Darkwave/neoclassical band Ataraxia has released a new single and video, ‘Breath of Soundrops’ from the compilation album The Five Senses.
A tribute to Italian painter Saturno Butto, The Five Senses is out now via Rune Serpent Europa (with worldwide distribution by The Circle Music). The compilation is available in a limited-edition CD + book and LP + book format, with 500 numbered copies. The physical editions include a 56-page deluxe book featuring Saturno Butto’s Five Senses oil paintings.
The compilation features previously unreleased tracks from artists including The Magus, Lisa Hammer, Ataraxia, Schatten Muse, Amphoterism, Phobia Effect, Elder Futhark, Experiment Death Patient, Staat Und Organisation, Puppe Magnetik, Regard Extreme, Stabat Mortii and Kathodos.
Saturno Butto’s Five Senses oil paintings, consisting of 15 panels, are presented in three parts, unified by the theme of the five senses. Eros is a constant throughout the project, explored in three stages: beginning with beauty and sensuality, progressing to five frames suggestive of a video clip, and culminating in “pornographic echoes”.
However, as with the preceding works, this final series maintains an emphasis on elegance and compositional beauty, avoiding any crudeness. In essence, it’s a reinterpretation of the theme from my perspective, structured into three sets of five works, each employing five models.
The first set features two subjects per panel, each representing one of the five senses without any sequential order. The second set, titled ritual, depicts five models on each panel, this time marking sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste in a deliberate sequence, akin to an initiatory ritual. The third set involves three models per painting, interpreting one of the five senses in a much more explicit manner for each individual work, again without a specific order, mirroring the first series.
‘Breath of Soundrops’ is available on digital platforms here and the Five Senses album here.
