Run Rabbit Run

Album Review

The four women of New York and Berlin-based string quartet Osso are no strangers to the indie rock scene. As the meat and potatoes for singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden's opera/cabaret/chamber music/rock outfit My Brightest Diamond, they honed both their classical and pop music skills with quiet ferocity, collaborating outside of that project with everyone from Jay-Z and the New Pornographers to Alice and Ravi Coltrane and Kanye West. Somewhere in the eye of that musical tornado they found themselves in the capable hands of indie pop spokesman Sufjan Stevens, providing strings for both studio and stage, so it comes as no surprise that the quartet's first "official" release is a chamber music rendering of Enjoy Your Rabbit, Stevens' 2001 electronic, all-"instrumental" collection of songs based on the symbols of the Chinese zodiac. The resulting Run Rabbit Run dutifully re-creates its creator's hypnotic, quirky, and oddly sweet song cycle, and peppers it with enough dissonant bow slides and odd harmonics to please the avant-garde crowd while keeping the twee melodies intact for the casual indie pop fan.