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.
Les Terres Brunes
Dominique A Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
J'ai voulu ne garder
De souvenance aucune.
Mais
C'étaient des terres humides
Qui s'accrochaient aux pieds :
Même au-dessus du vide,
Elles restaient collées.
J'étais un écolier
Et l'école était brune
Comme la terre accrochée
J'ai voulu n'en garder
De souvenance aucune.
Mais le sol peut trembler,
Disparaître la lune,
Et tout se retourner,
On trouvera collée
Sous mes pieds la terre brune.
In Dominique A's song Les Terres Brunes, the singer expresses his desire to forget all memories, represented by the "terres brunes" or brown earth. He wants to detach himself from the past and move on but finds that it is much harder than he thought. His past is like the wet earth, sticking relentlessly to his feet, making it impossible to shake off. The metaphor becomes more vivid when he compares his memories to the brown earth sticking even when he is suspended above the void. The earth represents his memories, impossible to let go of, even when he has nothing else to hold onto.
The second stanza reveals that the singer is a student and describes his brown school. He still wants to forget his memories, but they are ingrained in him, like the brown earth stuck to his feet. The final stanza reinforces the metaphor of the earth as a symbol of memory. The earth does not disappear and will always be present. The earth as a symbol of memories is impossible to shed, even when everything else is falling apart, and this is what the singer concludes as he thinks about his past.
Line by Line Meaning
Des terres brunes, j'ai voulu
I desired lands that were brown
J'ai voulu ne garder
I wanted to keep no memories
De souvenance aucune.
Of any kind.
Mais
But
C'étaient des terres humides
Those were damp lands
Qui s'accrochaient aux pieds :
That stuck to my feet:
Même au-dessus du vide,
Even above the void,
Elles restaient collées.
They remained stuck.
J'étais un écolier
I was a schoolboy
Et l'école était brune
And the school was brown
Comme la terre accrochée
Like the clinging earth
J'ai voulu n'en garder
I wanted to keep none
De souvenance aucune.
Of any memories.
Mais le sol peut trembler,
But the ground can shake,
Disparaître la lune,
The moon may disappear,
Et tout se retourner,
And everything may be turned around,
On trouvera collée
One will find stuck
Sous mes pieds la terre brune.
Under my feet, the clinging earth.
Contributed by Chase T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.