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.