Release Date: 22.05.2024

Formats:

• Jewel Case CD

• Gold Vinyl with printed inner sleeve (500 copies)

• Luxurious Box embossed in Gold (Limited to 200 copies)

The Circle Music proudly presents: 

Ataraxia – Centaurea

The Ancient Spirits are still speaking in the hidden paths…

Much can be said about Ataraxia‘s new album, but we will be as restrained as possible. After all, the most important judge is somewhere out there among you and will subjectively express yourselves when “Centaurea” will be released in its entirety.

With 28 albums in their luggage, they have nothing to prove anymore. This is a special case of a band that lives exclusively devoted to music. Maybe this is also the reason from where they derive all this enthusiasm, passion and love for each of their creations. In the second half of the previous year, Ataraxia probably found themselves in a particularly creative period. They isolated from the mundane and returned with a sensational album.

Now they deliver the second act of a trilogy that opened with “Pomegranate” and even though it is a continuation of the story, it is completely different. Is it possible that in such a short time they could compose something better than “Pomegranate“? And yet, they succeeded. The differences with its predecessor are many. “Centaurea” is darker, with more gothic moments, choral vocals, eerie atmosphere, more dramatic, pompous and interior, special and unique.

Some of the songs are destined to enter the pantheon of the best Ataraxia’s compositions ever made. And since this is a serious conversation with so many of their timeless songs already out there, we’d like your opinion when you listen to these songs: “Viriditas” (Francesca Nicoli’s vocals at their most dramatic), “Ignis Pater” (Pure magic), “Aetas Aurea” (Ataraxia like you we have never heard before), “Porselanae” (like a medieval fairytale) “Nox Incubat” (Incredible song).

Today we’re releasing “The Source“, one of two Bonus Tracks to be included on the CD. Here, for the first time, Ataraxia use uilleann pipes and the result is so beautiful that we hope that in the future they will again include this musical instrument in their sound. The only negative situation is that “Centaurea” cannot be heard in fragments, but only in its entirety. However, be patient and stay tuned as “Centaurea”’s secrets slowly unfold.

                                                                         …for all who have open ears.

(The Circle Music)

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ATARAXIA – CENTAUREA (2024)

“Only by dreaming you can enter
only by sleeping you can leave,
mystical journey or sacred dream
on a pale sailing ship.
Silence”

On a Greek island of impressive neoclassical beauty, I lived and wrote the concept of the new ATARAXIA’s album “CENTAUREA”.
CENTAUREA is an island beyond the columns of time, still immersed in a golden age, it is a new Mediterranean Avalon whose name is a hundred times brighter than gold and that can only be accessed by dreaming and from which one leaves just sleeping.

Crossing the dimensional waters that lead to this magical circle, always immersed in the gold of the light of twilight and the flaming magenta of the dawn, we reach a dimension in which the principles of the Sacred Feminine and Masculine are embodied by heroes and maidens, priestesses and bards. The qualities of Courage, Audacity, Hospitality, Trust, Grace, intense spiritual values ​​and the earthly representation of Beauty become flesh and accompany us while listening to the songs.

We participate in nocturnal rituals, dances at dawn, races across prairies and woads, flights overlooking the sea, celebrations of the primeval Sun, we meet wolves and Goddesses, we speak lunar alphabets, we cross woods of wild loves, enchanted bays where sweet scents are released, we sail wild blues and listen to the myths of the Oak. The beings who animate these places live destinies on a strand of splendor.

This album, our twenty-nineth, is part of a trilogy which began with “Pomegranate”, a hymn to the elemental spirits, and which will end with a work inspired by the Elysian Fields passing through the Golden Age brought to light by “CENTAUREA“.
The lyrics of the songs, sung in several ancient and modern languages, are precious poems by Francesca Nicoli and Mara Paltrinieri who had already collaborated on the lyrics of the band’s first albums.

The splendid lay-outs (each album format has its own imaginative history, therefore the vinyl artbook contained in the limited box and the CD graphics are different from each other, unique and original) are released by Nicolas Ramain.
The intro of the CD will see the uillean pipes played by Gregorio Bellodi for the very first time and, once again, in three songs we will find Totem Bara on the cello.
Insetti Xilografi designed the Sacred Oak represented on the box and on the hoodie and Mary Vareli created the hieratic priestess present on the T-shirt.
The album will be preceded by three singles with three related videos portraying places and rituals of CENTAUREA.
The entire work is a kaleidoscope of varied beauty in which the arts blend and accompany us
Ad Maiora!

Francesca Nicoli (ATARAXIA)

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Francesca Nicoli
vocals

Vittorio Vandelli
classical, acoustic and electric guitars; programming; timpani; back vocals

Giovanni Pagliari
keyboards; programming; back vocals

Guest musician:

Totem Bara
cello in Galen, Nox Incubat, Viriditas

Gregorio Bellodi
uilleann pipes in track 1 of the CD “The Source”

All music by ATARAXIA
lyrics by Francesca Nicoli and Mara Paltrinieri

Recorded, mixed, mastered by Vittorio Vandelli between September 2023 and January 2024

We gratefully aknowledge all the photographers whose contribution are featured in the vinyl lay-out

Artwork concept and lay-out by Nicolas Ramain

PR inquiries (For Italy only): info@metaversuspr.it (Marco Gargiulo/Metaversus PR )

PR inquiries: (Rest of the world): dom@3-nation.com (Dominic Athanassiou/3nation)

Tracklisting:

CD                                   Part I Aqua Mater The Source (Bonus Track) Aetas Aurea Porselanae Nox Incubat Aqua Mater Part II Ignis Pater Galen Viriditas Ignis Pater (Bonus Track) Of Snow and Sapphires CoelestisVinyl LP Side I Aetas Aurea Porselanae Nox Incubat Aqua Mater Side II Galen Viriditas Of Snow and Sapphires Coelestis