This music was written for the Hilliard Ensemble, one of the world s finest vocal chamber groups, and sets five liturgical texts from a number of services of the Byzantine rite. Obikhod (2002 2003) also sets liturgical texts and was written for the same performers, but this time with the accompaniment of string orchestra. Raskatov s music is extraordinarily difficult to describe, but some constants in his work include an ear for delicacy of sound and beauty of color as well as a penchant for silence, or more precisely near-silence.