IT would be all too easy, and probably more commercially lucrative, for Laura Mvula to effortlessly deliver an accessible set of ready-made songs for Smooth Soul radio consumption.

Comparisons to Nina Simone and Sade have hovered over the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music graduate since her 2013 debut album Sing To The Moon. Her delicious pot-pourri of influences and styles in equal measures either enthralled or totally baffled listeners, due to its bewildering non-conformist soundscapes.

Her niche audience was further bewildered by its subsequent companion piece, an orchestral reinterpretation of the original record, Laura Mvula With Metropole Orkest.

Although far from being a household name, Mvula is a strange and wondrously inventive artistic force. Therefore expectations for The Dreaming Room are inevitably to be laced with both anticipation and trepidation.

For those willing to dare, the new album is even more adventurous and aurally challenging. Mvula deliberately ignores the rules of pop and soul song structures by substituting episodic motifs and meandering melodies packed with unearthly, hallucinogenic orchestrations. The results should be messy and 'unlistenable', but strangely they are curiously intriguing and always strangely beautiful.

As if to illustrate this, Nile Rogers features on one of the more accessible tracks, Overcome, but whereas most would expect the Chic leader’s trademark joyous dance beat, we are delivered a relentless twitchy hypnotic effect. Phenomenal Woman, Show Me Love and People, featuring Wretch 32, are worthy stand-outs too.

The best way to enjoy The Dreaming Room is to immerse and indulge yourself without distraction from start to finish, as it was intended. However, only proceed if you are willing to be engulfed in the ethereal world of a strange and special creature.

Ian Sime