Osborne's involvement in music therapy projects with traumatised children in the Balkans has gone hand-in-hand with a growing interest in the region's traditional music. In particular, he has been fascinated with its rhythmic character, which is often marked by patterns containing odd numbers of beats - five (one-two-one-two-three, say), seven (one-two-three-one-two-one-two, etc), even as many as thirteen. These differently arranged sequences of twos and threes give the music its rich rhythmic variety. Balkan dances and laments, scored for oboe, violin, viola, cello and piano, was written in 2001 in response to a commission from the Hebrides Ensemble. In it, Osborne explores not only the rhythmic character of Balkan dance music but also his discovery ("or maybe it is so obvious that no one else has bothered to mention it", he says) of the relationship between the numerical proportions in the rhythmic patterns and the music's melodic and harmonic characteristics. The work also contains echoes of traditional Balkan love songs, and one in particular - 'Il'je vedro, il'oblacno' (Whether the sky is bright or dark), from Bosnia-Hercegovina.