He has had over 20 top ten singles, won 5 South African Music Awards and shared the stage with legends of the music world including U2, The Rolling Stones and REM.

He has toured sold out shows extensively in SA, UK, Europe and USA, headlined every major South African festival and performed at some of the most legendary international music festivals including Isle of Wight, Glastonbury, V Festival, T in the Park and Hard Rock Calling.

‘Lightning Prevails’ (released 2014) is Arno’s 5th solo album.

Arno started working with SAMA winner Dan Roberts in June 2013, on a project to record a greatest hits album. The intention was to re-write and record acoustically driven, orchestral versions of some of Arno’s most popular career tracks, both as a solo artist and as the frontman for SNG.

Two months later, they emerged from studio with something completely different.

As Dan says: "Arno would come into the studio and we'd be set up for Another Universe or something and then he'd have this idea from the night before... So we'd digress and by lunch time have a brand new song going. The sessions transformed almost as we began into to a pure creative process (as opposed to a re-creative one) and then just flowed from there. It was a great process to be part of and I felt my job was to keep the energy flowing wherever which way it went and let it happen. Arno is an artist in the real sense of the word, prolific, experimental and lyrically very strong.”

“The album is almost entirely made up of new songs, and completely inspired by my musical history, past and present” says Carstens. “We decided to keep Bubblegum on the album, the version we recorded worked very well with the new songs and I added two covers, which are so vastly different from the originals. ACDC’s Highway to Hell was such a big part of my musical influence growing up and Sam and Dave’s Hold On (I’m Coming) was Dan’s idea and I love where the track took me. When I went into the studio, my intention was to make an album of old hits for the fans that come to my acoustic shows, but what fate had in mind took us all by surprise.”

‘Lightning Prevails’ boasts a seductive departure from the comfortable and familiar Arno Carstens sound. There are the same thought provoking, profound lyrics and melodies that soak into the skin, but this time the marriage of organic sound and electronic beats are made lusher, with a big brass section and the powerful backing vocals of Jamali’s Mariechan.

It’s an album about the unstoppable power of love and creation.

‘Another Universe’, Arno’s debut solo album, was released in 2003 and as one of the most anticipated solo projects in South African music history, did not disappoint, becoming the biggest selling South African English rock album this side of the millennium. The platinum selling album won a SAMA Award for Best Rock Album in 2004.

Arno’s 2nd solo album, ‘The Hello Goodbye Boys’ was released in 2005. Produced by well-known South African studio maestro Brian O’ Shea (USA’s Seether), The Hello Goodbye Boys went gold and won a SAMA award in 2006.

Arno Carstens’ debut UK album ‘Wonderful Wild’ released in 2010 was written, recorded and mixed in London & Spain with co-songwriting contributions from Giles Martin, James Walsh, Jim Duguid and Youth. The album was produced by legendary British producer Youth (The Verve’s Urban Hymns) and Jim Duguid (Paulo Nutini’s These Streets). Final mix on the album is by Tim Bran (The Verve’s recent UK#1 album). Hits from this album were playlisted on radio throughout UK and Europe.

2012 was a milestone year for Arno. Besides touring and recording with Springbok Nude Girls (www.nudegirls.co.za), and working on the Arno Plus (Arno’s first solo art exhibition) with accompanying collaborative Blind Tiger sessions (www.arnocarstensfineart.com), Arno released his 4th solo album, which is the landmark 10th studio album of his 20-year music career.

Titled ‘Atari Gala’ (a Japanese translation that implies a warning cry or celebration) the album was written in part in New York, London, Johannesburg and Cape Town and produced by Arno and Brendan Jury.

“I painted the Japanese word “Atari” on a recent artwork, to mimic a bird singing a message of warning, which got me thinking that it could be a great name for a piece of music. Because this is my 10th studio album, I wanted to emphasize a kind of celebration, not only of the 12 tracks on this particular album, but of the whole creative process that has brought me thus far. Every song is an event or a tale, a celebration or a warning cry, that stems from life’s experiences,” says Carstens.