- Nox Arcana
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Nox Arcana Origin Cleveland, OH USA Genres Dark ambient, Darkwave, Neoclassical Years active 2003 to present Labels Monolith Graphics Associated acts Michelle Belanger, Buzz-Works Website NoxArcana.com Members Joseph Vargo
William PiotrowskiNox Arcana is an American dark ambient musical group, formed in 2003 by Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski. Nox Arcana specializes in concept albums based on gothic fiction and classic horror literature. Such literary references include: H. P. Lovecraft, The Brothers Grimm, Ray Bradbury, and Edgar Allan Poe.[1] Some of their albums also make reference to medieval themes and ancient mythology.[2]
Their Winter's Knight album, released in 2005, ranked as high as #8 on the Billboard chart for Top Holiday Albums.[3] Their music is used by theme parks such as Busch Gardens, Knott's Scary Farm and Universal Studios during Halloween for scenes and haunted houses based upon Nox Arcana album themes.[4][5] Nox Arcana's music was featured exclusively on the television show America Haunts for the Travel Channel throughout the Halloween weekend 2009.[6][7][8]
Contents
Musical characteristics
Nox Arcana is influenced by New Age, classical, ambient music, rock music, and film soundtracks, citing other composers such as John Carpenter, Danny Elfman, AC/DC, Wojciech Kilar, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Beethoven, Jerry Goldsmith, and Hans Zimmer.[4][9][10][11]
Nox Arcana's music is melodic and moody, focusing on a dominant melody line. Instrumentation varies with each album as appropriate to the theme or time period of the album concept, and typically includes piano, bells, violin, pipe organ, harpsichord, timpani drums and other percussion.[12] Some albums also include cymbals, lutes, acoustic guitars, bagpipes and glockenspiel, depending on the theme of a given album. Enforcing the theme and the narrative is the use of sound effects, such as, for instance, a door creaking or a pendulum swinging on the Poe-inspired Shadow of the Raven.[13] Vocals and narratives are also used sparingly to help relate a story or serve as introduction to a musical piece, for example, the voice of "Jonathan Harker" and whispered female voices of "Dracula's brides" that beckon to the listener, a carnival barker with the indistinct sounds of an audience in the distance, or "Edgar Allan Poe" and a voice calling out from the grave after being prematurely buried, the gravelly voice of a "witch" casting a spell, and a variety of low Gregorian-style chanting and ethereal choirs.[12]
Discography
Date of release Title Label Billboard peak 2003-12-15 Darklore Manor Monolith 2004-10-10 Necronomicon Monolith 2005-07-10 Winter's Knight Monolith 8 2005-10-21 Transylvania Monolith 2006-06-06 Carnival of Lost Souls Monolith 2006-10-13 Blood of Angels Monolith 2006-11-27 Blood of the Dragon Monolith 2007-08-20 Shadow of the Raven Monolith 2008-04-30 Grimm Tales Monolith 2008-10-13 Phantoms of the High Seas Monolith 2009-06-21 Blackthorn Asylum Monolith 2009-09-15 Zombie Influx Monolith/Buzz-Works 2009-11-27 Winter's Eve Monolith 2010-07-15 Theater of Illusion Monolith 2010-10-01 House of Nightmares Monolith/Buzz-Works 2011-09-30 The Dark Tower Monolith History
Joseph Vargo is a renowned gothic-fantasy artist who has created an extensive portfolio of work ranging from album covers and books to posters, music cds, and other products that are distributed through his publishing company Monolith Graphics.[14][15][16] Before forming Nox Arcana in 2003, Joseph Vargo produced two albums for Midnight Syndicate[17] but left the band in 2000 to co-write Tales From The Dark Tower, a book that follows the exploits of a vampire during the First Crusade.[18] He later published Dark Realms magazine and released a best-selling card deck, The Gothic Tarot.[19] William Piotrowski had previously written the score for a video production entitled "Ghosts of Ohio",[17][20] a video documentary about Mary Ann Winkowski, a medium who inspired the CBS television show Ghost Whisperer.[21]
References
- ^ "Interview with Joseph Vargo, Artist & Musician", Flames Rising, 2006-09-18, http://www.flamesrising.com/interview-with-joseph-vargo-artist-musician
- ^ "Editorial", Echo Immortalis: 31–32, Winter 2007, http://www.monolithgraphics.com/interviews/EchoImmortalis.pdf
- ^ "Billboard Music Charts". Billboard Magazine. http://www.billboard.com/search/?keyword=nox+arcana&x=0&y=0#/charts/holiday-albums?chartDate=2007-01-27. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
- ^ a b Koster, Rick (October 7, 2008), "Nox Arcana", The Day (New London, CT.), http://theday.com, retrieved 2008-10-12
- ^ Teresenza, Serena (October 2008), "Interview with Joseph Vargo", Gothic Gateways, http://www.monolithgraphics.com/interviews/gateways.html, retrieved 2009-08-26
- ^ "Nox Arcana news". October 2009. http://www.noxarcana.com/news.html. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ "TV Guide Lisitng: "America Haunts"". http://www.tvguide.com/search/index.aspx?keyword=America%20haunts. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ "America Haunts production credits, episodes II, III, IV". http://www.facebook.com/pages/America-Haunts/151707981701?v=app_2347471856. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ Haney, Josh (October 2006), "Interview with Nox Arcana", Wicked Karnival Magazine
- ^ Pan, Marcus (February 2006, issue 156), "Interview with Nox Arcana", Legends Magazine, http://www.monolithgraphics.com/interviews/Legends156a.pdf
- ^ Ioannou, Rania (April 2008), "Interview with Joseph Vargo", Metafysiko: Fantasy Gate (Greece), http://www.monolithgraphics.com/interviews/metafysiko.html
- ^ a b Describing musical characteristics: National Gamers Guild for Darklore Manor, Temple of Dagon for Necronomicon, Christmas Reviews for Winter's Knight, Chain DLK for Transylvania , Draconis Blackthorn for Carnival of Lost Souls, Side-line for Blood of Angels, Paizo Publishing for Blood of the Dragon, Flames Rising for Shadow of the Raven, and Fangoria Musick for Phantoms of the High Seas.
- ^ Valentinelli, Monica (2009-04-24). "Review of Shadow of the Raven". Flames Rising. http://www.flamesrising.com/shadow-of-the-raven-review/. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ Bennett, Tim (October 30, 2005), "Gothic Empire: Ten Minutes with Joseph Vargo", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH): L3
- ^ Joseph Vargo's artist portfolio
- ^ Monolith Graphics publisher's website
- ^ a b "Interview with Joseph Vargo", Gaming Report, 2004-12-23, http://www.monolithgraphics.com/interviews/GamingReport.pdf
- ^ [|Vargo, Joseph] (2000), Tales From The Dark Tower, Monolith Graphics, pp. 280, ISBN 978-0967575605, http://books.google.com/?id=TzkpAQAACAAJ&dq=Tales+from+the+dark+tower, retrieved 2009-08-25
- ^ Previews starred item, September 2005. The Gothic Tarot ranks #7 of 10 (above Star Wars and Batman card games)
- ^ "Renaissance News", Renaissance Magazine, January 2007
- ^ MSNBC article on Ghost Whisperer and Local story on Mary Ann Winkowski
Interviews
- Halloween Center, January 4, 2009
- Halloween Database, August 2007
- Parallel Perspectives, May 2007
- Music Street Journal, September 2006
- The Perch, May 2006
External links
Categories:- Dark ambient music groups
- Neoclassical (Dark Wave)
- Horror rock
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