Dominique A (Cinq 7)
www.dominiquea.com
Dominique A is widely viewed as being the one of the most innovative French songwriters of recent years and subsequently an inspiration for a whole new musical generation including François & The Atlas Mountains, Françoiz Breut and Yann Tiersen. Dominique A has been steadily making progressive experimental pop music since the early 90s and his humble origins in the Nantes pop-rock scene. His musical achievements were officially acknowledged by today’s French music industry when he won Best Male Artist at this year’s Victoires de la Musique (France’s Brits). He was one of the first modern French musicians to find a new voice outside of the traditional constraints of ‘la grande chanson’ and to encourage others that it was possible to make music that reflected their tastes and feelings using the French language.
In 1990 Dominique A began to record songs which were both minimalist and rock in style. He wanted to break with ‘chanson’, considered to be in his opinion more literary than musical. Debut album, ‘Le Disque Sourd’, met with critical acclaim from Les Inrockuptibles and by Bernard Lenoir, the ‘John Peel’ of France. Furthermore, his song, ‘Le Courage des Oiseaux’, was an underground hit, and Dominique’s reputation increased even more through his seminal release ‘La Fossette’ in 1992. From here onwards, he started to produce more and more live shows, either with a backing band, or solo. He made his commercial breakthrough in 1995, with ‘Le twenty-two bar’, a single off the album, ‘La Mémoire Neuve’.
After releasing no less than seven albums throughout the noughties, Dominique released his latest, ‘Vers Les Lueurs’, through respected independent Cinq7 in 2012.