There are five artists with this name:

1) Arcana is a neoclassical d… Read Full Bio ↴There are five artists with this name:

1) Arcana is a neoclassical darkwave band from Sweden, formed in 1993. They merged 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 original line-up consisted of Peter Bjärgö and Ida Bengtsson, but since 2002 it changed and featured Peter Bjärgö, Ann-Mari Thim, Stefan Eriksson, Cecilia Bjärgö and Mattias Borgh. Due to personal issues with Cold Meat Industry Peter dropped from the label and created his own label and mailorder called Erebus Odora. The label no longer exists, but the same Erebus Odora still exists as the studio where he is still active making his own music.
Arcana's last live performance for a long time, probably for a year at first, took place on the 11th of December 2010 at the Dark Bombastic Evening II festival in Bucharest, Romania.
Official website: http://www.erebusodora.net/arcana
Since 1996, Arcana have been one of the leading bands in its genre. Peter Bjärgö (then Pettersson) started creating the music of Arcana after years of playing different kinds of music. The early idea of the music was based on the romantic image around the middle ages, through Peter’s own personal view. For the first three releases Ida Bengtsson joined Peter as the lead female vocal, and the band grew its fan base all over the world. In 2001 Ann-Mari Thim replaced Ida bengtsson as the new lead female vocalist along with Stefan Eriksson on keyboard and additional instruments. After the fourth release Peter Bjärgö left Cold Meat Industry, the first label of Arcana, to start an own label. The main reason was to preserve the personal touch of the music, Peter’s own sound and feelings, his creative independence.

In 2003 Peter's wife, Cecilia Bjärgö, also joined the band on vocals and in 2006 Mattias Borgh entered the band as percussionist. In 2010 the band expanded in live situations when Núria Luis and Sergio Gamez Martinez (Narsilion, Der Blaue Reiter, Endless Asylum) joined Arcana on stage and since then the music is pure authentic with no backtracks. The contribution of Sergio and Núria has been so productive as they are now consider full members of the band. The difficulties of rehearsing is though an issue, since two members live in Spain. But with the musicality and experiences of live performances, this is nothing that holds us back.

The man behind it all is still Peter Bjärgö, the composer and producer of the music. The music has changed from album to album and today you can hear sounds from all parts of the world since the instruments Peter use are global.

Arcana is in 2012:
Peter Bjärgö
Ann-Mari Thim
Cecilia Bjärgö
Mattias Borgh
Núria Luis
Sergio Gamez Martinez

2) 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".

3) 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.
Official myspace: http://www.myspace.com/arcanaperu

4) Arcana is a Belgian female DJ. More info: http://www.myspace.com/djarcana.

5) Arcana is a Canadian videogame music remixer from the OverClocked ReMix community.

As The End Draws Near
Arcana Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's so hard to believe, that this is the end
The end of our journey
But I think it's time to move on
We need something that wakes us up
Something that makes us whole
So it's time to close the door, and leave it all behind

Looking back is like staring into the sun

Our paths might cross, but not for long

It's so painful that the fire is almost gone
That we're gasping for air
And we've done this for far too long
Perhaps we need to get rid of this weight for a while
Then we might remember how the glow used to feel

Looking back is like staring into the sun
Our paths might cross, but not for long

Looking back is like staring into the sun
Our paths might cross, but not for long

Overall Meaning

The song "As The End Draws Near" by Arcana is a mournful reflection on the end of something precious. The lyrics convey the difficulty in coming to terms with the end of a journey, but also the realization that it's time to move on. The singer acknowledges that they need something to wake them up and make them feel whole again. The theme of closure is conveyed in the lines, "So it's time to close the door, and leave it all behind". There is pain in the realization that the fire is almost gone and that they are gasping for air. The singer takes a turn to reflect on the possibility of taking a break to get rid of the weights they've been carrying. They remember how the glow used to feel, and this provides a glimmer of hope that things might get better.

The repetition of the line, "Looking back is like staring into the sun", underscores the idea that it's difficult to reflect on the past when the pain of the present is still so raw. The use of "the sun" as a metaphor adds to this idea because looking directly into the sun can cause pain and damage. The phrase, "Our paths might cross, but not for long", conveys a certain sense of finality, highlighting the fact that the end is truly near. The singer seems to be at a crossroads, trying to figure out how to move forward.

Overall, the lyrics to "As The End Draws Near" convey a sense of lament and rueful acceptance. It's a poignant reflection on the end of something that was once important, and the challenge of moving on.

Line by Line Meaning

It's so hard to believe, that this is the end
It's difficult to accept that our journey has come to an end.

The end of our journey
We've reached the final destination of our journey.

But I think it's time to move on
It's time for us to move forward.

We need something that wakes us up
We require something to invigorate our senses.

Something that makes us whole
Something to make us feel complete and alive.

So it's time to close the door, and leave it all behind
Time to close this chapter and move forward.

Looking back is like staring into the sun
Reflecting on the past is excruciating.

Our paths might cross, but not for long
Maybe we'll meet again briefly, but not for a long time.

It's so painful that the fire is almost gone
It's unbearable that our passion is extinguishing.

That we're gasping for air
We're struggling to breathe.

And we've done this for far too long
We've gone through this situation for too many years.