FLIGHTS of Helios are a force of nature – masters of loud and quiet, dark and light. Their sound is an irresistable blend of delicate folk and reverb-heavy rock – a sonic vortex which pulls in the listener and transports you to the cosmos.

“I guess you’d call it space-rock or drone-folk,” says singer and bassist Chris Beard.

“There’s shoegaze, space-rock and post-rock, which covers the elongated, reverb-heavy songs that ebb and flow. There’s folk-rock to cover the ukulele, violin, keyboard drones and pure vocals, and, lastly, garage rock as we love getting fast and fuzzed-up. Distilling this into one snappy genre is hard!”

Chris is joined in the band by singer, bassist and ukelele player Phil Hanaway-Oakley, drummer James Currie, guitarist James ‘Krazi’ Maund, violinist Sian Lloyd-Pratchett and Harriet Butler on synths and flute.

The band’s cosmic sound is matched by its name – a combination of legend and science.

“Helios is the Sun god in Greek mythology,” Chris explains.

“It was also an unmanned solar-powered stratospheric craft built by NASA. So for us it combines ancient storytelling, that folk tale imagination-driven understanding of the world, with modern science and technology.

“This is reflected in our songwriting and sound combining the traditional with the digital. And both the Helios stories have elements of risk-taking ambition which is really important to our approach to making music.”

Another source of inspiration is Celtic culture, which finds expression in their often heartbreakingly lovely minimal folk songs such as live favourite Dhyana and Donalogue.

“My interest in folk music stems from listening to Sheila Chandra’s albums on Real World where she reworks songs from various world traditions,” says Chris.

“I loved the folk-fusion album Imagined Village she’s on too. Sheila’s version of Donal Og / Donalogue is quite influential on ours, though hers is a capella.

“We were also lucky to work with Mercury-nominated folk star Sam Lee which really hammered home the community storytelling function and how rich that world is. Sian and Harriet have got me hooked on The Unthanks too.

“It all fits in with the heavier sound. Drones are pretty familiar in folk, for example on harmonium; all we’ve done is turn them up to 11.”

He goes on: “I feel like we’re still dabbling. Our recent acoustic sets have been a nice way to explore the form and do it in a more traditional way; I personally love the intimacy of it, scary though it is.”

Phil agrees: “It also means we can play to family audiences,” he says. “We’ve got three mini Helios in the band so it’s great to get the extended family together.”

The band have serious pedigree on the Oxford music scene. Chris explains: “Phil and I are old friends – I used to come and see his school band Sexy Breakfast play – and around 2011 he’d split from their next incarnation Borderville. The two of us started a short-lived electronic choral project with Tom ‘Woody’ Woodhouse (also ex-Borderville), and around the same time Seb Reynolds (also ex-Sexy Breakfast) invited me into the Braindead Collective, a loose knit drone improv band with a revolving line-up often including Phil and James ‘Krazi’ Maund.

“One night James Currie played drums and something clicked. Songs started to weave themselves out of the improv noise and here we are.”

Phil chips in: “I actually met Seb at a gig by Cactus, Chris’s first band. They were a big ugly bunch of rockers and on a regular basis I told them Chris was in the wrong band!”

Chris laughs, telling Phil: “You always were a cheeky swine!”

The band recently parted company with keys player Sebastian Reynolds (a bandmate of Phil’s in their old school band Sexy Breakfast). Seb left to pursue other projects, including his Mahajanaka project based on the adventures of the Buddha and a pair of solo albums, Remembrance/Epiphany.

“Seb enjoys the fact we had to get three players in to fill his space,” laughs Chris. “Sian’s violin has brought a folkier tone and some gypsy chic. Harriet loves a good keyboard drone so there’s still that element but it’s a different take on it.

“We’ve done acoustic gigs recently where Harriet’s played a mean flute so that’s something new too. Seb also used to wrangle the looping effects on my vocals which I’m currently learning how to do, it really makes me appreciate his contribution as it’s not easy.”

