Paul Jebanasam - Rites - 1CD

Subtext presents the debut album from UK based Sri Lankan born artist Paul Jebanasam. Rites brings together five settings of stark sonic poetry whose underlying logic bridges the worlds of contemporary classical, metal, sacred music and sound design.

The pieces explore the central themes of grace and savagery, contrasting historical musical languages with the emergence of visceral sonics and immersive tonality, overlaying the past on to the present and considering the possibilities of sound as an eternal, universal medium embedded within the order of civilisation. Rites takes its central inspiration from Jebanasam's exploration of liturgical music whilst integrating aspects of his seminal production work for the Bristol based Tectonic label and his defining role in the re-emergence of Subtext in 2011.

Through the five ceremonial passages, Rites brings together a unified vision of existence projected across human memory, merging the primal impulse of metal, noise and richly textured drone with the tension and emotional narrative of classical composition. The material summons these elements together, evoking a machine of incalculable scale forging a world distinct of time where man's transit and reckonings merge with a vast and unforeseeable purpose. The visible and invisible streaming together into pools of chaos and sanctity, a landscape stalked by the unknown, the human spirit uttering a desolate whisper to the spirit of its ancestors.

Rites brings these classical themes together into an immersive statement that considers the possibilities for contemporary composition to connect with new sonic forms, exploring abstracted structures and sculptural synthesis, and ultimately examining music's potential to converse with its earliest origins whilst being embedded in the present.

Viola Tracks 3 & 5 - Phil Owen
Double Bass Track 3 - Joe Allen
Guitars Track 4 - Deej Dhariwal
Additional mixing - James Ginzburg

All tracks written and produced by Paul Jebanasam
Published by Multiverse Media Publishing
Manufactured and distributed by Cargo Records
Design by Alex Digard
Mastered at Multiverse
Additional Mastering by Matt Sampson

In Memory of Noel R. Jebanasam

Released in April 2013