Back home in Athens and across much of Europe, Kristi Stassinopoulou is something of a celebrity. She started her career representing Greece in the Eurovision song contest, then moved on to explore a new ambient experimental folk style, mixing anything from electronic effects to rock and Greek Byzantine church music. Her most recent album, The Secret of the Rocks, topped the European world music charts for weeks.

Attempting to achieve the same neo-hippy, chill-out effect live was a bad mistake. Performing at the Union Chapel, she managed to sound impressive and ghastly, and almost buried her fine, cool vocal style and musical fusions in a performance that was messy, over-ambitious and at times almost embarrassing. She was accompanied by splashing and gurgling sound effects, against which she solemnly declared, "This is not a concert, this is a meditation", and went on to talk about the "stories of the waves and the rocks". Worse was to come, when electronic and vocal effects and samples of church choirs were added in, or she performed a deadpan dance routine to her Mediterranean mystic swirl.

And yet, for all that, there were some almost-impressive passages when her co-producer, programmer and multi-instrumentalist band leader Stathis Kalyviotis stopped playing around with effects and samples. She had an excellent band, capable of rapidly switching styles and instruments. And there were rousing sections when guitars were matched with bagpipes or when she introduced a dance song from the Greek islands, backed by acoustic stringed instruments, the lyre and the Turkish saz. Then it was back to the effects and the new-age pronouncements.

Far more impressive was Little George Sueref, who also has Greek roots, although he lives in London and was born in Wales. A relaxed, engaging figure with a straw hat and impossibly high voice, he switched from slow, pained blues to rockabilly and soul, with a blend of easy charm and emotion that Stassinopoulou found impossible to match.