Ataraxia - Saphir

On Saphir you’ll be embraced by all elevation, gracefulness and sensitiveness alike. Such a beautiful album that I was so blessed to listen from the Italian band Ataraxia happens to you only a few times in life. It is almost… no, it will mean that I will lie saying this, it is beyond the common human perception! This latest epos, a conceptual one about the magnificence of gardens and flowers’ mythical shade, is an abundance of emotions and monumental feelings, an explosion of profound attitude and orphic dreaming. The music is like wistfulness, and the acoustic flamenco guitar’s playing or the lithe soprano voices of Francesca make you flying with your spirit above the Elysian Fields. The new songs have Latin, French and Spanish influences and the whole record is a compact and enthusiastic revelation of waving sounds and mesmerizing gleams with choirs and sonnets full of noble and personal touch. Symphonic, Operatic or Medieval Neo-Folk and a bit Gothic orchestrate the dimension of meditative and in the same time traditional dancing music. Francesca has one of the most beautiful and perfect articulation and style of singing, and the result is amazing on suave and sumptuous compositions like Outremer, The Gentle Sleep or De Pourpre Et D’ Argent. The percussions and the string instrumentation create a solemn and statuary expression; on the other hand we enjoy more piano, some synth and keys work enriching the sound exactly in the points where it has to sustain the rest of the classic ensemble. Sometimes you have the weird sensation that you’re finding yourself in the middle of a miraculous garden where you draw the scents of some unique type of flowers. Overflowing passion and grandiose fascination for the magical nature of gardens like the hanging ones of Babylon, the Arabian and the Medieval or the Japanese mediums of colours and perfume and, of course, the English romantic gardens. The aesthetic glamour of such a life-style dominated by the nature of music and, backwards, by the music of nature is more than a bohemian transcendence through a garden dream and it is, in fact, symbolization beyond the boundaries of life itself as a mystic and romantic place to live. The booklet contains wonderful pictures of various gardens and writings about them with some contemplating lines. This is what I call a masterpiece by excellence! A pure Piece of Art and an unique communion between human essence and nature spirit. A must for every heart loving fan out there!

Link: http://www.ataraxia.net/

Label: Cruel Moon Int. / Cold Meat Industry (http://www.coldmeat.se/)

Playlist:
01. Azar
02. Outremer
03. Jardin De Lune
04. The Gentle Sleep
05. Rue – Bleue
06. D’ Arc D’ Harpe
07. De Pourpre Et D’ Argent
08. A Green For Her Voice
09. Blood Of Cherries
10. Of Asphodel

Line-Up:
Francesca Nicoli (Voice, Flute & Cymbals)
Vittorio Vandelli (Vocals, Classic, Synth & Medieval Guitars)
Giovanni Pagliari (Vocals, Piano, Keyboards & Harmonizing)
Riccardo Spaggiari (Percussions, Darbuka, Frame-Drum, Timpani, Udu, Riq & Cymbals)
Lorenzo Busi (Light & Dance Acts)

Discography:
Prophetia (Independent, MC 1990)
Nosce Te Ipsum (Energeia, MC/VHS 1991)
Arazzi (Energeia, MC 1993)
Sub Ignissima Luna (Putrefactio, MC 1993)
Simphonia Sine Nomine (Energeia/Apollyon, CD 1994/1996)
Ad Perpetuam Rei Memoriam (Apollyon, CD 1994)
La Malédiction D’ Ondine (Energeia, CD 1995/2002)
In Amoris Mortisque (Apollyon, Split 10” EP with Engelsstaub 1995)
Would The Winged Light Climb? (Raffaella Graziosi & Lorenzo Busi, VHS 1995)
The Moon Sang On The April Chair/Red Deep Dirges Of A November Moon (Apollyon, CD 1995)
Il Fantasma Dell’ Opera (Avantgarde Music, MC/CD 1995/1996)
Concerto N. 6: A Baroque Plaisanterie (Apollyon, CD/VHS 1996/1997)
Os Cavaleiros Do Templo – Live In Portugal (Symbiose, BOX 1998)
Orlando (Prikosnovénie, CDS 1998)
Historiae (Cruel Moon Int/Cold Meat Industry, LP/CD/BOX 1998)
Lost Atlantis (Cruel Moon Int/Cold Meat Industry, CD 1999)
Sueũos (Cruel Moon Int/Cold Meat Industry, CD 2001)
A Calliope... Collection (Future Insights, BOX 2001)
Spirito Ancestrale (Arceto, VHS 2002)
Mon Seul Désir (Cruel Moon Int/Cold Meat Industry, CD 2002)
Des Paroles Blanches (Arkadyss Creations, CDS 2003)
Saphir (Cruel Moon Int./Cold Meat Industry, CD 2004)