Akli D - D for 'D System' -no papers-Berber poet and troubadour,born in Kerouan,Kabylia
arrived in Paris along scores of disaffected Algerian youth,in the mid-1980s,
fleeing a bitter Algeria, which was repressing Kabylia's
demands for recognition.The Berber Spring , marked by the army's repression,
resulted in tens of deaths and hundreds of political prisoners.
"If you are an exile you are caught between two worlds, if not more," he says, "and all the music you grew up with
plays a big part in your life."Homeless and, for the first few years, without papers,
slept in the couchettes of parked RER trains.His musical adventures began, in the Metro and squares of Paris,
meeting musicians from all over the world.
His style combines :North African Chaabi and influenses from folk maestros of Kabylie like Slimane Azem and Cheikh El Hasnaoui,
mixed with everything from American protest songs, rock, reggae ,gypsy-jazz, Mississippi blues
and m’balax but open to life ,to the African continent,to what is happening in the world.
In the tradition of Matoub Lounès focuses poignantly on the plight of his people struggling for rights in Algeria.