Ataraxia – Pomegrenate, The Chants Of The Elementals (Album – The Circle Music)
Genre/Influences: Ethereal, Neo-Classic, Cinematic.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Ataraxia strikes back with their twenty eight album to date.Francesca Nicoli (vocals), Vittorio Vandelli (classical & electric guitars, programming, backing vocals) and Giovanni Pagliari (keyboards, piano, back vocals) composed the album while getting help from guest musician Totem Bara playing cello and timpani.
Content: The sonic universe of this Italian formation remains pretty faithful to what they composed during their early years. It remains a world of reverie accentuated by delicate sound treatments and evasive atmospheres while the Ethereal singing of Francesca Nicoli remains a very unique sensation. I however noticed a few songs with a different approach like the Enigma-like “Aura Magi”.
+ + + : Ataraxia is a band I don’t only respect for their longevity, but also -and mainly, for their delicacy in composing beautiful songs. They’re mixing different styles, moving from Ethereal into Cinematic and from Neo-Classic into Dark-Wave, but every single song sounds like it is touched by the hand of a supernatural force. The use of authentic instruments always empowers the global sensation while the Ethereal vocals create a delicious symbiosis. “Ode Ad Afrodite” is a new masterpiece and definitely my favorite one from the opus.
– – – : When you’ve released 28 albums in a career it’s really hard to say which one is your favorite. I can’t say “ Pomegrenate, The Chants Of The Elementals” is the best I’ve heard, but it perfectly stands for the work of Ataraxia.
Conclusion: Close your eyes and dream away guided by the fine songs of Ataraxia.
Best songs: “Ode Ad Afrodite”, “Ozoonhas”, “Aura Magi”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.ataraxia.net / www.facebook.com/AtaraxiaFB
Label: https://thecirclemusic.gr / www.facebook.com/The-Circle-Music-109161897443413
Listen to “Pomegranate – The Chant Of The Elementals”:
About Ataraxia
Ataraxia are an Italian neoclassical darkwave and dark folk ensemble from Modena in Emilia-Romagna. The band was formed in November 1985 by vocalist Francesca Nicoli and bassist Michele Urbano. Guitarist Vittorio Vandelli joined in December 1986 and keyboardist Giovanni Pagliari in January 1990; from the early 1990s onward, Nicoli, Vandelli and Pagliari became the group’s enduring creative core. Ataraxia is more a multidisciplinary project working across music, poetry and visual art, merging acoustic and contemporary instrumentation and using texts in both ancient and modern languages, with recurring references to Mediterranean and Celtic cultures, mythology, ritual and nature.
Ataraxia first built an underground following through self-produced cassette releases: “Prophetia” in 1990, “Nosce te Ipsum” in 1991, and “Arazzi” plus “Sub ignissima luna” in 1993. Their first full release followed in 1994 with “Simphonia sine Nomine” on Energeia/Apollyon and “Ad perpetuam rei memoriam” on Apollyon. Those releases were followed by “La Malediction d’Ondine” and “The Moon Sang on the April Chair” in 1995, the split 10-inch “In Amoris Mortisque” with Engelsstaub, then “Il fantasma dell’Opera” and “Concerto N. 6” in 1996. In 1998 Ataraxia released “Historiae” through Cold Meat Industry, “Orlando” through Prikosnovenie, and the live album “Os cavaleiros do templo – Live in Portugal” through Symbiose.
Those were followed by “Lost Atlantis” in 1999, “Suenos” and the retrospective “A Calliope” in 2001, “Mon Seul Desir” in 2002, “Des Paroles Blanches” in 2003, “Saphir” in 2004, the acoustic double set “Odos eis Ouranon” and the book-plus-CD project “Arcana Eco” in 2005, then “Paris Spleen” in 2006 and “Kremasta Nera” in 2007. “Llyr” was released in 2010, followed by “Spasms” in 2013, “Wind at Mount Elo” in 2014, “Ena” in 2015, “Deep Blue Firmament” in 2016, “Synchronicity Embraced” in 2018 and “Quasar” in 2020.
The band signed to the Greek label The Circle Music, which handled the 2021 vinyl reissue of “Suenos” and then a studio trilogy. “Pomegranate (The Chant of the Elementals)” opened that trilogy on 21 September 2022 in digital, CD and vinyl formats, with videos for “Hlara Aralh” and “Aura Magi” released around it. “Centaurea” followed in 2024 and Sylfaera the Fair closed it in 2026, making the album reviewed here the starting point of the sequence.
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