With a remarkable consistency in releasing challenging and gorgeous “indie classical” music, the New Amsterdam label rarely disappoints. This collection of solo piano compositions performed by Michael Mizrahi, entitled The Bright Motion, only adds another ace to its sterling record. On the spectrum of relaxing and technically uncompromising, this leans more toward the latter, as each piece is focused on exploring the various aspects of piano playing in depth.

Ryan Brown’s “Four Pieces for Solo Piano” twiddles around the high end of the register, with fragmentary melodies and chords dancing in tandem, producing marvelous results. Meanwhile, the seven and a half minutes that make up Patrick Burke’s dizzying “Unravel” are build around an ostinato chord pattern which pops up in between seemingly random melodic lines and brooding low-end chords. Those looking for a more straightforward piano study will find much of this inaccessible, but for anyone with a taste for adventurous composition, this is a goldmine.