In 1999, Anis/AniSS (Vocal, Guitar, songs, arrangements) and Ali (Bass, Guitar, songs, arrangements) met at MTV Japan and ended up forming MONORAL. They debuted with “in stereo” in 2001 performing at FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL 2 days after the release. Since then, they have been causing a major stir within the Japanese Indies scene. Their second mini album “ammonite” (2003) debuted at #3 in the national indies chart and remained in top 30 for 6 month. After their first successful nationwide tour, they started to attract the attention of major artists in the Japanese music industry such as Fumiya Fujii, m-flo, SONS OF ALL PUSSYS , L’Arc~en~Ciel, Mondo Grosso, LOVE PSYCHEDELICO, Anna Tsuchiya, the list goes on. After releasing their first album “Petrol”, they survived the intense label battle with minimum damage and decided to sign with HYDE’s label within Sony. There major debut single “VISIONS IN MY HEAD” were used for Canon IXY’s TV commercial starring Hidetoshi Nakata. They made appearance on all of the major rock festivals in Japan. MONORAL achieved worldwide success with the song “kiri” which became the opening theme (the ending theme was provided by Radiohead) for the animation “Ergo Proxy”. By the time they released their second album “Turbulence”, most of the tour they embarked on became sold out everywhere in Japan. While recording new materials, MONORAL started to receive multiple offers to play abroad. Releasing their long-awaited third album, “Via” on October 29, 2008, they launched “MONORAL VIA LATIN AMERICA TOUR 2008” journeying through Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentine. Their nationwide tour “MONORAL VIA JAPAN TOUR 2009” were thoroughly sold out . In April, MONORAL kicked off their European tour, “MONORAL VIA SPAIN TOUR 2009” and ”MONORAL VIA FRANCE TOUR 2009” in six cities covering Spain and France. They concluded their 15 month endeavor in the city of Shanghai. Inspired by this overwhelming experience on the road, Monoral penned “70 HOURS” and embarked on ELECTION TOUR 2009. For the year 2010, MONORAL has announced their new single ”Origin” and the tour “This Tour Has Not Begun”. MONORAL’s two mini albums and three full-length albums are currently on sale. www.monoral.com
