To what extent are composers’ voices conditioned by the tone and character of the instruments for which they write? It’s a question that yields some interesting results when applied to Bryce Dessner’s new album: 12 pieces composed, as its title suggests, for seven solo instruments.

The four pieces for piano present the more reflective side of Dessner’s character. Featuring Katia Labèque, the dreamy, waltz-like Lullaby for Jacques et Brune sounds like Chopin reimagined through the eyes of Satie, while the flowing Song for Octave contains echoes of Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel. Delicately undulating textures underpin the Philip Glass étude-like Ornament III. The two short pieces for classical guitar, played by Dessner, evoke a similarly contemplative atmosphere.

In comparison, the tense, tempestuous Tuusula for solo cello presents a very different side to the composer – its animated, agitated mood given full rein in Anastasia Kobekina’s passionate, visceral account. This is Dessner at his most intensely dramatic and unpredictable.

Such generalisations are only helpful up to a point, however, and certainly the extended compositions on ‘Solos’ allow Dessner further room to explore the instruments’ different attributes in more nuanced ways. The three-movement Ornament and Crime, with Pekka Kuusisto on violin, shifts from punchy folk-infused post-minimalism at the beginning, via sustained tones and suspended harmonics in the middle, to ricochet-like propulsions at the end (Pärt again springs to mind, this time Fratres for violin and piano). The two-movement Delphica for solo viola navigates a course that covers similar textural contrasts in a poised and balanced performance by Nadia Sirota. During these moments, one suspects that Dessner is writing for the character of the individual performer as much as for the instrument itself.

A member of alternative American rock band The National for over 20 years, and noted for several film and TV scores, Dessner’s career as a composer of contemporary classical music was sparked by a performance of Steve Reich’s 2x5 in 2009. Reich’s influence can be heard on Tromp Miniature for marimba, a rather sprawling theme and variations on a deconstructed harmonic pop-song sequence, and especially in the overlapping lines, folding patterns and pulsing chords on one of the disc’s highlights, On a Wire for solo harp, given an energetic and focused workout by the irrepressible Lavinia Meijer.