Enigma (musical project)

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.

History

From the late 70s 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 but they all were not particularly successful. A decade later, he revealed in an interview that he believed that his ideas were soon running out.

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It was then that Cretu plotted the creation of Enigma as a 10 year project at that time. In Enigma, he decided to head on a different direction and in December 1990, he found his winning formula in the release of its groundbreaking debut album, MCMXC a.D.. 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.

Related Topics:
December - 1990 - MCMXC a.D. - Sadeness (Part I) - Gregorian chant

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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.

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In 1993, Cretu was given an offer by producers to compose the full soundtrack of the motion picture, Sliver but he refused the offer and instead, he came up with "Carly's Song" and "Carly's Loneliness". Cretu gave another hint that he was moving to another direction again, charging up the song with heartful Mongolian chanting.

Related Topics:
1993 - Sliver - Carly's Song - Mongolian

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In the following year, The Cross of Changes was released and it received about the same, if not a even larger and better response from the public. However, both of the albums also hitched up lawsuits over the issue of sampling from other music sources. In 1994, they were sued by Polydor Germany for the samples used in MCMXC a.D. for the song "Sadeness (Part I)" while Kuo Ying-nan and Kuo Hsiu-chu from Taiwan's Ami tribe filed a suit in 1998 over the song "Return to Innocence", both of the lawsuits have since been settled. Besides compensation, the lawsuits also forced Cretu to reveal the people behind the project.

Related Topics:
The Cross of Changes - Sampling - 1994 - Polydor - Sadeness (Part I) - Kuo Ying-nan - Kuo Hsiu-chu - Taiwan - Ami - 1998 - Return to Innocence

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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 acheivements 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.

Related Topics:
1996 - Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! - French - Gregorian chant - Tribal - Chants - 1998

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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.

Related Topics:
1999 - The Screen Behind the Mirror - Carl Orff - Carmina Burana - Gregorian chant - Shakuhachi - Gravity of Love - Push the Limits - Ruth-Ann Boyle - Olive - Andru Donalds

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In 2001, Cretu released a new single called "Turn Around" together with ' and ' 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.

Related Topics:
2001 - Turn Around - Light show - Munich - Planetarium

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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.

Related Topics:
2003 - Voyageur

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Recently on August 28, 2005, Enigma's management (Crocodile-Music.de) announced the release of the project's latest single, "Hello and Welcome" in October the same year, and also provided information that the next studio album will probably be released near the end of 2006.

Related Topics:
August 28 - 2005 - Hello and Welcome - October - 2006

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