“The remarkable thing about Kathryn,” says Josh Armstrong, “is how much she puts herself on the line. Once she gets there, there is no backing down.”

In case you’ve managed to miss the overwhelmingly positive notices in the press, on the radio and online since the release in early August of her new – and second – album From When I Wake the Want Is, we should clarify that the Kathryn in question is Kathryn Joseph, the Aberdonian singer, songwriter and pianist whom Armstrong will direct in a short Scottish tour that begins on Thursday with a sold-out show at Tramway in Glasgow.

“There’s almost an animalistic quality when she is performing,” he adds. “It feels like she is hunting the audience. Her music and presence is sensual – visceral.”

A thoughtful and articulate 31-year-old native of Cleveland, Ohio, Armstrong lectures in contemporary performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. He’s also an associate director of Cryptic, the Scottish production company celebrating 24 years of fusing music, art and theatre. Corralling a creative team that includes set designer James Johnson, lighting designer Nich Smith and Prague-based “body architect” Markéta Kratochvílová – who clothes Joseph in a pink jumpsuit with a sophisticated rope assembly on top – Armstrong is relishing his collaboration with the singer.

It all began two years ago with a nod from his boss at Cryptic, Cathie Boyd, in the direction of Joseph’s 2015 Scottish Album of the Year award-winning debut, Bones You Have Thrown Me and Blood I’ve Spilled.

“I listened to it and loved her sound,” Armstrong recalls. “I think it relates to the tone of the work I tend to make. I’m interested in sublime beauty – the fact the beauty comes from pain or another overwhelming quality. It's not just prettiness. There's something raw to it.”

He and Joseph emailed back and forth and, with the singer busy at the time writing music for the National Theatre of Scotland’s adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, the mooted alliance was set aside until late last year, when Joseph began sending Armstrong rough mixes of some of the songs that would end up on From When I Wake the Want Is.

Speaking prior to the first week of rehearsals, Armstrong recalls: “This project is different to how I normally work. I usually have other performers as opposed to a single performer so I’m still at the stage of conceptualising what the performance elements are. The design elements are mostly set, but there’s still room for whatever interaction Kathryn and I have to inform what the end product is going to be.”

Armstrong says. “At this point I’m confidently ignorant about what’s going to happen. That’s the whole thing about creativity. You have to embrace being lost or not knowing what you’re doing because if all you do is continue to go ‘I need to know what I’m doing’ then you lose spontaneity. You’re just trying to fill in blank spaces.”

Although Joseph’s producer and co-writer Marcus Mackay provides sound design for the show, she will perform her new album from start to finish solo. If her enthusiasm is any gauge, those attending the gigs are in for a treat.

“I’m wearing something amazing and Josh is going to make it look amazing,” she says, beaming, when we speak earlier. She is clearly relaxed about the lack of a concrete plan. “I think I’m doing some weird things in between some of the songs, like hanging up an animal skull.

“Everything Cryptic do is absolutely beautiful – they’ve done all my favourite stuff.”

And how would Armstrong explain what audiences can expect? “The best way to think about it is that she plays piano and performs within almost an installation of mirrors and other mechanical apparatuses,” he says.

“But as much as we’re adding or augmenting things, at the heart of it is Kathryn. That’s why we didn’t want dancers or actors. All the things I’m trying to curate around her are emphasising Kathryn herself.”

From When I Wake is at Tramway, Glasgow, on Thursday, then touring. Visit cryptic.org.uk. From When I Wake the Want Is is out now on Rock Action Records