Label: Ark Records

Ataraxia’s muse is the sacred music of the disappeared and listening to Ataraxia is similar to experiencing travel through time, as the band transports you to time’s past and to places devoured, demolished, and dissolved by history.

Striking a perfect balance of electronic and acoustic music, Ataraxia (Francesca Nicoli - vocals, Vittorio Vandelli - classic, acoustic, and electric guitars, cithara battente, Giovanni Pagliari - keyboards and harmonizing, Riccardo Spaggiari - electronic percussion, manjira, daf, tar, gong, caxixi, darbuka, zills, ghaval) has produced a near perfect album of exquisite beauty and impeccable arrangements with the broad strokes of a landscape painter and the details of a clockmaker.
Inspired by the cult worship of the triple Goddess Axieros on the island of Samothrace, the music portrays in grand cinematic fashion the sites, the rituals, the elegies, and the echoing rhythms of invocation.
Probably the most stunning aspect of this album is the vocals of Francesca Nicoli, which run like an arterial stream throughout the CD. As far as I’m concerned, no band captures the music of the past better than Ataraxia, whose musical accomplish- ments unfortunately exceed their popularity.
On the surface it does seem inevitable that obscurity begets obscurity in a world immersed in plasticity and paper-thin value. However, if you are interested in a 74-minute vacation from the vinyl groove loop that goes round and round, then check this CD out.Michael Casano,  26 May 2007