Phil chimes in: “I am loving the ukulele in all forms and playing a lot more of that. It’s not just a twee hipster instrument. I think because of the size you can take it anywhere. I’ve started writing a lot more outside and on the move. Good songs and riffs sound good on whatever instrument they’re on. I’ve also had a child fairly recently and the uke is very handy for keeping the peace and the sanity.”

While the line up has morphed the band have ploughed on, building a reputation for hypnotic live shows and stunning festival appearances, from Truck to Glastonbury. Next Thursday they launch their debut album Endings at the Jericho Tavern.

“We’ve kept on working at it,” says Chris. “Persistence is key. But there are definitely times when the stars aligned and more ideas bloomed.”

Phil says: “We pulled together an album’s worth of music for a soundtrack project called The Adventures of Prince Achmed in just a few months.”

Chris elaborates: “Phil will periodically bring these projects along when we need a kick. Re-scoring such an important piece of cinema to deadline was inspiring.

“On reflection that may be why Endings took so long to come out; there was no deadline. But it gave us time to refine it and we’re really pleased with it now.”

They admit to some memorable live shows, with one standing out in particular. “The last time we played the Jericho Tavern we had infamous art-house film Holy Mountain projected behind us,” says Phil.

“We had facepaint meant to look like apocalypse survivors but instead Krazi looked like Kung-Fu Panda, and when I turned round, the screen was full of dodgy ‘70s nudity and other things not suitable for a family newspaper!”

Chris laughs: “No wonder the crowd looked a bit shellshocked. I thought it was the sheer power of our music.”

And with the first album under their belts, there is already more work in the pipeline. “We’ve had the Endings album in the bank for a little while and been songwriting fairly constantly, to the point where we now have two more albums’ worth of material near completion,” says Chris.

Phil says: “The new songs feel more positive to me. We’ve moved away from it all being about grief.”

Chris agrees. “There are still dark moments but they’re balanced out more evenly. Endings is like passing through one of those underwater caverns looking at all the subterranean lights. It’s quite claustrophobic and the new music is a little more open.

“We’ve been recording with Jimmy Hetherington at Shonk Studios and also rehearsing there so it feels like we have a familiar home base and that makes the process quicker.”

“I do think we’re more focused,” adds Phil. “Sian and Harriet have brought the eye of the tiger. We’re definitely in Rocky III mode at the moment; loose and speedy. The songs are about equality, the evils of medication, Alzheimer’s, foxes, pylons and more. Though there are no album titles yet.”

“Well...” adds Chris, “No good ones anyway!”

An extraordinary live spectacle, the band present a hypnotic presence which draws the audience in to their world.

We like to think our performances are interesting and a little bit different as there are many different things going on at one time," says Krazi.

"We like to take the audience on a journey and we always spend time crafting the setlist before a gig. There is such a variety of songs at our disposal so we always construct the setlist with them in mind."

And the whole set - and album – is lifted by Chris's beautiful voice.

"Richard Neuberg, the amazing engineer for Endings, pushed the vocals to the front so fans of Chris’s voice won’t be disappointed," says Phil. "We’re continuing this with the Shonk recordings and now we have violin and flute we can play with complimentary timbres. We hope to be showing a more dreamy side of Helios soon."

"Creativity is a major facet of the band and I think we’ve created the perfect environment for our ideas to ferment and flourish," says Krazi. "When writing songs, no idea is ever vetoed without being properly tried out despite how eccentric or weird it may appear."

Phil agrees. "Working with Jimmy at Shonk has been an injection of something pretty good," he says. "I suppose we have had a few regrets - including breaking the control room window in Foals’ studio while making the music video for Factory (on our YouTube channel). It turns out that’s really expensive.

"Spending band money on things other than recording is painful. We’re all about making music and then making it better... then making more!"

* Flights of Helios launch their debut album Endings at the Jericho Tavern, Walton Street, Oxford, on Thursday, March 29