Álvaro Soler brought the sun to Luxembourg on Friday night

There's a Japanese word, 'ame otoko', for someone who seems to bring the rain wherever they go.

Spanish-German artist Álvaro Soler, who lived in Japan for many years, is the opposite: a 'hare otoko', whose upbeat blend of Latin pop, reggaeton, dance and disco brought the sun to Luxembourg at the end of a chilly week punctuated by flood warnings.

It's not easy to play Lux on the last day before school holidays. The city empties out early with vacationers and cross-border workers trying to beat the rush, and shows tend to be less crowded, which can be disorienting for artists who are used to selling out larger venues.

But anyone who went to Soler's show on Friday hoping for shorter lines at the bar or a better view of the stage would have been surprised to find the place absolutely rammed.

It was hot, with the crowd chanting 'Al-va-ro, Al-va-ro' before the lights went down, and only got hotter as Soler took the stage and got people dancing with the explosive 'Oxígeno', his latest single.

Even those of us who don't dance couldn't help but join in, and by the time he ended the show with his 2016 hit 'Sofia', we were drenched - but not by rain, for a change.

Soler, one of Europe's most successful Latin artists, achieved solo success more or less immediately out of university. His first single, 'El Mismo Sol', was a hit in Europe and Latin America and was re-released for international markets in Spanish and English featuring Jennifer Lopez, with whom he would later tour.

Since then, Soler has released three full-length albums that draw on his unique background - born in Barcelona, formative years in Japan, now settled in Germany - and the 'sound aesthetic' of the places he's lived.

"I'm addicted to sound… I'm on this experimental trip right now to find new sounds from old instruments"

Soler's fascination with sound and urge to experiment with it, both as an artist and producer, has led him to collect an array of unconventional instruments, which he uses to create "ear candy" that can't be found in standard music libraries (the hook in 'Oxígeno' relies on a Suzuki Qchord).

It also makes for an immersive live show: during the encore, he brought out an OP-1 sampler and recorded the crowd singing an F note, then used it to create a synth-heavy version of 'Solo para ti', his 2022 collaboration with Croation-German DJ Topic.

When I interviewed Soler earlier this year, he told me, "I'm addicted to sound… I'm on this experimental trip right now to find new sounds from old instruments". Although he only hinted at what we might expect from him in the future, don't be surprised if Soler's next album features a sitar or an electronic saisho-koto.

It would be only fitting for this endlessly curious artist who I suspect will continue to roam the world looking for singular sounds that bring us together.

Highlight: When Soler brought opener Kelvin Jones back onstage to cover Tom Odell's 'Another Love'. I missed the end of Odell's show at Rockhal in March and didn't get to hear him play it, so this felt like poetic justice.

Lowlight: A tie between the women behind me who talked incessantly through the quieter songs, including the Odell cover, and the rudest crew member I've ever encountered who, when told that we were press and needed a photo of the set list for this review, said "I don't care" and walked away.