Track titles seem to be merely an afterthought for a lot of jazz musicians. It's not so often within the realm of improvised music that instrumental originals so vividly evoke their given titles over an entire album. Yet that's the case with the British drummer-composer Sebastian Rochford's poignant, intimate new piano-drums duo debut for the ECM label. On the sleeve, Rochford describes his new release as, “a sonic memory, created with love, out of need for comfort,” referring specifically to the loss in 2019 of his father.

In the form of an audio diary, Rochford thoughtfully and exquisitely engages with various stages of the grieving process, in a personal sense and also as a family member; in Rochford's case that means one of nine siblings – see the track ‘Ten of Us’.

The drummer's memorable succinct child-like themes are fertile springboards for the outstanding pianist Kit Downes, another current UK artist on the ECM roster, who delicately investigates them with a sharpened spatial awareness and calmly imaginative poise while the drummer-leader takes on a modest supporting role for the large part. A Short Diary is made up of tenderly reflective, fragile elements, at times sounding something like a cross between the more tranquil, sparing moments of Debussy's piano works with Leonard Cohen's sombre hymns, yet with a ray of light peeking through the solemn mist. His late father Gerard was an Aberdeen-based poet who contributes a charmingly folk-ish piece ‘Even Now I Think of Her’ that he originally sang down a phone to his son and subsequently passed on to his duo partner.

You might not immediately see a rapport between Rochford and ECM - in Seb's ex-persona as Polar Bear leader there were plenty of gritty, harder contemporary street-music elements – but Sebastian is nothing if not resolutely open-minded having also recorded for the label with saxophonist Andy Sheppard's Trio Libero. As with label honcho Manfred Eicher, he prefers profundity and soulfulness, as expressed in sonic nuances, rather than complex structures and textures – and that's the basis for its success here. The tracks feel unhurried but concise enough not to be just drifting along, and as a meditation on memory/mortality it works at a high level in its efforts to convert sound into meaning.