's staging, Nich Smith's lighting, Josh Armstrong's direction and Markéta Kratochvílová's costume design perfectly complement Joseph's album. These songs sound almost water-logged in their density, marked by intense, repetitive piano patterns and electronics that rush in and out like surges of a flood. The lyrics too are preoccupied with the body in survival – the beautiful, swelling And You Survived details a body 'born, cord around my neck / I got over it, now I'm addicted to the holding,' while Safe tells of somewhere 'halfway underground / And near to where there is no sound.'

Tonight's show marks Joseph as an exceptional performer as well as a singer-songwriter. For an artist who took years to release her debut LP due to a lack of confidence, it's heartening to witness such an assured performance – and exciting to see where this talent and creative curiosity will take her next.