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Bruno Fotheringay-Phipps | america | 04/04/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This Italian group plays a mixture of baroque and medieval music with absolutely superb female vocals. Francesca Nicoli's voice is the main protagonist of the spiritual manifestation that is Ataraxia. Her voice, at times low and soothing, at times airy and etherial, tops the complex and fragile musical arrangements. Amazing acoustic guitar work and transparent, gusty keyborards intertwine with the chilling ambience, that comes straight from within the ancient walls of S.Ruffino, the sanctum of Ataraxia creativity. The lyrics are in Latin, Portugese, French and English. One curious aspect of Il Fantasma Dell'Opera is that it contains a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights", turned into "La nuova Margherita" and sounding nothing like the original :) This is one of the rare albums that I can without hesitation call purely brilliant from begining to end."