The output of Xiaogang Ye (b1955) has become relatively familiar in the West, and not just at festivals or retrospectives of new music. Numerous works have been recorded (notably by BIS and Naxos), and this Resonus release makes available more of those for chamber forces.

Despite its generic title, the Piano Trio (2008) takes its cue from the Chinese myth of Pangu with his forming heaven and earth out of chaos, as this pursues a heady and often combative interplay through to a conclusion whose iridescent textures could presage a new beginning. Here it moves into Gardenia (2017), pipa extending the timbral possibilities of string quartet in music that uses melodies associated with Yueyang city to sometimes disorientating effect. Enchanted Bamboo (1989) is already characteristic in its fastidious handling of timbre and texture as this discreetly alludes to more than a century of Western chamber composition.

Although written in instalments, there is nothing episodic or even discontinuous about Datura (2006), the title referencing a houseplant whose decorative and hallucinogenic aspects seem equally reflected by the constantly varying juxtapositions of flute with string trio. The focus on just cello and piano enables Nine Run (2001/23) to demonstrate the sheer resourcefulness of Ye’s motivic thinking but also his immediacy of melodic writing at its climax, then the 10-strong ensemble of Nine Horses (1993) conveys his music at its most visceral and engrossing: qualities hardly inappropriate for a work inspired by encounters with the Peking (sic) Opera.

Only the Piano Trio has been recorded before, by the Haydn Trio. These finely attuned and recorded performances offer an ideal way into Ye’s alluring sound world.