Enigma (musical project)

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Enigma is a musical project started by Michael Cretu and his wife Sandra Cretu in 1990. Michael is both the composer and the producer; Sandra often provides vocals on Enigma tracks. The pair have also worked together under the name Sandra. Five studio albums have been produced under the name of the project and a sixth one is currently in production, slated to be released in late 2006.

Contents

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History

From the late 1970s onwards, Michael Cretu already had his own music career on his hands and apart from several collaboration efforts with several other musicians, he also contributed to his wife's albums. Before Enigma, he released a number of albums under his own name but they all were not particularly successful sales-wise. Cretu revealed in an interview that he believed that his ideas were soon running out at that point.

It was then that Cretu plotted the creation of Enigma as a 10 year project. Ditching his old habits and rules, he headed onto a different direction and in December 1990, he came up with the project's groundbreaking debut album, MCMXC a.D. ( which may have sold at least 25 mil. copies by now). The album was Cretu's first commercial success through the single "Sadeness (Part I)", which juxtaposed Gregorian chants and sexual overtones over a dance beat that was highly peculiar to the ears of the public at that time.

Before the album was released, Cretu was cautious of the response towards the upcoming album, decided to forgo mentioning his and most of the personnel's real name and credited himself as Curly M.C., while the album sleeve contained little information about the background of the project, furthering the mystery and enigma about the creators of the album and leading to speculation whether Enigma was a band, a person or a group.

In 1993, Cretu was given an offer by producers to compose the full soundtrack of the motion picture, Sliver but he was unable to accept the offer. Instead, he came up with "Carly's Song" and "Carly's Loneliness", which was used in the movie and credited in the motion picture soundtrack as well.

In the following year, The Cross of Changes was released and it received about the same, if not an even larger and better response from the public (it sold 6 million copies in a year). However, both of the albums also hitched up lawsuits over the issue of sampling from other music sources.

In 1996, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (French for "The King is dead, long live the king!") was released. Cretu's idea was that this third album was the child of the following two albums, and therefore included familiar elements of Gregorian chants and tribal chants in it. Though the album was still meticulously crafted by Cretu, it didn't manage to surpass the achievements of the previous albums. Originally three singles were scheduled to be released from the album, but the last one ("The Roundabout") was cancelled for unknown reasons in 1998.

The 1999 release of The Screen Behind the Mirror included samples from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana on four tracks on the album. This time, the all too familiar Gregorian chants were toned down a lot, but still Shakuhachi flutes and other traditional Enigma signatures remain. Only "Gravity of Love" and "Push the Limits" were released as singles from the album. Ruth-Ann Boyle from the band Olive and also Andru Donalds mark their first appearance on the Enigma project.

In 2001, Cretu released a new single called "Turn Around" together with Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits and Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection to end what he considers to be the first chapter of Enigma. A light show was held at the Munich Planetarium in conjuction of the release of the compilation albums.

2003's Voyageur was considered a total makeover for the project. Practically the famous Shakuhachi flutes, ethnic and/or Gregorian chants and all notable Enigma signature techniques were removed entirely from the album. From a statistical point of view, every Enigma studio album has roughly half less of its sales compared to the previous release.

On August 28, 2005, Enigma's management (Crocodile-Music.de) announced the release of the project's latest single, "Hello and Welcome". The single was originally slated to be released in October, however it has since been moved to November 25, 2005 and finally released in Germany on March 10, 2006.UK release date - April 13, 2006. Information was also provided suggesting that the next studio album will probably be released near the end of 2006.

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Music

Every Enigma album starts with the signature "Enigma horn" mixed into the introductory music and ends with the same horn in the last track of the album, with the exception for Voyageur.

The project is also notable for bringing Gregorian chants and tribal chants to the limelight, and popularising the usage of the Shakuhachi flute. Peculiar songs such as "The Voice and the Snake" and "Weightless" could be seen as experimental songs while instrumental-focused songs with no or minimal vocals were also found in all of the studio albums.

In all of Cretu's five studio albums, he has experimented on songs with reversed vocals, the most prominent ones being on the Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! and The Screen Behind the Mirror albums. (The latter contains a brief experimental track consisting entirely of reversed vocals.) Reversed samples were somewhat hidden in Voyageur.

