Retreat! festival, 4th – 24th August

Walking into St John's Church Hall feels like entering a welcoming oasis of sanity. An oasis with tea and cakes: for this is a venue which doubles up by day as the Scottish Scullery, a fine licensed café sourcing local ingredients. This emphasis on local produce extends to the bands themselves, as Retreat! co-organiser Bart (who also promotes the gentle invasion shows in Edinburgh and is the lynchpin of local band Eagleowl) explained to me:

Retreat! is not exclusively Edinburgh acts, but that is the main focus. For one, we're trying to complement the ethos of the café, which is committed to only using ethically and locally sourced ingredients. Most of the acts playing are based in Edinburgh. Some are people that started off playing gigs in Edinburgh but have since moved away. And one or two are 'out-of-towners' that, well, that I just really wanted to see play. I really love the Fringe – it's a really exciting time to be in Edinburgh with so much on your doorstep. But I wanted our festival to address two issues I have with the Fringe, mainly: 1) that the shows are too expensive (each Retreat! show costs £3), and 2) that local artists are, for the most part, over looked. I think that music in this city has come so far over the last couple of years – it's a really exciting time just now. And we need to show people that. I find the idea of this huge, international audience staying in our city for four weeks and only getting the chance to see one band from Edinburgh quite depressing.

And halfway into the Retreat! Festival, it's clear that the quality of the bands on offer is exceptional. The opening night is headlined by the appropriately named Rob St. John. A modern-day troubadour whose age-old melodies belie his tender years, St. John's songs are carefully crafted masterpieces guaranteed to melt your heart. Playing with the largest number of people to date, including Louise Martin on saw, there's a real feeling that his set marks a high-water mark in his live shows so far. A captivating set builds to a monumental version of "Wicker Basket", on which he is joined by electric guitar, which by rights shouldn't work, but somehow adds to the sense of all-out assault. Set highlight for me was a heart-rending version of A Red Heron, which had me practically weeping into my cake. He is supported, in a more genuine use of the term than normal, by the breathtakingly talented Emily Scott, who accompanies her deceptively simple arrangements on double bass. She is also joined by Damon Thompson on guitar, whose classical arrangements perfectly compliment her stunning voice, the real draw here. Incidentally, Thompson is also a co-organiser of the festival and promoter of Hollow Heart Parlour, which again underlines the collaborative ethos behind Retreat!. There's a real sense of community, and many of the musicians play in each others' bands.

This collective approach is typified a couple of days later by Pictish Trail, who is tonight backed up by local(ish) hero King Creosote on beer can, mike stand, and, occasionally, vocals, and plays a selection of songs from his upcoming album Secret Soundz Vol.1, out in September. Support came from the endlessly inventive and playful Button Series, whose set highlight was an utterly charming song about going down to the shops, guaranteed to induce instant nostalgia in all but the hardest of hearts, and from HMS Ginafore, who play a lilting poppy folk (and clearly enjoy a glass or several of port).

Monday saw another eclectic bill. As Jess Bryant took to the stage, her voice, deep, rich and throaty, seemed at odds with the slight figure in front of us. Accompanying herself on guitar, her songs are as lush and as textured as her voice, evoking images of lost loves and dark forests. Appropriately, Wounded Knee begins his set with a reading on the nature of woods from the wilderness writer Robert MacFarlane. This sets the scene for an extended riff, entirely made up of vocalisations without words. His initial breaths into the microphone evoke the sparse leaves rustling through a winter forest, and as the piece develops, he has the audience enraptured, and I find myself closing my eyes and being swept along, away to the North American Plains and back via the Flying Scotsman. As he winds down and finishes with the breaths with which he began, it is clear that the audience have been holding their own collective breath, and the applause comes as both a release and a relief.

The Retreat! Festival runs until 24^th August. Future highlights include the Eagleowl E.P. launch on 16^th August and local heroes Mersault on 24^th August.

For further details see www.myspace.com/edinburghretreat