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ATARAXIA - Saphir (2004) (CD)

13,95 EUR

Review

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. Classical guitar deftly arpeggiates flickering, somber chords that weave into elements of flamenco flourish and defiance. 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.