You know it's been a good stretch for a composer when he has trouble remembering all the discs of his music being released.

"Sorry, I am drawing a blank," says Eric Moe with a laugh, as he struggles to recall the name of one.

It's not that he is absent-minded or self-possessed. The University of Pittsburgh professor is in the midst of an uncommon flurry of activity for a composer. Since 2007, eight discs containing his music have, or are about to hit the market, including four devoted entirely to his music:

• "Tri-Stan" (text by David Foster Wallace) Koch

• "Siren Songs" Albany (re-release with a new piece, "& A Warm Hello from the Alien Ant Farm")

• "Eric Moe, Music (1991-2004)" The Sienese Shredder

• "Strange Exclaiming Music" Naxos (to be released in 2009)

That is an unheard of amount for any composer who isn't dead. (Other works recently recorded include "Eight-Point Turn," "Legend of the Sad Triad" and "She Goes Her Spacious Way").

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PG AUDIO

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Audio selections from recently released discs of composer Eric Moe music. More audio selections of his music are available at www.ericmoe.net

• "& A Warm Hello from the Alien Ant Farm," Frankenberry, Moe (Albany)
• "Eight-Point Turn," Relache (Meyer Media)
• "Legend of the Sad Triad," Hanke (Self)

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In addition, the first half of 2009 is seeing a boom in performances of his works. No fewer than 21 concerts across the country will have works by him, including three premieres. The performers have been eminent, including the New York New Music Ensemble, the 21st Century Consort, the Firebird Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, clarinetist Jean Kopperud, and pianist Stephen Gosling.

The bustle has the down-to-earth Moe a little shocked himself. But he is enjoying the ride.

"It is feast or famine," says Moe. "I feel immensely fortunate having all these wonderful performers recording my music and getting it out there."

Moe's music is of its time but strikingly original. It is harmonically centered, but not tonal. It can be rhythmically repetitious, but not minimalist. It often references contemporary culture, but is not post-modern (in fact, he tends to poke fun at that). At the heart, it is music whose form, phrasing and notes themselves are driven by whatever emotion or thought he (or the texts he uses) are expressing. It often hits the ear like a foreign language you can somehow understand. And musicians are speaking it more than ever.

The result is that Moe is now in the enviable position of having multiple interpretations of his works in concert and on record. "You want fresh interpretations of your music," he says. "I get tired of listening to the same recording again and again. I can't stand knowing what is coming."

In particular, Moe's piano pieces are getting attention. "I am a pianist, and I know how to write idiomatically for the instrument," he says. "But it is not the easiest music to perform." In one case, he politely asked a pianist not to release a recording because "there were too many mistakes."

Moe's works are not only getting multiple performances, they are finding different contexts, such as a disc tucked in the back of a curious volume called "The Sienese Shredder #3."

Given Moe's penchant for peculiar titles such as "Kicking and Screaming," "I Have Only One Itching Desire" and "Mud Wrestling at the O.K. Corral" might make you think that "The Sienese Shredder" is a new composition. In fact, it is a visually arresting annual journal compiled by artists Brice Brown and Trevor Winkfield that mixes poetry, writing and the visual arts. Each thick edition comes with a recording, and this year's CD could pass as Moe's greatest hits, what with selections from his piano concerto, "Kicking and Screaming," song cycle, "Siren Songs" and piano piece, "Grande Etude Brillante."

Moe's inclusion in this cutting-edge publication shows his sizable New York cred. Though he has been a Pitt professor since 1989, he is a frequent and respected presence in New York City as a pianist and a composer.

Yet Moe's hip quotient is not what impresses so much these days as witnessing a composer who is both in creative full bloom and getting recognition.

With some significant performances upcoming, including the May 22 premiere of his percussion concerto "Kick & Ride" by percussionist Robert Schulz and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose, you might think Moe is finally focused on the present.

Not a chance.

"I am trying to write four pieces at once," he says, again with that laugh.

It's a wonder even more doesn't slip his mind.