As if settling down to watch a film at the cinema, everyone took their seats and the lights went down, but as the screen crackled and flickered to life the sound of live music started to fill the auditorium.

Had you not read the advance publicity you wouldn’t have known that indie band British Sea Power was sitting just ten metres away playing the score they had written specially for the DVD release of Man Of Aran, a documentary film by Robert J Flaherty which was shot in 1934.

The band snuck on and started playing as quietly and as unassumingly as they crept off after the film.

This was not about going to see a live band and you felt they knew that. This was about experiencing something rather extraordinary.

The film’s cinematography – depicting life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland – was astounding for its day.

It shows the inhabitants’ everyday lives as they catch fish and farm for potatoes on an island which is mostly made up of rock, where there is little soil and where basking sharks are hunted so their liver oil can be used for lamps.

The air was filled with piano and strings which would rise and fall in time with the waves crashing into the rocks and as the fishermen battled to drag a basking shark to the shore.

To play 12 tracks including Man Of Aran, Tiger King and Spearing The Sunfish perfectly over an hour and 20 minutes is no mean feat.

It was an experience the audience wholeheartedly appreciated as they clapped, cheered and shouted for more.

An experience which, should you ever have the opportunity, is not be missed.