Souad Massi is one of north Africa’s finest, most original singers, but she has had an uneven career. An Algerian exile based in France, she started out as a cool guitar-playing singer-songwriter who was compared to Françoise Hardy for her charmingly sad songs that matched lyrics in Arabic and French against sturdy, yearning melodies. Then she acquired an impressive band, and switched confidently between acoustic and electric styles before the project appeared to run out of energy, four years ago, with the disappointingly lightweight Ô Houria album.

Now Massi is back – or nearly back. She has at last recorded a powerful new album that mixes sad-edged songs with experiments, including a dash of north African reggae – but it’s not released until March and she performed none of the new material at this intimate event organised by the Nour festival. But she looked and sounded as cool and compelling as ever, with shoulder-length black hair and distinctive, unforced vocals, and provided an entertaining if curiously programmed reminder of her past work, concentrating on songs from 2005 or earlier. Many artists start slowly, then build up the tempo, but Massi did the opposite. She began upbeat, slowing down once for Le Bien et le Mal, and including only two reminders of Ô Houria, including the Arabic country-rocker A Letter to Si H’Med. She played acoustic guitar and was backed by a four-piece band with two percussionists, bass and electric guitar, but no oud, which provides the distinctive backing for many of her recordings.

She is at her best when not so constantly cheerful, and, thankfully, at the end she mixed thoughtful, pained love songs with such rousing anthems as Khalouni, while the encore included an exquisite solo revival of Raoui. An impressive return, but she urgently needs the new material.