1983
Original ARS NOVA' was founded with Keiko Tsubata(Keyboards) Kyoko Kanazawa(Bass) and Yumiko Saitoh (Drums) they met in the university mainly. They started to play ELP, TRACE and original songs which were maily under the influence of ELP, too. Then they have begun their live performance activity at Tokyo.
1986
Keiko Tsubata has left the band because of personal reasons. The rest of the members were looking for an another keyboard player instead of her. After that Keiko Kumagai has joined the band, she came from the band called Sylphied. After that, a female guitar player, Miyuki Hattathe (who was member of Sylphied as well) also joined the band, and at that time they have changed the band's name from ARS NOVA to MANI-HOUJYU, as the cover band of some prog rock bands. They played their live performances twice but after that they stopped because of individual reasons between Miyuki and Keiko.
1991
By the advice of the producer of 'Made in Japan Records - Numero
Ueno, the band was re-formed as 'ARS NOVA' with Kyoko, Yumiko and Keiko.
1992
First of all, the band had participated on a compilation album - "Progressives' Battle 1992 ". In this year, they have released their 1st album 'Fear and Anxiety' through Made in Japan Records.

1993
Drummer Yumiko Saitoh, has left the band and a new female drummer, Akiko Takahashi joined the band. She was also member of 'NOTHING INSIDE' and 'DANBALL BAT' both. Those bands play in new wave rock, alternative or avantgarde style.

1994
The band has released the 2nd album "Transi". It attracted attention overseas.

1995
In June the band had a live performance with a female guest violinist, Minobe Junko from the band called 'Cinderella Search' at EGGMAN in Tokyo.

ARS NOVA has been invited one of the world's greatest progressive rock festival,
'ProgFest 95' - in November, in LOS ANGELES, U.S. It was the first time when a band from Japan played (and it was their first live performance overseas!!). They had very good reputation on this festival and the band advanced in the world's prog rock scene very quickly.

1996
The band co-starred with Japanese pro band, 'Bi-Kyoran' and GERARD at
ON AIR WEST in Tokyo in May.

They have released the 3rd CD, 'The Goddess of Darkness' at the same time
through Made in Japan Records (Japan) and MUSEA LABEL (France) in July.
They have been invited to another big prog festival called 'Progday´96' . It
was held in North Carolina, U.S., in September. It was also their 2nd USA
tour in PHILADELPHIA, NYC, and BALTIMORE.

1997
In January, the band had the first European tour in Paris and BORDEAUX in France, and at WRTZBURG in Germany.

They co-starred with the biggest prog band, 'Banco' from Italy at ON AIR WEST in Tokyo, in May.

In June, the band appeared on the biggest prog rock festival of Europe 'UDEN
ROCK FESTIVAL' (in Holland) and it was their 2nd European tour in LONDON and in STUTTGART, Germany, too.

They established their interational artist status by accomplish the major
debuting on the best CD 'Six Singular Impressions' from Trycle Records in Japan, too.

Also, the band made a contract with England's AMP Records and they released the 1st album with different CD sleeve from the Japanese version.

Kyoko Kanazawa has left the band in October.

1998
The band has invited DEJA-VU's ex-bassist, Ken Ishita as a guest
instead of Kyoko on the 4th album 'Reu Nu Pert Em Hru (the book of the dead) ' and it was released in September.

In October, a female keyboard player, Naomi Miura -who was the keyboardist
of 'Rosalia' and 'After the Rain' - joined the band (instead of the bass player)
as their tour support member - and in this irregular trio line-up, (double
keyboards & drummer) the band had a long tour which was introduced into 8
cities, they were at Genova in Italy, Paris, Hertogenbosch, Drachten in Holland,
Verviers in Belgium, Trenton, Baltimore, San Francisco in USA.

1999
In April, They have released a keyboard-trio tribute album 'Keyboards Triangle' through ABALONE label with GERARD. And Mika, who plays the keyboards in TRITON, has joined the band as a formal member, instead of the live support member, Naomi Miura.

2001
The 5th CD, 'Android Domina' was released in February.
It announced light SM performances on the gigs as a part of the theme, too -
such as sale commemoration concert - and that attracted attention to the fans.
It was limited release which included unreleased songs on the CD
'Lacrimaria' in June.
From August to November the band had a world tour. They were invited 'Alwari
Rock Festival' (Helsinki), and they also had gigs in Verviers(Belgium), at
'Progday2001' (USA), in Mexico, Baltimore(USA) and in Roma(Italy).

On the Top 20's list for 2001 of WondrousStories magazine (which is published by Classic Rock Society, in English;)
Keiko was 13th best keyboards, Akiko was 15th best drummer and ARS NOVA were 19th best band.
For your information, the top of keyboards was Rick Wakeman and
the top of drummer was Carl Palmer.


2002
On the 10th anniversary, since the band has released CD. They released
'Collector's Box' - three sheets of sets CD+DVD - through their own label, Transi label in June.
In October Shingo Ueno has organized a special event, 'Halloween Night
live' at ON AIR WEST in Tokyo. He invited some guest musicians from Italy. They
were Gianni Leone from IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO, Claudio Simonetti from DAEMONIA and Alex Brunori(vocalist). Also, there were Japanese guests, Masuhiro Goto from GERARD, Atsushi Hasegawa from GERARD and Takeo Shimoda(drummer). After the concert Mika has left the band.

2003
In March, the band performed at Silver Elephant with Naomi Miura and
after that they have performed 'Baja Prog' in Mexico and had a great successes
there.

After that, drummer Akiko Takahashi has left the band.

In June, the band has released the album 'BIOGENESIS' which theme
contained Shingo's original sci-fi story. Guest musicians on the album: Arjen Lucassen from AYREON(Guitar), Gianni Leone(Kbd), Claudio.Simonetti(Kbd), Lucio Fabbri from PFM(Vln), Alex Brunori(Vo), Atsushi Hasegawa(Bass), Takeo Shimoda(drums) and Masuhiro Goto(Drums).

At that time, the band's lineup was: Masuhiro Goto and a new female bass
player, Shinko Shibata and Keiko on keyboards.
In October the band has participated in 'Progsol' festival in Swizerland. December 23, 2003 Satoshi Handa (guitar) joined ARS NOVA's Christmas gig as a guest first time.

2004
In March, the band has been invited Classic Rock Society in England
and had a live gig for them. After that, they also performed at Underworld in
London.

In November, they went back to London again to play a gig at Astoria.
On the CRS award night, on November 27th, Keiko was the 7th best keyboards and Masuhiro was the 9th best drummer. And ARS NOVA were the 16th best band and the 10th best gig of that year.

2005
They had a gig at RUIDO, K2 at Shibuya in Tokyo.
After that Masuhiro Goto has left the band.
The band has found their new male drummer, Hazime.
They have started to have rehearsals together from the end of summer.

2009
In February Ars Nova release a DVD Seven Hell Live on which appears two tracks from their forcoming album Seven Hell. On this DVD two musicians have been invited Zoltan Fabian on guitar (Age Of Nemesis) playing guitar and Robby Valentine playing keyboards. Their eighth CD “Seven Hell was released on their label Transi and on Muséq. This CD is composed of five tracks (Seven Hell, La Venus Endormie, Cazadora de Astros, Voice of Wind and Salvador Syndrome) with two differents sleeves for Japan and France.

MrDAMAGE57 http://arsnova.chocot.net/arsframeset_eng.htm