Dew Process gains Ben Lee

BRISBANE -- Critically feted Australian singer/songwriter Ben Lee has joined the roster of indie label Dew Process Recordings.

Paul Piticco's Brisbane-based Dew Process has inked a three-album deal with Lee covering Australia and New Zealand; New West is his label for the rest of the world.

The first fruits of the new relationship will be the Feb. 2009 album release "The Rebirth Of Venus," the follow-up to Lee's 2007 effort "Ripe" (Inertia), which is nominated for best independent release at this weekend's ARIA Awards in Sydney.

"It's great that he's come to us. He could have pretty much gone anywhere, and anyone would have had him," Piticco tells Billboard.biz. "He's a great artist, and he's come to us with his vision for this new record, wanting us to work on it and spread the gospel according to Ben. We'll hopefully do his faith a lot of justice."

Aussie songstress Missy Higgins collaborates on the track "I Love Pop Music," while Brad Wood has returned to produce the full set, rekindling a partnership which yielded a hat trick of ARIA wins with the 2005 album "Awake Is the New Sleep."

In a statement Lee describes the new album as "uplifting, joyful, beautifully chaotic, opinionated, passionate and real." He adds, "I'm thrilled to be signing to Dew Process, a label known to support careers that are eclectic, ambitious and full of integrity."

Dew Process is label home to Bernard Fanning, the Living End, the Grates, Whitley and Sarah Blasko, among others.