I am still floating from the magic of last night’s show at Zora Space, a wonderful place to hear music on Fourth Avenue, the border between Park Slope and the Gowanus.

Magic.

Mark Geary, a Dubliner, was an unexpected thrill. His riveting stage presence revealed a gift for songwriting, acoustic rhythms, vocal drama and hilarious asides. He played with a talented drummer, who a lot to the songs with just a drum and what looked like a chair, an ambient electric guitarist who enhanced the songs immeasurably and a back-up vocalist, who added swelling harmonies.

Geary has opened for Swell Season, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Joe Strummer and others and has a new album out called Live, Love, Lost it, NYC.

Marketa Irglova‘s set began with a sound check that evolved into a full a capella performance of an old Irish folk song. Wearing trousers, a pretty sweater and a new, short haircut, the female half of the Swell Season proved that she’s a solo talent in her own right with a  gift for piano driven songs with swooping melodies and a sustained, quiet intensity.

The performance at Zora Space was like being in Marketa’s living room, except, as she revealed, she doesn’t have a piano in her new Brooklyn apartment and must go to a friend’s on the Upper West Side to compose songs. “It’s life imitating art,” she said referring to the film “Once” where she played a character who went to a music store in order to play the piano.

Standing alone on the simple stage at Zora Space, Marketa, who was born in the Czech Republic, played guitar and sang Fantasy Man, one of the songs from Once, the film which earned Marketa and Glen Hansard an Academy Award for best song in 2008 (Falling Slowly was the winning song).

Clearly, Marketa has been busy writing songs and working with a new group of collaborators on her solo work. A beautiful young woman with long dark hair and dark eyes sang vocals and accompanied Marketa playing an amazing Persian drum called a Daf (or Dayereh). She also sang an incredible song in Persian (when I find her name I will add it here). Jay Rodriguez, a talented jazz musician, contributed drama and dimension playing sax and flute on a few of the songs.

Confident frailty is a phrase I’d use to describe Marketa. She never strays from the essential quietude of her gently emotive songs, which seem just on the verge of going away. Her melodies swoop into the upper register in ways that make your entire body trill with exquisite sadness and joy. She doesn’t succumb to the vocal mannerisms f many pop performers and forces the audience to close their eyes and listen deeply.