The content of the project's music differs in album to album, from sexuality in "Principles of Lust", love in "Gravity of Love", and innocence in "Return to Innocence". However, Cretu describes Enigma's music as sensual and not sexual.

Cretu is currently based in Ibiza, Spain. Until recently, he ran the A.R.T. Studios from his mansion in the Ibiza hills. He has now relocated to a purpose built mansion and has recently started installing a state-of-the-art recording studio inside one area of the building.

Cretu is under contract by Virgin Records to release a total of eight albums at a rate of one per three years. At the current rate, the last Enigma album will be released in 2012, with the earliest album being released in 2006.

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Members

Michael Cretu and Sandra Cretu has been with the project since the beginning of the project. Other musicians who had previously worked alongside Cretu in the production of Enigma's studio albums are Frank Peterson, David Fairstein and Peter Cornelius. Currently Cretu's only co-producer is Jens Gad.

Guest singers who had been influential in Enigma's songs are Angel X who provided vocals in "Return to Innocence", and both Ruth-Ann Boyle and Andru Donalds in The Screen Behind the Mirror and Voyageur. Louisa Stanley and Elisabeth Houghton have also lent their voices in "The Voice of Enigma" and "The Gate".

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Influence

Cretu's first two studio albums also led to the creation and popularity of bands and musical groups that follow similar styles as Cretu. Era and Gregorian (led by former Enigma member Frank Peterson) are among some notable groups which capitalised songs which heavily incorporate Gregorian chants in their works. Enigma and Deep Forest are also to be considered by many to have brought the tribal chant genre to the ears of the public.

Critics and fans have noted down the probable influences if not similarities of Enigma and the works of other notable musicans. Some examples include Delerium's Semantic Spaces album, Mike Oldfield's albums, The Songs of Distant Earth and Tubular Bells III, B-Tribe's album Fiesta Fatal! and Sarah Brightman's song, "Eden".

Image:Sandramichaelcretu.jpg

Several prominent songs from the project have appeared on notable TV shows and movies, such as:

"Return to Innocence" also appeared in numerous TV commercials around the world, including one for Virgin Atlantic.

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Sampling and lawsuits

In 1994, Cretu was sued by Munich-based choir Kapelle Antiqua and its record label, Polydor Germany for infringing its "right of personality" through distortion in the samples used in "Sadeness (Part I)" and "Mea Culpa". Although the source was technically in public domain, an unknown figure in compensation was still awarded to the choir.

Cretu wasn't spared over the issue of sampling when in 1998, Kuo Ying-nan and Kuo Hsiu-chu from Taiwan's Ami tribe filed a suit over uncredited vocals in "Return to Innocence". Both of the lawsuits have since been settled, but besides compensation and acknowledgement on the source of samples on both lawsuits, the anonymity that Cretu intended to keep after the release of the first album was shattered due to the first lawsuit.

Burned by the lawsuits, the samples used in the production of the third and fourth studio album, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! and The Screen Behind the Mirror were credited properly this time and Cretu's fifth album, Voyageur contained no samples at all.

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Discography

Note: all albums were released on Virgin Records or its subsidiary Virgin Schallplatten GmbH. The Eurochart singles top and Eurochart albums top are compiled by Music & Media trade magazine (subsidiary of Billboard magazine) and are based on the sales charts of 16 European countries. (countries list).US Top data: for singles from The Billboard Hot 100, for albums from The Billboard 200;

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Studio albums

Album cover Title (year) Additional notes
Image:Enigmacretu.jpg MCMXC a.D. (1990)

#1 UK, #38 UK (1994 rerelease), #6 US, #1 Eurochart, #3 Germany, #1 France 		US x4 Platinum, CRIA x2 Platinum

Worldwide sales: 14 mil (as of 1995,information from Billboard magazine) Estimate Sales - 25 mil.
Image:Enigma cross of changes.jpg The Cross of Changes (1994)

#1 UK, #9 US, #2 Eurochart,#5 Germany,#1 Greece 		IFPI Platinum, CRIA x2 Platinum, RIAA(USA) 2xPlatinum

Worldwide sales: 8 mil (as of 1996) Estimate sales - 15 mil.
Image:Enigma Le Roi cover.jpg Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (1996)

