14-12-2009 Enigma (musical project) - Wikipedia, th…

Enigma (musical project)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enigma is an electronic musical project founded by Enigma

Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in
1990. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived of the Enigma
project while working in Germany, but has been based at
his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, since
the early 1990s, where he has recorded all of Enigma's
studio releases to date. Cretu is both the composer and
the producer of the project. His former wife Sandra often
provided vocals on Enigma tracks. Jens Gad co-produced
and played guitar on three of the Enigma albums.

Seven studio albums have been produced under the name

of the project. Their first and most successful album,
MCMXC a.D., sold more than 22 million copies
worldwide.

Contents
M ichael Cretu (composer and p roducer)
1 History Background information
2 Influence
Origin Germany, Spain, Romania, Italy
3 Awards
4 Discography Genres World beat
5 See also Electronic
6 Sources New Age[1]
7 References Downtempo
8 External links Years active 1990–present
8.1 German
Labels Virgin
8.2 English
EMI
Charisma
Associated Gregorian
History
acts
From the late 1970s onward, Michael Cretu already had Website www.enigma.de
his own music career on his hands and apart from some (http://www.enigma.de/)
collaboration efforts with several other musicians, he also Members
produced his wife's albums. Before Enigma, he released a
number of albums under his own name, but none of them Michael Cretu, Andru Donalds, Margarita Roig
sold particularly well. Cretu revealed in an interview that Former members
he believed that his ideas were running out at that point. Sandra (1990–2003)
Jens Gad (1993–2003)
In December 1990, after eight months of preparation,
Cretu released Enigma's debut album, the groundbreaking Peter Cornelius (1990–1996)
MCMXC a.D., which received over 60 platinum-level David Fairstein (1990–1999)

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sales awards worldwide. The album was Cretu's first Notable instruments
commercial success through the single "Sadeness (Part I),"
Sampler
which juxtaposed Gregorian chants and sexual overtones
Drum machine
over a dance beat that was highly peculiar to the ears of
the public at that time. Cretu explained that the album was Synthesizer
about unsolved crimes and philosophical themes such as Keyboard
life after death, hence the name Enigma. He had previously Korg M1
used a Gregorian-type chant on the opening seconds of ALCHEMIST
Sandra's 1987 single "Everlasting Love", without
integrating them into other parts of the song. "Sadeness" quickly rose to the top of the charts in Germany and
France; it went on to become an almost-worldwide hit. Later Cretu would claim that the now signature Enigma
sound was inspired after falling asleep on the London Underground.

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" ("Age of Loneliness" in the album
and video releases) and "Carly's Loneliness," which were 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.

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 Sanskrit/ Vedic 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 of the project. Practically all of the prominent
Enigma signature elements (the ethnic and 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.

To commemorate the fifteen years of Enigma, a very special limited-edition album called Fifteen Years was

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launched, which was the size of an old LP vinyl disk, with Leonardo Davinci's art in the cover, a big booklet
with extra art, and featured eight compact discs; all the previous albums, the DVD "Remember the Future"; and
a special and exclusive bonus CD that was called The Dusted Variations, which included the project's greatest
hits remade by another project. All of the songs were very different from the originals, and it sounded very
dreamy and had almost no percussion. This disc also contained the single version of “Hello and Welcome,”
which was later released as a single. Also, the DVD of Remember the Future featured in the box was slightly
different because it contained the extra video of the single "Voyageur," and it had extra commentary in the extra
part, called “Solve the Enigma.”

On August 28, 2005, Enigma's management (Crocodile-Music.de (http://www.crocodile-

music.de/enigma/index.php) ) announced the release of the project's latest single, "Hello and Welcome," which
was originally slated to be released in October, however it was moved to November 25, 2005, and finally was
released in Germany on March 10, 2006. The song was also the walk-in music of 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
not released as a single. The album is more techno- and pop-oriented electronic music than any previous one.
The concept is based on such sciences as astronomy, physics, history, and sociology.

A DVD version of A Posteriori was released on December 16, 2006, which featured kaleidoscope images in
synchronization with the multi-channel remastered music.

In late March 2007, a special private lounge remix album version of A Posteriori was released on the iTunes
Music Store. This compilation includes 12 new remixed tracks from the album by artists such as Boca Junior,
Tocadisco, and more. Some of these tracks were available previously on the original A Posteriori iTunes
version of the album and on the previously mentioned DVD release.

Released worldwide on 19 September 2008 was Enigma's seventh album, Seven Lives, Many Faces. The lead
single, "Seven Lives," is a fusion of modern and classical elements.

