Ondine’s exploration of the luminescent sound world of Kaija Saariaho continues with five trios for various combinations. All are in her familiar fluttery-ecstatic vein, derived from late Scriabin by way of Lutosławski and Crumb but with a harmonic sophistication and restraint that place her far above many contemporaries of whom much the same might be said.

Mirage is the chamber version of the mini-cantata to shaman texts already recorded in its orchestral guise (11/08); the two versions were composed in parallel and are equally haunting. Cloud Trio provokes comparisons with Ligeti and, notwithstanding its obvious evocative attractions, it did set me wondering whether the string trio medium is perhaps a little thin for Saariaho’s purposes. Her natural idiom is all ripples, glides and shimmers, exploring resonances that become more potent when a piano or larger ensemble is involved.

This may be partly why I found my attention more consistently held by the mixed timbres of Cendres, with its asthmatic alto flute, and Je sens un deuxième coeur. The title of the latter refers to a pregnant woman’s sensation of a second heart in her body and the music is related conceptually to Saariaho’s second opera, Adriana mater. Its frequently aggressive textures (the opera itself is set in a war zone) provide a welcome contrast to the relatively passive tone of the other pieces here.

In Serenatas the grit in the oyster is supplied by the percussion. Predominantly dark in tone, this suite’s five movements can be performed in any order of the performers’ choosing. Here the Misterioso makes a natural conclusion, both to the work and to the disc. Performances are uniformly first-rate and the recording is pretty much ideal. The CD is self-recommending to contemporary-music connoisseurs, but not exclusively to them.