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[align=center]" [font=Andalus]I make music for myself"[/font] - Michael Cretu[/align]
is an electronic musical project started by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. Cretu is both the composer and the producer; his wife 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.
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 produced his wife's albums. Before Enigma, he released a number of albums under his own name, but none of them sold particularly well. Cretu revealed in an interview that he believed that his ideas were soon running out at that point.
[align=center]"[font=Andalus]I lock myself in my own world of thought, in a kind of hypnotic trance[/font]"[/align]
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, after 8 months of preparations, he came up with the project's groundbreaking debut album, MCMXC a.D. (received over 60 platinum awards worldwide).
[align=center]"[font=Andalus]I was able to transform myself into a kind of tranquil, spiritual state, so that I could reach a completely different atmosphere[/font]."[/align]
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. Cretu explained that the album was about unsolved crimes and philosophical themes such as life after death, hence the name Enigma.
"Sadeness" quickly rose to the top of the charts in Germany and France; it went on to become an almost worldwide hit.
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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 about the creators of the album and leading to speculation whether Enigma was a band, a person or a group.
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[font=Andalus]"I am always grateful for sources of inspiration, but there weren't any." [/font][/align]
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 same 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.
[align=center][font=andalus]"Language is too limited und words are too small to get my sentiments and deepest thoughts across to other people"[/font][/align]
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.
[align=center][font=Andalus]"I write books, not sketches. I make albums."[/align][/font]
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.
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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.
[align=center]"[font=Andalus]It can sound quite different from what people have been listening to. But when you let yourself really breath in the new sound, it can be a rush. You don't have to understand my music, it's only designed to spark a feeling of general well-being." [/font][/align]
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 moved to November 25, 2005 and finally saw release in Germany on March 10, 2006.
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 a single. The album is more techno, electronic, than any previous one. The concept is based on such sciences as astronomy, physics, history and sociology.
With 35 million CDs sold worldwide, 50 number one hits, 90 platinum discs and songs appearing on more than 1,000 compilation albums, ENIGMA is the most successful German music project of all times
"Mood music, dance music, trip music, whatever you want to call it, the glossy pop of Enigma is an international pop phenomenon" - The New York Times
"Enigma explores dance music´s mental as well as physical possibilities" - Entertainment Weekly
"Enigma is tripping the world of imagination" - Japan's Elite
DISCOGRAPHY
Studio albums
MCMXC a.D. (1990)
The Cross of Changes (1993)
Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (1996)
The Screen Behind the Mirror (2000)
Voyageur (2003)
A Posteriori (2006)
Compilation albums
Trilogy (1998)
Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits (2001)
Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection (2001)
15 Years After (2005)
Singles
Sadeness (Part I) (1990)
Mea Culpa (Part II) (1990)
Principles of Lust (1991)
The Rivers of Belief (1991)
Carly's Song (1993)
Return to Innocence (1993)
The Eyes of Truth (1994)
Age of Loneliness (1994)
Out from the Deep (1994)
Beyond the Invisible (1996)
T.N.T. for the Brain (1997)
Gravity of Love (1999)
Push the Limits (2000)
Turn Around (2001)
Voyageur (2003)
Following the Sun (2003)
Boum-Boum (2004)
Hello and Welcome (2006)
Goodbye Milky Way (2006)
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