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KNOW MORE ABOUT ENIGMA.. A BIOGRAPHY

With their 1991 hit "Sadeness," Enigma brought the new age fascination with Gregorian chants and old-world culture to the clubs; the resulting single was both unique and irresistible। The rest of the album followed that pattern successfully, although without quite matching the stunning success of the hit single। On their second album, 1994's Cross of Changes, some of the old-world elements remained, but the new age angle came to the forefront in a set of slick, radio-friendly dance-pop। Enigma 3: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive le Roi followed in 1996. A side project, Trance Atlantic Airwaves, issued The Energy of Sound in 1998. The fourth Enigma record, The Screen Behind the Mirror, followed in early 2000, and in 2003 Voyageur came out. Three years later, A Posteriori was released. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide



Enigma

Screenshot from "Mea Culpa (Part II)"
Background information


Origin
Germany

Genre(s)

AmbientElectronicHouseNew AgeTrance
Years active
1990–present
Label(s)
Virgin Schallplatten (Germany)EMI (International)Charisma (United States)

Associatedacts
Deep Forest Delerium Enya Era Gregorian Mike Oldfield

Website
http://www.enigma.de/

Members
Michael Cretu (1990-present)

Former members
Sandra Cretu (1990-2003)Jens Gad (1997-2003)Peter Cornelius (1990-1994)David Fairstein (1990-1997)Frank Peterson (1990-1991)

Notable instrument(s)
Shakuhachi (synthesized)
Enigma is an electronic musical project started by Michael Cretu, his wife Sandra Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson 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. Six studio albums have been produced under the name of the project.

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 a "New age-Dance", un-named yet, first single. 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.. 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 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 previous two albums, and therefore included familiar elements of Gregorian chants and tribal chants in it. Though the album was as meticulously crafted by Cretu as the earlier two albums, it failed to achieve the same level of success that they enjoyed. As a result only two of the three singles originally slated were released, with the third one ("The Roundabout") being silently cancelled 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 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 conjunction of the release of the compilation albums.
2003's Voyageur was considered by many to be a total makeover for the project. Practically all of the prominent Enigma signature elements (the ethnic and/or Gregorian chants, the famous Shakuhachi flutes) were no longer in use for this album. As a result many fans had difficulty appreciating this new direction and sales were affected. From a statistical point of view, every Enigma studio album to date has sold roughly half of what the previous release did. Of course sales are only one indicator of the success of a musical project and, given some time to sink in, Voyageur proves to be a solid release that hints at new territories Cretu may explore in future projects.
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 was since moved to November 25, 2005 and finally saw release in Germany on March 10, 2006. The song will also be the walk-in music for the German boxer, Felix Sturm, and much like Voyageur shows little similarity to earlier Enigma works.
On September 26, 2006, Enigma's sixth album A Posteriori was released worldwide, containing a new version of "Hello and Welcome" and the new song "Goodbye Milky Way", which, despite earlier announcements, was and will not be released as single.

Music
Every Enigma album starts with the signature "Enigma horn" mixed into the introductory music. On the first four albums the first track tends to be a short piece lasting no more than 1-2 minutes, that serves to set the tone for the full length second piece which follows. On the two most recent Enigma albums, the first track has been of full length instead, still with the "Enigma horn" mixed into the beginning. Some Enigma albums also end with the same horn in the last track of the album, with the exception of The Cross Of Changes, Voyageur and A Posteriori.
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 six 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 1996.

Members
Michael Cretu and Sandra Cretu have 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 Jens Gad, David Fairstein, Peter Cornelius and Frank Peterson. The lates album A Posteriori was composed, produced and engineered completely by Michael Cretu.
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". The first one became the only person, not counting Cretu, to be credited on the sixth album, providing voices for Dancing With Mephisto and Goodbye Milky Way.

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 musicians. Some examples include Delerium's Semantic Spaces album, Mike Oldfield's albums, The Songs of Distant Earth and Tubular Bells III, all B-Tribe's albums and Sarah Brightman's cover of Hooverphonic's song, "Eden".