With a fortified discography as sublime and musically proficient as
Dead Can Dance, Ataraxia return with their latest full length album in two
years, and this reprise is no less in stature with its predecessors. By
Ataraxia's own admission, Saphir is an album dedicated to the magical
gardens of myth and legend that inspires music of nature's spirituality: a
portal for entering the realms of dream and fantasy. In such locales
harmony and nature go hand in hand, a cradled animism protective of
humankind's right and ability to have such freedom as to dream by
inspiration of the nature's intrinsic aesthetics.
If you are
familiar with Ataraxia's music you will find no dismay in experimentation
for there is only room for refinement of skills well honed for their
chosen theme. Romanticism, Classicism, Medieval, Folk and Baroque
filaments form a backbone for the dark and beautiful expressions from
Ataraxia.
Classical guitar deftly arpeggiates flickering, somber
chords that weave into elements of flamenco flourish and defiance. Far
from being pigeon-holed, Vittorio Vandelli adds restrained chaos with
brush strokes of acoustic guitar before striking harmonic melodic pieces
that either define the main expositions of other instruments or become a
reflection of song melody itself. The percussive elements on this album,
courtesy of Riccardo Spaggiari accompany Ataraxia with such subtlety that
the listener could nary feel as if his mastery was not ever removed, from
the unrelenting thunder of timpani to the lilting finger rolls and pinched
bells of the many classical percussive instruments used on the entire
album, truly showing that percussion is not only meter to music but has
its own varied voice equal of any instrument. Giovanni Pagliari piano and
keyboard skills conjoined in dance with acoustic guitar pattering, to
blissful waves of synth and back to piano as necessary as any of the
musical strains. Francesca Nicoli's voice as ever scales soprano heavens
to graveled hells, tumid with emotion, carried as ever with a strength and
operatic resolve that outshines any delicate sensibilities; hers is a sun
over the land of musical accompaniments.
NYR
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