Nox Arcana

**Nox Arcana** is an American neoclassical dark wave, dark ambient musical duo of Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski, formed in 2003. Their name in Latin translates to "mysteries of the night." All of Nox Arcana's music is released independently on the Monolith Graphics label, a publishing company owned by Joseph Vargo. With their third album, Nox Arcana became a *Billboard* Top Ten charting artist in the holiday genre.

## Concept:

Nox Arcana specializes in concept albums based on original stories, as well as gothic fiction and classic horror literature[4] Some of their albums also make reference to medieval themes and ancient mythology.[5]

In addition to the storytelling aspect of each album, hidden puzzles and interactive quests are incorporated into the album artwork and into the music itself. Beginning with the *Blood of the Dragon* CD in 2006, Vargo began a tradition of incorporating a quest or adventure within the album artwork and sometimes leaving clues in his narratives. He later went back and did the same for some of the earlier CDs. Now more than half of Nox Arcana's CDs contain some sort of hidden puzzle, which is left to the listener to discover.[6][7]

Nox Arcana's music is often used to provide atmosphere for films, public events, role-playing games and during Halloween at theme parks, several of which have based haunted attractions on Nox Arcana's original theme albums, *Transylvania* and *Blackthorn Asylum*.[8][9][10]

## Musical Style:

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. Some albums also include cymbals, lutes, acoustic guitars, bagpipes and glockenspiel, depending on the theme of a given album.

Their music is generally classified as dark wave or dark ambient, "sometimes sandwiched into the gothic music genre" [11] and aptly labeled "atmospheric gothic."[12] The moods associated with Nox Arcana music describe it as ominous, romantic, lush, epic, otherworldly, menacing, spooky and eerie, Nox Arcana's music covers a broad range of subgenres within the rock and alternative music categories.[13]

Joseph Vargo explained Nox Arcana's style to a blogger from Gnostics.com: "Our music is mainly classically based instrumental, although we do incorporate chanting choirs and spoken narratives for dramatic effect to achieve a blend of darkly haunting melodies that encompass the complete gothic spectrum the romantic, the mysterious, and the horrific. We utilize a variety of instruments such as piano, pipe organ, violin, acoustic guitar, drums and tolling bells to achieve symphonic orchestrations. Our concept has always been to create moody and melody-driven gothic soundscapes that take the listener on a musical journey through various dark realms of fantasy." [1]

*Carnival of Lost Souls* though primarily a dark cabaret-style album, also contains a heavy metal song, while the music on the *Blood of Angels* album blends industrial dance and tribal rhythms with ethereal-style vocals.

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 choirs.[14] Enforcing the theme and the narrative are the use of sound effects, such as a door creaking or a pendulum swinging on the Poe-inspired *Shadow of the Raven*.[15]

Their trilogy of winter holiday-themed albums feature a range of ethereal-style choirs, Gregorian-style chanting, classical music, and Celtic new-age instrumentation,[15] giving a darker overtone to music for the Christmas and Yuletide holidays. Their third release,*Winter's Knight* peaked at #8 on the *Billboard* chart for Top Holiday Album in 2006 and again in 2007.[3]

Three albums, *Blood of Angels*, *Zombie Influx*, and *House of Nightmares* were recorded as side-projects with other artists or vocalists. William Piotrowski released his first solo film soundtrack with *Crimson Winter*. Joseph Vargo wrote and recorded solo for later albums, *Blackthorn Asylum*, *Winter's Eve*, *Theater of Illusion*, *The Dark Tower*, *Winter's Majesty*, *Legion of Shadows*, *Gothic*, *Season of the Witch*, and *Ebonshire*, which has become a series of holiday music EPs released each year, culminating in 2018 with the full collection.

## Links:

-https://www.noxarcana.com/

-https://www.facebook.com/NoxArcana

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nox\_Arcana