New Rituals

PROSJEKTBESKRIVELSE
New Rituals is musician and composer Christian Meaas Svendsens ambitious prosject of writing music to — and inspired by — 10 zen-buddhist texts, known as sutras.
Through three different starting points, three different 40 minute blocks of music have manifested themselves on separate LP's/CDs.
The music seeks to investigate the relationship between ancient buddhist liturgy, contemporary composition and free improvisation, and whether a set form can be used as origin point for musical emancipation.
Chanting, or resititation, of Sutras in groups is a part of the pracsis in almost all zen-groups. In New Rituals the chants create a steadfast referance point for musical exploration.
KONCEPT AND SOLUTIONS
The packaging concept is a kind of gestaltung of the zen-pracsis, where the obeserver literally has to find a 0-point for the cover to work – a simple metaphor for the pracsis istself.
Furthermore the three parts of the sleeve represent how separate parts come together to form something new – a play on buddhist philosophy where "all things are fundamentally empty of themselves. Everything is a sum of other parts and the activities therein".
The color scheme and objects in the packaging are loaned from meditational paraphernalia, like the riutalistic costumes, the color of the sutra book and so on.