I’ve been moaning for so long that Erik Skodvin (aka Svarte Greiner, one half of Deaf Center, and head of the superlative Miasmah label), never plays these shores that even when it was announced, I still somehow didn’t expect it to happen. In so many ways, this was to prove to be a night of the unexpected. Watching Andy Murray being hustled out of Wimbledon (by Andy Roddick? What is this, 2003?) whilst sitting in a Kilburn pub was by far the most unpleasant surprise. With Skodvin playing along with two acts from his Miasmah roster, and Xela DJing betwixt, the night could only improve after that.

And what could be more unexpected than Miasmah releasing an album by a former drummer for Slowdive? 15 years have passed since Simon Scott departed that band; more recently he has come to my attention through his stewardship of the fine Keshhhhhh label, and his production work for Hannu. So what to expect – shoegaze or dark ambient? Or perhaps a little of both. The set started with Scott creating a dark soundscape with loops of harmonica, whispered vocals and tiny percussion sounds, with occasional samples of string infiltrating the mix. So far, so Miasmah. He then strapped on a guitar to take the piece somewhere else entirely, playing slide guitar with huge delay and reverb to create a huge, dreamy ambient wash. A short coda built from ringing guitar melodies to noise; I closed my eyes and drifted off, chasing the near-subliminal bass rhythms which were underneath.

Rafael Anton Irisarri took to the stage next, and anyone expecting a set which resembled his Miasmah album Daydreaming were in for a shock. For his performances as The Sight Below, out go those quasi-classical elements and spooked-out sounds, being replaced with a much fuller and unexpectedly rhythmic direction. The intense and near-motionless Irisarri was hunched over a laptop with a guitar around his neck, looking for all the world like a younger, darker-haired Christian Fennesz – but his music was much more reminiscent of another electronic music luminary, Wolfgang Voigt (aka GAS). He built a thick wall of heavily-processed guitar (it has to be said, the sound in The Luminaire was astonishingly good, the frequencies were delicious) and then – much to my surprise – dropped in a 4/4 beat. A pretty relentless 4/4 beat: surprising and exciting initially, but half-an-hour and one false ending later, maybe a little too much for me.

Hearing those rhythms was all the excuse Xela needed to break out the more upbeat records from his collection (something else unexpected: from hearing the output of the Type label, who’d have guessed that John Twells was once a hip-hop DJ?). Despite his best efforts, the floor resolutely refused to clear. Svarte Greiner cut him off in full flight, slashing at an electric guitar with a violin bow. He (most unexpectedly) began to slap out some heavy chords, punctuating those crashes with even heavier silences, creating a compelling yet totally disconcerting mood. The guitar was placed on the floor for the second half of the performance, with Skodvin manipulating laptop samples – those signature Miasmah sounds, those unearthly strings, vocals, and found sounds, all topped with a layer of vinyl hiss. We sat cross-legged, bewitched on the Luminaire’s floor, our expectations confounded and, especially during this stunning Svarte Greiner set, exceeded.