THESE guys were travelling a long way from home, bringing music from the far north east to Dorset – and they were particularly welcome.

Kathryn and The Darkening – so named after the Northumbrian word for twilight – features the aforementioned Kathryn with a group of top musicians from Northumberland, Scotland and England.

She is the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes (and has been playing since the age of nine); a composer, performer, educator and successful recording artist with armfuls of releases to her name.

They are north east based Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), Kieran Szifris (octave mandolin, guitar), and Joe Truswell (drums, percussion, programming. Tonight they were augmented by Josie Duncan from the Isle of Lewis (vocals, clarsach).

Together they invoke the sounds of Ancient Northumbria, inspired by ancient landscapes, wild, dramatic, weather-beaten countryside, Hadrian’s Wall, 2,000 years of history, people, gods and customs. Steps, they are most definitely not, although they do throw some good dance moves.

It’s good to see resolutely regional music surviving and thriving with Tickell, Walsall born but of Northumbrian stock, utterly steeped in its evocative traditional glories. She was once official piper for the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, has worked with Jimmy Nail and recorded extensively with Sting. You can’t get much more north eastern than that.

Awards laden, winner of The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2009 and made an OBE in 2015, Tickell is also a broadcaster, educator and behind a foundation helping young people in Tyne & Wear to become musicians.

The Darkening’s most recent album, Cloud Horizons, came out last year although Tickell’s latest solo offering, the instrumental single Sycamore Gap, inspired by the wanton felling of the iconic tree, was released just last month.

And here they were at Lighthouse, the quintet spaced evenly across a well-lit, black background Theatre stage, Kathryn flanked by Amy, left, and Josie, with Kieran and Stefan at the rear.

Cloud Horizons tracks featured prominently through Long For Light, Just Stop And East The Roses and Quilley Reel. There was also Back To The Rede, a tribute to the north eastern river of the same name and One Night in Moana, which was the band’s attempt at Iberian folk. Both were topped by the harmonies on Kathryn’s lockdown song Freedom Bird.

Instrumentals, jigs and reels were to the fore and it all got scarily ceilidh-like during a set of tunes including Amy’s Jig Ninja 2. And it was Amy who never spurned an opportunity to clog dance, particularly effectively in a non-traditional manner on Clogstravaganza.

It was all topped by the sublime, ‘Northumberland folk rap’ of O-U-T Spells Out, the incantatory paean to children’s playground rhymes of old translated into an anti-racism/fascism/intolerance exaltation.

Kathryn, switching between smallpipes and fiddle, is very much like a mother hen caring for her brood and allowing them time to shine in the spotlight. She’s obviously the star, but this band is very much a cooperative.