Ars Nova - Topic

Ars Nova is a Japanese progressive rock band. The band members are Keiko Kumagai, Shinko "Panky" Shibata, Hazime and Satoshi Handa.
Ars Nova's music features a heavy use of keyboards - this was particularly true between 1998 and 2003 when the band had two keyboard players. Common sounds include the ubiquitous Hammond organ, as well as more recent digital sounds. Almost all of their music is instrumental.
The band's musical influences are ELP, Goblin, PFM, Rick Wakeman, Balletto di Bronzo and classical music. Kumagai, the keyboard player, writes all of the band's compositions. She has played on the Ayreon album Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator. For much of its history, the band was all-female, unusual in the world of progressive rock.