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Arabesque was founded by Joop Wolters, Marc van Mierlo and Barend Tromp. They started as an instrumental trio at the end of 1989. For about two months they rehearsed intensively, then participated in the Soulex open podium competition and won the final. At that time the band’s style could be described as Instrumental Hard rock with influences from Jazz and Symphonic rock. In April ¹92 the band recorded its first demo tape, entitled Pistache Express, which was very well received by the international press. This demo also got airplay on the Dutch national radio. After this demo Arabesque’s style changed. The music got heavier, more open and the song¹s structure important. The second demo tape Paragraph was recorded in February 1994 by ex-Vengeance member Oscar Holleman. The media responded even better. The band entered the Popslag competition and performed live on national radio. Because of the demo Paragraph, aRABESQUE was offered several record deals, but decided to carry on business with the German Shark Records. In December 1994 they recorded their debut CD Beyond the veil in Gelsenkirchen, with producer Wolfgang Stach (Elegy, Channel Zero and Sinister). When those recordings were completed the gigs followed. They played with Michael Lee Firkins, Jennifer Batten, Kingdome Come and a lot of others. In spite of all positive reactions to the instrumental CD Beyond the veil Arabesque decided to add vocals to their music. Several singers were tested, but once they heard female singer Nicole de Seriere du Bizournet, they had found the voice that suited their music perfectly and so she entered the band at the end of 1996. In March 1997 the reinforced Arabesque recorded four brand new songs. In the meantime their record deal with Shark Records expired, but because of musical differences the company decided not to extend the contract. After being qualified for the Metal Bash competition, which was organized by the famous Hard rock magazine Aardschok, Arabesque once again ended among the finalists and finally obtained the third position playing at Headbangers Heaven in the Brabanthallen in Den Bosch. At the beginning of 1998 Barend Tromp, their bass guitarist quit the band dueling to lack of time. Frank de Groot turned out to be a good replacement. As soon as he worked his way in, they started performing live again. Arabesque performed at Bospop 1998, among Arena, Status Quo, Life of Agony, Yngwie Malmsteen and others. In August of that same year the demo CD Naked was recorded. This time the band wanted to add some keyboard parts to their songs so keyboard player Thijs Cuppen joined them and the band completed those recordings. Almost two years later, in April 2000 Arabesque won the W.A.F., which led to their second performance at Bospop 2000. So they shared the bill with Dream Theater, Steve Lukather, Spocks Beard, Joe Satriani, Vanden Plas and others. This also would be Thijsís last performance with Arabesque. Rene Ubachs took his place. In the meantime Katja Salemi replaced Nicole on temporarily base. In June the band won the final of the Benelux ProgPowercontest; they would be playing at ProgPower 2000 in November of that same year, together with participants such as Opeth, Everon, After Forever, SpiralArchitect, Evergrey, etc. Nicole returned in July and together they decided to face the future with 2 female singers. These days Arabesques music is a mixture of Metal, Hard rock and a few other influences. Reneís partiality to spacey sounds and renewal adds new character to the Arabesque you are familiar with. The songs have even more structure, but still contain their progressive elements. The aspect of being represented by two (female) singers is also new. The band needed new impulse and luckily these changes have a huge positive influence on all the members. In April of 2002 the band signed a record deal with LION MUSIC.
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