Sebastian Rochford & Kit Downes

This is music as a lament but also as an act of remembrance, “a sonic memory, created with love, out of need for comfort.” It is deeply beautiful, full of hymn-like simplicity and space, yet also human warmth.

A Short Diary, released earlier this year, was Sebastian Rochford’s exquisitely poignant musical response to his father’s death in 2019. All the tunes bar one were composed by Seb on his grandfather’s piano in his childhood home in Aberdeen; he then recorded them with his friend Kit Downes on piano, adding his own drums as a kind of discreet conversational partner. Seb and Kit play the album live tonight, taking advantage of the intimate acoustic surroundings of St George’s.

This is music as a lament but also as an act of remembrance, “a sonic memory, created with love, out of need for comfort.” It is deeply beautiful, full of hymn-like simplicity and space, yet also human warmth.  The final track Even Now I Think Of Her was composed by Seb’s Dad. In Seb’s words: “It’s a tune my dad had sung into his phone and sent me. I forwarded this to Kit’s phone. He listened, and then we started.” The poignancy of A Short Diary will touch many listeners.

This concert is approximately 75 minutes straight through, without an interval.

“Pure music of luminous quality [which is] bound to be in quite a few year-end lists. (The Arts Desk)