Nitin Sawhney is an adventurous populist. He’s a guitarist, pianist and composer whose work is influenced by Indian and Spanish styles, along with blues, soul, funk, electronica and pop. He writes thoughtful concept albums that deal with anything from race and dogmatism to the effects of terrorism. But there was a danger here that he could edge towards pleasantly easygoing global mood music.

This was a major event, but he treated the concert in a relaxed style, perched on a stool clutching an acoustic guitar and enthusing about his musicians. The band included two cellists and two percussionists, and the four singers lined up across the stage included the impressive flute player Ashwin Srinivasan.

Sawhney had been billed to perform his forthcoming album, Dystopian Dream, but three-quarters of the set consisted of songs from previous albums, starting with the pleasantly cool and funky The Devil and Midnight and the atmospheric, Indian-influenced Sunset. Energy and passion were lacking in the opening, but he compensated with a flamenco-influenced section, dedicated to the late Paco de Lucía, on which he demonstrated impressive guitar work, and was helped by powerful vocals from Tina Grace on Noches en Vela. He followed with a thoughtful flamenco-Indian workout on which he was joined by sarod player Soumik Datta for a piece that he wrote for Circle of Sound. Later, Sawhney showed his impressive piano work on Breathing Light, and dedicated the end of the set to the Indian musician U Srinivas, who died last week. Here, the finest song, Nadia, featured an exquisite duet between Srinivasan and Nicki Wells.

The new material, which Sawhney describes as “a lot darker than previous albums”, included an angry political blues, Dark Day, and a demonstration of his electric guitar work on the gutsy, percussive Fires. He ended an uneven but triumphant set with a virtuoso acoustic guitar treatment of Prophesy.