If you like Alan Parsons Project, you will also love this album. More jazzy, great electronic,instrumental tracks - perfect chillout album.

Great album, finest music with clear saxophone and great arrangement by Klaus Doldinger

On side 2, running time tracks B1-B3 totally mixed up!

my copy white sticker promo copy. Gold stamp on cover

With "Sky Blue", Klaus Doldinger tips his hat and his planetary axis to German electronic music, while making it his own as only he can do. The two-part "Ataraxia" alone is worth the cost of the disk, beginning with gently hypnotic synths and building to a crescendo of vivacious sax-led testimonies that never completely drown out the keyboard rhythms. This is music that can appeal to jazz, progressive, funk, world, and even remotely adventurous new age fans.
Keyboards do tend to dominate when the sax is not to the fore, and on the other title cut, "Sky Blue", the synthesizer doodling reaches its apex without wearing thin. Roy Louis' guitar and Dieter Petereit's bass provide the backing that makes Passport one of the more listenable groups of their ilk. This is jazz for sure, but in a more loosely structured rather than free form sense. Listen to "Mandrake" for an even better example, with guitar leads not unlike some of Andy Latimer's workouts on "Rain Dances", but with a greater respect for the overall piece. It's not so much dance music, but music that dances. Another highlight is the chugging "Loco-motive", in which Doldinger's flute simulates the whistle of the train when actual audio samples are not being used, and his flutes elsewhere are happily integrated with the sax. Quintessential travelling music, it skips and careens along the rails with its own frothy character.

A refuge of level headed coolness as it was in 1978, "Ataraxia" remains as relevant today as then, and a passport to further enjoyment of this classy act.

Charming album with great flair of the late 70thies - love it

For many, Infinity Machine is the last Passport album worth your time. Certainly that same lineup was augmented with the Roy and Elmer Louis (presumably brothers) and some Brazilian musicians, and recorded Iguacu, which finds them doing Brazilian-influenced fusion (although the album could have easily included tango rhythms as well given Iguacu or Iguazu Falls goes through Argentina as well as Brazil). Curt Cress (to join New Triumvirat for the album Pompeii), Kristian Schultze, and Wolfgang Schmid had left, with Roy and Elmer Louis from the 1977 lineup still remaining (and Klaus Doldinger) with brand new musicians. Ataraxia, known as Sky Blue in the States is that album, and I found it rather underrated. It's not perfect, and it's not as great as Cross-Collateral, but several songs really took me by surprise. They take on a more spacy electronic approach on some of the cuts, like the two part title track, and a really interesting electronic piece called "Reng Ding Dang Dong". I never hear Passport do anything like this piece, an amazing little piece of electronic music, sounded like Doldinger didn't want Passport to stagnate. Two songs are clearly in the instrumental Alan Parsons Project vein with "Sky Blue" and "Loco-Motive". "Mandrake" sounds like typical Passport of the time, but the album is not perfect as I felt "Louisiana" is too close to smooth jazz, and the Brazilian-influenced "Alegria" (which could have easily fit on their previous album) seems a bit tacky. It's obvious to my ears that Klaus Doldinger wanted both creative ambition and mainstream acceptance, and it shows on this album. I was rather surprised by this album despite the flaws.