Spotted in the Metro in 2003, Anis has since made his way to become the summer artist of France2 and performed in April 2007 at the Olympia. Anis means “the companion” in classical Arabic. From this language, Anis has retained a love for words, thanks to his father, a Moroccan revolutionary, who sought refuge in France and became a country doctor in the French Vexin (Val d’Oise). His appreciation for others and society comes from his mother, a second-generation Russian immigrant and a social worker in the housing projects.
Anis tells his story in 13 songs. The album is rhythmic, danceable, and melancholic. Anis’s entire universe is in this record: clarinet and pianobastringue for nostalgia, frenetic harmonica and tense guitars to underline his terse phrases, and gospel choirs to flatter his crooner side, as Anis practices both self-mockery and autobiography, with constant nods to the blues.
“There is no pure and hard blues in my album, but my dream is to get closer to it. I feel the blues in my soul.”
At once timid and nonchalant, Anis, the companion, arrived with the wind. With the wind, all cultures eventually blend. With the wind, all the little papers on which he wrote snippets of sentences over the years have finally turned into songs. Parisian street kid, “rebeu” from here, Anis, the companion, always thinks of the bars of the 18th district of Paris, the metro, solidarity, the sunshine of the hill, and he always has the wind as an accomplice…
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