(there are three artists with this name)

I. Arcana is a neoclassical/darkwave band from Sweden, formed in 1993. They merge classically- and medievally-inspired instrumental music with occasional vocals to arrive at a richly atmospheric and dark musical tapestry. Previously signed to the Cold Meat Industry label, the band consists of members Peter Bjärgö and vocalist Ia Bjärgö. Due to personal issues with Cold Meat Industry Peter dropped from the label and created his own label and mailorder called Erebus Odora where he is still active making his own music and helping other artists.

II. Arcana was a side project of bassist Bill Laswell’s. On The Last Wave Laswell joins his deep-bass to free music pioneer and guitar legend Derek Bailey together with drumming demigod Tony Williams to create the ultimate freely improvising power trio. The other album put out under this group name as a Laswell project was Arc Of The Testimony, one of the last projects drummer Tony Williams would record before his untimely death. Instead of the trio format, Laswell adds guitarists Buckethead and Nicky Skopelitis, Graham Haynes on cornet, and saxophonists Byard Lancaster and Pharoah Sanders. Where The Last Wave harkens to Laswell's work in Last Exit, Arc of the Testimony is more along the lines of Ekstasis or some of the instrumental Material work, such as Hallucination Engine.

III. Arcana was a Peruvian rock band who released 4 albums until they disbanded in 2007: a live demo called Demo/Vivo; their first studio album Trágalo in 2000, Virgen in 2003 and their last album Al Olvido in 2005. Their musical style was rock but had a similarity with Nirvana’s style (gaining with this being called “Nircana” or “Arvana” by close friends as as joke). Their last album featured another style, totally experimental and hard to define. In the lineup there was some changes but two of the founding members never changed Markko Kruz in the guitars/vocals and Micky Bane as a bassist. Drummer changed for each album: Italo Quintanilla on Tragalo, Giancarlo Cordiglia on Virgen and Daniel Limaco on Al Olvido.