IT takes something special for one man and a guitar to make it in this ultra-competitive sector of the music industry, and 28-year-old Nick Mulvey’s sold-out gig at Bristol’s O2 Academy proves that he is, indeed, something special.

Nick’s musical history speaks volumes; a student of ethnomusicology at the University of London, Nick went on to tour the world as part of the post-jazz collective Portico Quartet, which earned a Mercury prize nomination.

His debut solo album, First Mind, brought him another well-earned Mercury shortlisting – and this is the album that we hear most of during his Bristol shows, which he plays to an audience of fans garnered from frequent festival appearances – including Glastonbury – last summer.

The set is simple, unlike the music, and a few simple strip lights and spotlights make the gig as atmospheric as it’s possible to get in the O2.

Nick comes across as a relatively normal, if a little shy, human being and actually seems more at home when the plethora of musicians playing exotic instruments around him leave the stage and we are left with just one man and a guitar.

Key tracks such as Juramidam, Meet Me There and I Don’t Want To Go Home have the audience swaying along with their eyes closed, transported to fantastic faraway places – but perhaps a little too hypnotic to make this the best gig you’ll ever see. Yes, Nick is incredibly talented and, yes, this gig has been sold out for months, but I feel like I am missing something – a few peaks and troughs, perhaps? And there were plenty of punters chatting loudly throughout the gig who seemed to feel the same way. Not even a superb cover of Drake’s Hold On We’re Going Home could lure them stage-wards.

Alt-folk may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but all you have to do is close your eyes during a Nick Mulvey gig and you are transported to another part of the world. Now that’s special.