|
Review of Ataraxia's book/CD set, "Arcana Eco"
In the centre of Italy, Autumn 2003, I was honoured to meet Francesca
Nicoli of Ataraxia.
Their book & CD set "Arcana Eco" comprises 7 exquisite songs
with a sumptuous array of photography, journal entries, biographical details,
lyrics and poetry, springing from musicians and other artists in Ataraxia's
circle, including journalist Ferruccio Filippi and photographer Livio
Bedeschi.
All these unfurl in a tapestry of interlinking threads, like Italo Calvino's
Tarot in "A Castle of Crossed Destinies", complete with a bookmark
in a box smooth as pearl.
They might indeed be the "Tides" turned to "silken boxes"
given to mermaids (p110).
Francesca's voice is distinctive and unforgettable. It is also perhaps
an acquired taste, like the bacchante expressionism of Diamanda Galas,
only more tender. Ataraxia's style - musically, visually and dramatically
- is highly eclectic, drawing upon diverse traditions from flamenco to
whirling Dervishes, medieval nostalgia of Pre-Raphaelites (for the soldier-monk-pilgrim-knight),
Parisian theatre opera and vaudeville/cabaret/Commedia dell'Arte, with
Venetian-style masks.
Francesca's travel journals seem reminiscent of Loreena McKennitt's, yet
more subtle.
Her lyrics call to mind the whimsy of Kate Bush, but are more poetic.
To my imagination, Francesca's writing is closer to the poetry of Pessoa,
Rilke, Lorca, Mandel'shtam or Vallejo. I say this with care. It's not
simply that her words are graceful. It's also the power of her imagery
- her "glass gardens" - that, in my opinion, mark her as one
of the leading poets of our era. This particular region of poetry has
for me long carried an aching, ecstatic sense of divine contradiction:
that Beauty's fleeting nature might be the secret of its immortality?
Consider these lines:
"I still feel the emerald lymph of the thousand leaves I have swallowed
running through my veins. And I sing."
(Francesca Nicoli)
No independent music collection is complete without this
"ambrosia… that feeds the soul and the dreams." (p.132)
http://www.arkrecords.net/ http://www.ataraxia.net/
review by Louisa John-Krol, Australia, 3rd November 2005
|