"Platinum Collection" - a 3 CD compilation was released on November 20, in Germany, and on 23 November
2009 worldwide. First CD contains Enigma hits, second - remixes and the third one is a collection of "Lost
Track" - Michael Cretu musical experiments, which never were finalized and released before.

Influence
Enigma's first two studio albums also led to the creation and popularity of bands and musical groups that follow
similar styles, often called "Enigmatic Music". At least 100 of them gained commercial success worldwide. 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. Achillea, a musical
project by co-producer/guitarist on several albums, Jens Gad, features music with similar atmospherics, while
featuring female vocals in different languages, with different singers from different parts of the world. Enigma also
influenced Christopher von Deylen's musical project Schiller. The influence can be heard in any album by the
band. Cretu's musical project is also included into the list of influences of Schiller.[1]
(http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=24918960)

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 as well as other Claus Zundel projects and
Sarah Brightman's cover of Hooverphonic's song, "Eden".
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Several prominent songs from the project have appeared on notable TV shows and movies:

Type of
Song Name Comments
Work
Beyond the Invisible TV series La Femme Nikita
Carly's Song Movie Sliver
Gravity Of Love Movie The Scorpion King In the preview trailer
I Love You ... I'll Kill Money Train
Movie
You Eraser In the preview trailer
Modern Crusaders TV series La Femme Nikita
Single White Female
Principles of Lust Movie
Sliver
Man of the House In end credits
Movie
Exit to Eden (film)
The Outer Limits In episode The Conversion
Return to Innocence
My So-Called Life
TV series
Cold Case In episode Sanctuary.
The L Word
Boxing Helena
Charlie's Angels
Single White Female
Exit to Eden
Movie 1492: Conquest of
In teaser trailer
Sadeness (Part I) Paradise
In a faux trailer for Kirk Lazarus'
Tropic Thunder
upcoming film
Gomorra
Cold Case
TV series
Chappelle's Show
Movie Bounce In the preview trailer
Smell of Desire
TV Series Temptation Island
The Matrix In the preview trailer
The Eyes of Truth Movie The Long Kiss
Goodnight

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

Awards
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World Music Award - 2002 as most popularGerman solo artist. [2]

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1859473.stm)
ECHO (music award) - 1997 for Beyond the Invisible
ECHO (music award) - 1992 for best marketing
ECHO (music award) - 1992 as best national artist [3] (http://www.mfyi.com/e/enigmaawards.html)
over 120 Platinum awards worldwide [4] (http://www.enigma-fanclub.com/news.htm) , [5]
(http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS153272+19-Aug-2008+PRN20080819)
9 RIAA Platinum awards
7 RIAA Gold awards
8 BPI Platinum awards

Discography
Main article: Enigma discography

1990: MCMXC a.D.

1993: The Cross of Changes
1996: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
2000: The Screen Behind the Mirror
2003: Voyageur
2006: A Posteriori
2008: Seven Lives, Many Faces

See also
List of number-one dance hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
Achillea
Deep Forest
Jean Michel Jarre
Sacred Spirit
Vangelis

Sources
Allmusic biography and discography (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jifoxqe5ldhe)
Billboard.com, biography, discography and US chart history
(http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=4556)
Rolling Stone biography and discography (http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/enigma)
rateyourmusic.com, biography and discography (http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/enigma)
Discogs.com Biography and discography (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Enigma)
Chartstats.com, UK chart history (http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=3457)
Chartssurfer.de, German chart history (http://www.charts-surfer.de/musiksearch.php)

References
1. ^ MUSIC REVIEW: Enigma's LSD—Electronic & Choral Avant Garde, Engima Releases Greatest Hits—The

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Tech (http://tech.mit.edu/V121/N59/enigma.59a.html)

External links
German

Enigma.de (http://www.enigma.de) (Official website of Enigma)

Crocodile-Music.de (http://www.crocodile-music.de/enigma/index.php) (Official Enigma management
website)
EMI Virgin Record Company (http://www.virginmusic.de/enigma) (Official Enigma Record Company)

English
Enigma Space (http://www.enigmaspace.com) (Official English Enigma website)
EnigmaMusic (http://www.enigmamusic.com) (Official international fansite)
Enigma Planet (http://www.myspace.com/enigmaplanet) (Official Enigma MySpace Page)
Last.Fm Profile (http://www.last.fm/music/Enigma) (Music scrobbler)
Enigma Music TV (http://www.youtube.com/EnigmaMusicTV) (Official Enigma YouTube Channel)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_(musical_project)"
Categories: 1990s music groups | 2000s music groups | Enigma (musical project) | Ambient music groups |
German electronic music groups | German house music groups | German techno music groups | German trance
music groups | New Age musicians

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