From the encounter between Anis Shimada (voice and guitar) and Ali Morizumi (bass and guitar) the band MONORAL was born. The two decided to start their ambitious musical project in 1999. The other members of the band are Tomoya Tsutsui (guitar) and Jun Matsumoto (drums).

On July 21, 2001, the band released their first work, a mini-album named “In Stereo”, under MYCO RECORDS. Their song "Goodbye” rose to the top of InterFM’s playlist. In 2004, the second mini-album, “Ammonite”, rose up the Tower Records indie chart, arriving at 3rd place and remaining in the top50 for 7 months. For the production of this mini-album, Anis and Ali were helped by the involvement of Eric Zay (a member of FAKE? that often helped MONORAL in arranging their songs) and Rie Eto.

Two years after their debut, the band released their first full album, “Petrol”, and few months later they signed a contract with Hyde’s HAUNTED RECORDS. On November 2005, they released the single “Visions in my head” which was used in the “Canon IXY Digital” spot.

2006 was the time of the intense song “Kiri”, which was used as the opening song for the science fiction anime Ergo Proxy. This subsequently insured the second album, “Turbolence”, which was released on July 4, 2007 and came after the single “Tuesday."

Trivia:
Anis is Japanese-Moroccan. Born in London and raised in France, he speaks Japanese, French, English and Arabian. He has worked as a support guitarist for a famous artist, as model, as member of a choir, and he has lent his voice to some commercial spots.

Ali is Japanese-American and like Anis is also multilingual. He speaks both Japanese and English. He has worked as VJ for MTV Japan and he still works on a TV show named “Self Liner Notes” which airs on MUSIC ON! TV. He’s also a Radio DJ and leads a show on InterFM.