History

Formation
In February of 1991, bassist Tetsuya Ogawa (tetsu), later band leader, recruited vocalist Hyde along with guitarist Hiro and drummer Pero, and formed a band under the name of L'Arc-en-Ciel...

Debut Album and Subsequent Albums
On April 1, 1993, the band released their debut album Dune under the indie label Danger Crue. The album was a success and rose to number one on the Oricon indies charts...

Sakura's Departure
In February 1997, drummer Sakura was arrested for illegal drug possession, and officially quit the band on October 4, 1997. This proved to be the lowest point in the band's history. When news of Sakura's arrest became public...

Break and Comeback
The next few months were an extremely uncertain time, with doubts as to whether the band would recover. They continued to be featured in magazines, but only as a trio. They created their own cover band, "The Zombies"...

1999 - 2000 Projects
L'Arc-en-Ciel released three more albums of new material during the next few years. ark and ray were released simultaneously on July 1, 1999, and became the first Japanese albums to be released simultaneously in many other Asian countries...

Solo Projects
After "Spirit dreams inside", the band went on a hiatus as the members began working on various solo projects. Hyde released two solo albums (Roentgen and 666 as HYDE) and starred in the movie Moon Child with the popular Japanese soloist Gackt...

Second Comeback
In June 2003, L'Arc-en-Ciel surprised the world with a series of seven concerts in Tokyo called the "Shibuya Seven Days", during which they announced a new album for release the following year...

U.S. Concert Debut
On July 31, 2004, L'Arc-en-Ciel made their North American concert debut at the anime convention Otakon, held annually in Baltimore, Maryland. Approximately 12,000 people attended the concert...

AWAKE, 2005 Release
In 2005, the band released various singles, including "Killing Me", "New World", and "Jojoushi". These were later featured on their latest album, AWAKE, which was released on June 22 with twelve tracks, including "LOST HEAVEN"...

Late 2005 - 2007
Following the AWAKE and ASIALIVE tours, L'Arc-en-Ciel's members turned their attention back to their solo projects. Tetsu began recording with a new band called Creature Creature. Yukihiro rejoined acid android...

P'Unk~en~Ciel
P'unk-en-Ciel is an alter ego of L'Arc-en-Ciel. Introduced in 2004, hyde takes over guitar, ken the drums, yukihiro plays the bass, while tetsu performs the vocals. P'unk-en-Ciel's songs have a more "punker-ish" sound...