The Luton, England-born rocker is considered one of Britain's best songwriters and is credited with helping to pioneer at least two pop genres that paved the way for a multitude of big-name bands following in his wake.

He was a founding member of Slowdive, whose droning psychedelia has since been hailed for helping create the so-called shoegaze genre of the early 1990s and sonically paving the way for Britpop. His return to the scene via the laid-back Mojave 3 fostered an interest in country rock among alternative music fans that allowed the likes of Kings of Leon to find a ready audience in Britain, where the American rockers have their most ardent fanbase.

The outcome of his labours during Mojave 3's rest period is Oh? Mighty Engine, a folk-tinged, mostly acoustic set of songs that sees the mercurial musician taking yet another stylistic dog-leg.

After exploring 1960s psychedelia and then American roots music, he's now turning his attention closer to his home with a modern take on British pastoral music with a personal account of life, love and the land from which he hails.

Halstead calls his new sound 'nylon rock' - a reference to his movement away from electronic music in favour of a sound based on his acoustic (nylon-stringed) guitar. It's a spare album that's rich in the sort of sea-shanty textures typical of his adopted home of Cornwall in southwest England, a county steeped in Celtic mystery where legends and histories were passed from generation to generation in ballads and odes.

'It's been a pretty organic change,' Halstead says. 'The first Mojave record came about after making a pretty abstract, post-rock album with Slowdive and at that point we just wanted to make a real song-based record.

'Country music and simple songwriting was the big inspiration,' he says. 'Since then each record has kind of developed in its own way.'

It's an album of quiet reflection that Halstead will be highlighting on Sunday, the latest gig from organiser People's Party that has brought a constant stream of indie bands from all over the world since 2008.

Oh! Mighty Engine reflects a change not only in the music Halstead plays but also the sort of sounds he has been listening to.

'I guess my listening tastes are much more eclectic than they used to be,' he said. 'As a 16-year-old, folk music had less appeal than loud guitars, but now I can appreciate its hardcore nature.'

Loud guitars, squealing guitars and all sorts of other noises you could get from the rock musician's instrument of choice were Halstead's entry to the pop music fraternity as Slowdive took the brain-frazzled sounds of 60s psychedelia and welded them to the relentless repetitiveness of the Velvet Underground to produce the droning wall-of-sound that became known as shoegaze. It was so named because there was little more an audience could do to it than shuffle around club dancefloors staring down at the floor.

Derided at the time as indulgent noise, its importance in blazing a trail for the psyche-tinged Britpoppers of the mid-90s has only lately been recognised.

Halstead now laughs at the suggestion that shoegaze is being reassessed.

'We were bemused by most of the press we got at the time,' he says. 'I like that the term has become a sort of genre. It's ridiculous.'

Oh! Mighty Engine may be winning Halstead plaudits and new fans but his main artistic outlet remains Mojave 3, whose smouldering sound is set for a return this year.

'We're just on a break. Everyone has been pretty busy doing music and living one way or another but I think we will do another record this year,' he says. 'We're playing some shows over the summer so I'm really looking forward to that.'