More cool music from Oscar Bettison

From the site Killing the Buddha is this terrific look at Oscar Bettison's piece O Death: A Requiem Masque for Six Players:

Formally, the piece has more in common with Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, in terms of its unusual instrumentation, archipelagic structure and morbidly sacred subject matter. And just as the Quatuor drew heavily from “world” influences—the irregular rhythms of Indian talas, Slavic dance melodies, etc.— Bettison’s requiem assembles a broad range of traditions, all converging on the theme of death and transcendence, and knits them together as a single distillate.

The essay has sound clips, and is an excellent introduction to this piece.  (Of course, we like Oscar's music lots here at LF, if you haven't listened to Dustin's Ear Tease on Bettison, go here.)