The foursome recorded around 45 sombre and tormented songs while gaving a number of concerts in the area around Nantes. Later, with the singer Katerine, Dominique Ané recorded a number of songs in a more upbeat and livelier style.
Beginning of a career
At the beginning of the 1990s Dominique Ané recorded songs that were both minimalist and rock in style. He wanted to break with the traditional chanson, which he considered to be more literary than musical[1]. His first CD, released by the Nantes label, Lithium, met with critical acclaim by the alternative magazine, Les Inrockuptibles, and by Bernard Lenoir, the 'John Peel' of France. Furthermore, his song, Le Courage des oiseaux, (the Courage of the Birds), was an underground hit.
From 1992 onwards, he started to produce more and more live shows, either with a backing band or solo. His commercial success grew in 1995 with Le twenty-two bar, a single off the album, La Mémoire Neuve, but this success left a bitter taste in Dominique's mouth because he considered the song to be particularly badly written[1].
In 2000, he composed the score for Antoine Desrosières' black comedy film Banqueroute.
Le Détour and beyond (2002-)
Dominique's discovery of Alain Bashung's dark 2002 album, L'Imprudence shocked him to the point that it put his music into question and he decided to explore different ways of working. He decided to compile what he considered to be the first part of a musical time capsule, a longbox entitled Le Détour. He asked his fans to write about their relationship with his music, and some of their letters were published in the booklet accompanying Le Détour.
For his subsequent album, he wanted to experiment and, consequently, for the first time, he gave control over the album to a third party, the team who produced L'Imprudence. The end result would be Tout sera comme avant (Everything will be like it was before), which was released in 2004. Unfortunately, many fans had difficulty obtaining a copy. At the same time, Dominique gave many live performances variously using a big band, minimalistic backing, or all alone (where he would experiment with oversampling).
In March 2006, L'Horizon came out, a new work that he produced alongside Dominique Brusson, with whom he had made the early album, Remué. It was the first time that Dominique A returned to work with a producer. He was backed by his old collaborators, Sacha Toorop and Olivier Mellano, as well as the musicians with whom he produced Tout sera comme avant. Dominique A had recently quit his record label, Labels, due to his desire for more creative freedom; consequently, it is no surprise that he describes L'Horizon as his most experimental work to date.
Collaboration and influence
Dominique A collaborates regularly with other artists and on other projects. He has been one of the shaping forces of Françoiz Breut's career, writing many of her songs since her début in 1997. He has also composed several songs for Jeanne Balibar's second album, Slalom Dale and wrote Où est la ville ? for Jane Birkin's 2006 album, Fictions. He also sang Veruca Salt et Frank Black in trio with Keren Ann and Vincent Delerm on the latter's second album, Kensington Square.
Dominique A has inspired and influenced many artists. Among them were Yann Tiersen and the Norwegian electro band, Oslo Telescopic, who named one of their albums The Dominique O Project. Lyrically, Dominique's movement away from the constraints of chanson moved many other French-speaking artists, including Miossec, Holden and Arman Méliès.
Le travail
Dominique A Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Personne ne m'attendait
J'abandonnais mon travail
Et quelqu'un survenait
Je reprenais mon travail
Ce quelqu'un s'ennuyait
Je revenais du travail
Je revenais du travail
Personne ne m'attendait
J'abandonnais mon travail
Et quelqu'un survenait
Je reprenais mon travail
Ce quelqu'un s'emportait
Je revenais du travail
Et seul me retrouvait
On m'enlevait mon travail
Plus seul je me sentais
Je recherchais du travail
Là, plus tout seul j'étais
Je recherchais du travail
"Où je suis ?" Il faisait
Je renonçais au travail
Qui alors m'ignorait
L'appartement de taille
A etre intimidant
Pour l'homme seul
Me poussait à chercher du travail
Qui maintenant m'attend
Et m'attendra longtemps
Qui maintenant m'attend
Et m'attend, et m'attendra longtemps
Je recherchais du travail
Nul autre n'y croyait
Je recherchais du travail
Pas assez snob j'étais
Je renonçais au travail
"Tu dors trop" Il faisait
Je renonçais au travail
Toujours plus seule j'étais
la la la la la la...
The song "Le travail" by Dominique A talks about the sense of loneliness and feeling of being unappreciated through the process of working. The singer repeats the same cycle of coming home from work and finding no one waiting for them, then returning to work where someone is bored, and coming back to an empty house again. This routine continues until the singer loses their job, leaving them feeling even more alone.
The song highlights the isolation that people may feel while working, with a focus on how the absence of relationships outside of work further exacerbates this sense of loneliness. The repetition in the song's structure and lyrics could be interpreted as a representation of the monotony that people may experience in their work lives. The character's search for new employment and rejection based on not being "snob" enough suggests societal pressures around classism and the assumed standards that must be upheld in order to secure certain jobs.
Line by Line Meaning
Je revenais du travail
I was coming back from work
Personne ne m'attendait
No one was waiting for me
J'abandonnais mon travail
I was leaving my job
Et quelqu'un survenait
And someone would always show up
Je reprenais mon travail
I would resume my job
Ce quelqu'un s'ennuyait
That someone would get bored
Je revenais du travail
I was coming back from work
Et seul me retrouvait
And found myself alone
On m'enlevait mon travail
They took my job away
Plus seul je me sentais
I felt even more alone
Je recherchais du travail
I looked for work
Là, plus tout seul j'étais
There, I was no longer alone
"Où je suis ?" Il faisait
"Where am I?" He asked
Je renonçais au travail
I gave up on work
Qui alors m'ignorait
Which then ignored me
L'appartement de taille
The apartment was big
A etre intimidant
It was intimidating
Pour l'homme seul
For the single man
Me poussait à chercher du travail
Pushed me to search for work
Qui maintenant m'attend
Who is now waiting for me
Et m'attendra longtemps
And will wait for me a long time
Je recherchais du travail
I searched for work
Nul autre n'y croyait
No one else believed in it
Pas assez snob j'étais
I wasn't snobbish enough
"Tu dors trop" Il faisait
"You sleep too much," he said
Toujours plus seule j'étais
I was always more alone
Contributed by Ethan J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.