Michael Gordon (born 1956) and Michael Zev Gordon (born 1963) have more in common than John and Gerald Barry, but they should not be confused. London-born Michael Zev teaches at Southampton University and the Royal College of Music. He is not a post-Andriessen minimalist although he did study with that composer and there are points of comparison in Touch (1990), the oldest, longest, most plinky-plonk stretch of writing in this collection. Elsewhere the manner is essentially contemplative – soft-grained, fastidious, even fragile. Pedal washes are plentiful.

On Memory (2003-04) is the big project here, a 12-movement suite that takes past musics, memories, associations and techniques and gently jumbles them up. Couperin emerges from blurred depths in the second piece. Bach is played mostly backwards in No 4. No 9 gives us shards of Ravel, Henry Mancini and Janá∂ek while No 11 elides Chopin and Bill Evans. The attitude may be stigmatised as postmodern but the composer is anxious to fashion an expressively charged language for each link in the chain: it isn’t just a game. Some of the most recent works here are pared-down miniatures approaching the manner of Howard Skempton. Crystal Clear (2003) has just two harmonies. Laid Bare (2008) – like No 6 and 7 of the main work – employs only white notes. Far Away (1995) and High Ground (1997) were recorded previously in the context of Thalia Myers’s anthology of “easy” music composed for the Associated Board’s Spectrum series (NMC, 10/99).

Andrew Zolinsky is the dedicatee of On Memory and the music suits his contained, super-refined piano sound. You can decide whether the rather audible pedal action is part of the intended effect. The unfocused, just-out-of-reach imagery of the artwork is apposite, the notes helpful.