Arcana (band)
| Arcana | |
|---|---|
 Arcana at the Mithras Garden Festival 2008 in Koblenz |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Neoclassical , Dark Wave , Dark Ambient |
| founding | 1994 |
| Website | www.erebusodora.net/arcana/ |
| Founding members | |
| Peter Bjärgö | |
| Ida Bengtsson | |
| Current occupation | |
| Peter Bjärgö | |
| Ann-Mari Thim | |
| Ia Bjärgö | |
| Mattias Borgh | |
| former members | |
| Ida Bengtsson | |
| Stefan Eriksson | |
Arcana is a Swedish neoclassical music project founded in 1994 .
history
Arcana is conceived and musically directed by the musician Peter Bjärgö. He had previously worked in various music projects, mainly in the fields of metal and punk . Bjärgö describes the idea of founding Arcana as follows:
“In 1993 I accepted the fact that an ordinary band line-up was too narrow for me and I decided to start a project, later named Arcana. It was based on the ideas that had been haunting me for a very long time, the ideas of creating medieval inspired music, or perhaps I should say based on the romantic image we all have about the middle ages, and doing that through a very personal point of view ... "
“In 1993 I accepted the fact that a normal band 'line-up' was too limited for me, and I decided to start my own project, which was later called Arcana. This was based on ideas of creating medieval-inspired music that had haunted me for a long time. Or maybe I should say better based on the romantic image we all have of the Middle Ages and seen all of this from a very personal point of view ... "
In order to be able to implement his musical ideas, Bjärgö needed a female singing voice, which he found with Ida Bengtsson. Together they recorded a demo and sent it to Roger Karmanik, founder of the Cold Meat Industry label . Karmanik first gave the duo the opportunity to participate in a compilation with a song . The song The Song of Mourning was well received: Bjärgö and Bengtsson received a contract for two albums with Cold Meat Industry. In 1996 the first album Dark Age of Reason was released. A year later Cantar de Procella .
The success of the albums led to a renewal of the contract with Cold Meat Industry. Nevertheless, it took three years until the third album, The Last Embrace 2000, was created. Marcus Ohlsson was also involved as cellist on this CD and Johan Hallgren was responsible for the choirs. 2001 Ida Bengtsson left Arcana and wanted to go her own way. She was replaced by the singer Ann-Mari Thim. A keyboard player, Stefan Eriksson, was also brought into the band. Inner Pale Sun was the result in 2002. This was the last album to be released on the Cold Meat Industry label.
2003 was eventful for Peter Bjärgö. He married Ia Bjärgö and founded his own label with Erebus Odora. Ia Bjärgö has been part of the Arcana choir since then. Under the Erebus Odora label, Le serpent rouge, a more oriental- sounding album , was released in 2004, and The New Light for the tenth anniversary : a compilation of previously unreleased pieces and alternative song versions of Arcana that were written between 1994 and 2003.
From 2006 Arcana is under contract again under a third-party label, the German label Kalinkaland Records. Lack of time and financial reasons were the cause. The album Raspail was released under this label in 2008 . The name is a reference to the album Within the Realm of a Dying Sun by Dead Can Dance . Its cover shows a photo of the grave of the French scientist and politician François-Vincent Raspail . According to P. Bjärgö, however, this reference has no substantive effects. In 2009 Stefan Eriksson left Arcana, with Mattias Borgh the group was reinforced by a drummer.
P. Bjärgö says about the band name Arcana:
"I actually thought that is was a girls name, but then I found out that it was from old english, and it is the word 'secret'."
“I originally thought it was a girl's name. But then I found out that the word came from traditional English and was the word for 'secret'. "
Discography
Albums
- 1996: Dark Age of Reason
- 1997: Cantar de procella
- 2000: … The Last Embrace
- 2002: Inner Pale Sun
- 2004: Le Serpent Rouge
- 2008: Raspail
- 2012: As Bright As A Thousand Suns
- 2017: Petrichor
Singles & EPs
- 1997: Lizabeth
- 2000: Isabel
- 2002: Body of Sin
- 2011: Un Passage Silcenieux
- 2012: Emerald
Compilations
- 2004: The New Light
- 2010: The First Era 1996-2002
- 2014: The Extra Songs Arcana (Arcana Self-Released)
- 2017: Petrichor
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Bjärgö: Peter Bjärgö speaks of the concept of Arcana. Arcana, 2010, accessed October 18, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c Arcana: Releases
- ↑ a b Arcana - Biography. metalstorm.net, accessed October 19, 2010 .
- ^ Arcana - ... The Last Embrace. Discogs , 2000, accessed October 19, 2010 .
- ↑ Arcana: album reviews and ratings. Musicfolio.com, 2004, accessed October 19, 2010 (See also "Line-Up" for Ia Bjärgö).
- ↑ site-line.com: Arcana signs to Kalinkaland. ( Memento from June 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Tony F .: ARCANA: Raspail. nonpop.de, 2008, accessed on October 19, 2010 .
- ↑ Interview - Sep. 5, 2004. gothicparadise.com, September 5, 2004, accessed October 18, 2010 .