#12 UK, #25 US, #3 Eurochart, #3 Germany, #1 Norway, #1 Greece 		1998 Grammy Awards nominee

CRIA Platinum, RIAA Platinum

3.6 mil copies preordered by Nov 1996
Image:EnigmaTheScreenBehindTheMirror.jpg The Screen Behind the Mirror (1999)

#7 UK, #33 US, #2 Eurochart,#1 Greece,#2 Germany,#2 Norway
#2 Billboard Top Internet Albums		 CRIA Gold, RIAA Gold (500,000+)
Image:EnigmaVoyageur.jpg Voyageur (2003)

#46 UK, #94 US, #6 Germany,№12 Eurochart, #2 Arabia, #3 Greece, #4 Portugal
#1 Billboard Top Electronic Albums 		-
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Compilation albums / Boxsets

Album cover Title (year) Additional notes
Image:Enigma Trilogy album cover.jpg Trilogy (1998)

Boxset containing:
MCMXC a.D., The Cross of Changes, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! 		Released on April 10, 1998.
Image:Enigma LSD cover.jpg Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits (2001)

#29 UK, #29 US, #7 Eurochart, #4 Germany, #1 Greece, #2 Portugal
#15 Billboard Top Internet Albums 		CRIA Platinum
Image:Enigma LSD Remix cover.jpg Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection (2001) Not released in the United States.
Image:Enigma 15 Years After boxset cover.jpg 15 Years After (2005)

Boxset containing:
All five studio albums, two DVDs and new album remixed by Rollo Armstrong 		Released on December 9, 2005.
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DVDs

Main article: List of Enigma videos

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Rare compilation albums

  • Age of Loneliness (1994) – (Limited Edition "Greatest Remixes")
  • The Eyes of Truth (1994) – (Limited Edition "Singles Collection")
  • In The Beginning... (1997) – (Promotional Compilation CD)
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Bootleg albums

Note: These albums are bootleg copies of songs done by other artists and packaged as created by Enigma.

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Singles

Year
Title
Chart positions
Album
UK Singles Chart
US Hot 100
US Modern Rock
Eurochart
Germany
1990 "Sadeness (Part I)"
#1 (1 week)
#5
#6
#1 (9 weeks)
#1 (10 weeks)
 MCMXC a.D.
1990 "Mea Culpa (Part II)"
#55
-
-
-
#7
 MCMXC a.D.
1991 "Principles of Lust"
#59
-
-
-
#90
 MCMXC a.D.
1991 "The Rivers of Belief"
#68
-
-
-
-
 MCMXC a.D.
1993 "Carly's Song"
-
-
-
-
-
 Sliver: Music from the Motion Picture
1993 "Return to Innocence"
#3
#4
#2
#2
#5
 The Cross of Changes
1994 "The Eyes of Truth"
#21
-
-
-
-
 The Cross of Changes
1994 "Age of Loneliness"
#21
-
-
-
-
 The Cross of Changes
1994 "Out from the Deep"
-
-
-
-
-
 The Cross of Changes
1996 "Beyond the Invisible"
#26
#81
-
#46
#40
 Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
1997 "T.N.T. for the Brain"
#27
-
-
-
-
 Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
1999 "Gravity of Love"
-
-
-
-
#65
 The Screen Behind the Mirror
2000 "Push the Limits"
-
-
-
-
#96
 The Screen Behind the Mirror
2000 "Turn Around"
-
-
-
-
#65
 Love Sensuality Devotion:
The Greatest Hits
2003 "Voyageur"
-
-
-
-
-
 Voyageur
2003 "Following the Sun"
-
-
-
-
#97
 Voyageur
2004 "Boum-Boum"
-
-
-
-
#98
 Voyageur
2006 "Hello and Welcome"
-
-
-
-
#87
 15 Years After

Total Single Sales - 20 mil.

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References

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See also

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External links


Template:Enigmabg:Enigma cs:Enigma (skupina) de:Enigma (Musik) es:Enigma (proyecto musical) fi:Enigma (musiikkiprojekti) fr:Enigma (musique) he:אניגמה (פרויקט מוזיקלי) it:Enigma (musica) ja:エニグマ (ミュージシャン) nl:Enigma (band) pl:Enigma (grupa muzyczna) pt:Enigma (artista musical) sv:Enigma (musikgrupp)

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