Arc Angel was an American AOR rock band, that was formed by the musicians Jeff Cannata and Michael Soldan.

History

Jeff Cannata and Michael Soldan had previously been in the popular

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

-based band

Jasper Wrath Jasper Wrath was a progressive rock band from New Haven, Connecticut, that was active throughout the 1970s. They were founded by Jeff Cannata, who would later go on to form the 1980s band Arc Angel. The band also featured James Christian, who ...

. Cannata played drums and Soldan played keyboards; both composed most of the group's songs. After Jasper Wrath's demise in 1976, Cannata and Soldan continued writing songs together. Cannata started working with guitar and keyboards more in order to develop his song writing abilities. In the early 1980s, Cannata and Soldan presented some of their new compositions to the staff at

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records, a former name of Sony Music, a global music company * CBS/Sony, a former name of Sony Music Entertainment Japan, a Japanese music company division of Sony * CBS Records International, a label for Columbia Re ...

. CBS liked what the duo were doing and they signed them to a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

. The problem was that there was no live band to perform the songs. Cannata and Soldan got the idea to record the album with a large group of session musicians, similar to

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock music, rock duo formed in London in 1975. Its core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons, and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared w ...

. The self-titled debut was released in 1983. Jeff Cannata sang lead vocals and played guitar, bass, and drums, while Michael Soldan played keyboards and sang backing vocals. Included on the roster of session musicians were former Jasper Wrath bandmates

James Christian James Christian is an American musician and songwriter who is perhaps best known for being the frontman of the band House of Lords. Career Christian began his musical career in the early 1970s, playing for various bands in the Connecticut club ...

and Jeff Batter, as well as keyboardist

Jeff Bova Jeff Bova (born Jeffrey Bova in 1953) is an American musician. He has been active in the music industry since the mid-1970s, contributing to recordings by significant mainstream artists like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Eric Clapton, ...

and bassist Hugh McDonald. The album became a hit in Europe. A music video for the song "Tragedy" was also filmed and showcased on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

. The video featured Cannata on lead vocals and guitar, Michael Soldan on keyboards, with local Connecticut band, Cryer, as the backup band. Cryer consisted of Jay Jesse Johnson on guitar, Steve Shore on bass, and Jeff Zajac on drums. The album did not do well domestically. Arc Angel was dismissed by US critics as a

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

clone. Cannata abandoned releasing albums under the Arc Angel name, and began recording solo albums under the name Cannata for a while, starting with 1988's ''Images Of Forever''. In 2002, Jeff Cannata released the album ''Tamorok'', which was credited as a joint effort between Arc Angel and Cannata and also featured Michael Soldan on keyboards.

Members

* Jeff Cannata - Guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and vocals * Michael Soldan - Keyboards and vocals ;Frequent contributors *

- Vocals * Jeff Batter - Keyboards and vocals * Jay Jesse Johnson - Guitar * David Coe - Guitar

Discography

*'' Arc Angel'' - 1983 (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

) *''Tamorok'' - 2002 (Oxford Circus) *''Harlequins of Light'' - 2013 (Frontiers Records (Italy))

References

External links

Jeff Cannata's official website

The music video for "Tragedy"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arc Angel (Band) Rock music groups from Connecticut