Toria Wooff

Toria Wooff is a folk-leaning songwriter whose second album, Aleister, followed a self-titled debut. This Leeds date brings the shadowy songs to Hyde Park Book Club, a venue on Headingley Lane.

Wooff's second album, Aleister, follows a self-titled debut that drew notice from Uncut, Clash, Shindig, Record Collector, BBC Radio 6 and Radio X. Its eleven folk songs layer tape-saturated textures, drones, vintage keyboards, orchestral touches and detailed acoustic instrumentation beneath a voice that moves from hushed to forceful.

On stage, Wooff performs alone or with a tight-knit group. Plucked guitar, eerie keyboards and string parts sit beneath a restrained band sound, and quiet passages give way to broad, darkly filmic swells. The approach draws as much on late-1960s and 1970s British and Irish folk records as on modern songwriting, bringing together gothic fiction, northern scenery and the occult, with personal stories set beside ancient myth.

Hyde Park Book Club, on Headingley Lane in Leeds, mainly hosts pop, rock and indie concerts, along with some theatre. The evening suits listeners drawn to folk songwriting with a dark, literary edge.