Enigma (German band)

| years_active = 1990–present

| label =

| associated_acts =

| current_members = Michael Cretu

| past_members = * David Fairstein.

Frank Peterson
Sandra
Louisa Stanley
Peter Cornelius
Jens Gad
Andreas Harde (Angel X)
Ruth-Ann Boyle
Andru Donalds
Andy Kanavan
Elizabeth Houghton
Margarita Roig
Mark Josher
Nanuk
Aquilo
Anggun

| website =

Enigma is a German musical project founded in 1990 by Romanian-German musician and producer Michael Cretu. Cretu had released several solo records, collaborating with various artists, and produced albums for his then-wife, German pop singer Sandra, before he conceived the idea of a new-age, worldbeat project. He recorded the first Enigma studio album, MCMXC a.D. (1990), with contributions from David Fairstein and Frank Peterson. The album remains Enigma's most successful, helped by the international hit single "Sadeness (Part I)", which sold 12 million units alone. According to Cretu, the inspiration for the project came from his desire to make a kind of music that did not obey "the old rules and habits" and presented a new form of artistic expression with a return to mysticism.

Enigma followed MCMXC a.D. with a series of albums that involved different musicians and producers working with Cretu. The first was The Cross of Changes (1993), which incorporated tribal and ethnic influences and sold over eight million copies worldwide, followed by Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (1996), which blended the Gregorian chants reminiscent of the first album with the strong intercultural soundscapes present in the second. Enigma's fourth album, The Screen Behind the Mirror (2000), started a slight departure from the previous world music themes towards a heavier electronic atmosphere. This evolution culminated with Voyageur (2003), its fifth and more pop-based album, and A Posteriori (2006), a work inspired by the future collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, with distinct operatic tones and an electronic spectrum closer to Voyageur than earlier releases. Seven Lives Many Faces (2008) followed and contained a mixture of classical and modern elements, ranging from ethnic chants to rap and dubstep influences. Enigma's eighth album, The Fall of a Rebel Angel, was released in November 2016.

The project has sold over 8.5 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and an estimated 70 million worldwide, with over 100 gold and platinum certifications. It has also received two Grammy Award nominations.

History

Formation

By the late 1980s, Romanian-born German musician and producer Michael Cretu had collaborated with several musicians, produced albums recorded by his then-wife, German pop singer Sandra, and released solo albums under his name for Polydor and Virgin Records, to varying levels of commercial success across Europe. In 1988, Cretu and Sandra married and relocated to the Spanish island of Ibiza. A home recording studio, A.R.T. Studios, was built, and Cretu began work on a new, worldbeat and new-age musical project named Enigma with David Fairstein and Frank Peterson. Cretu secured a deal with Munich-based Mambo Musik to handle Enigma's management and publishing. Cretu credits himself as "Curly M.C." and Peterson is listed as "F. Gregorian". Upon its release in December 1990, MCMXC a.D. became an unexpected commercial success, helped by the international hit single "Sadeness (Part I)", released a month prior that reached number one in 24 countries. The album reached the top 10 in ten countries, including the United Kingdom, and number six on the Billboard 200 in the United States, where it sold over four million copies and charted for more than 150 weeks. The album earned over 50 platinum sales awards worldwide, and made Enigma the most successful act signed to Virgin at the time of release.

Following the success of MCMXC a.D., Cretu received many offers for soundtrack work and writing film scores. The former was reworked into "Age of Loneliness" in 1993. Cretu was unable to contribute more to the soundtrack as he wished to spend his time working on the second Enigma album. Cretu retained many of the elements from the first album, but "wanted to have a completely different experience. I wanted to mix as much as possible rock elements and ethnic and classical". Numerous samples were used, including from songs by Genesis, Black Sabbath, Vangelis and U2. Cretu made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of Gregorian chants incorporated into the album. After the album's release, Cretu found that several fake Enigma albums were released onto the market that Cretu deemed as "awful messes".

2000s

The 2000 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 tremendously, although 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 Andru Donalds mark their first appearances 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 with the release of the compilation albums.

2003's Voyageur saw a change of direction for the project, with most of the prominent Enigma signature elements (the ethnic and Gregorian chants, the Shakuhachi flutes) no longer employed.

To commemorate the fifteen years of Enigma, a limited-edition album called 15 Years After was launched, which was the size of an LP vinyl disk, with Leonardo da Vinci'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, The Dusted Variations, which included chill-out versions of several of the project's greatest hits. All of the songs are different from the originals and use minimal percussion. This disc also contained the single version of "Hello and Welcome", which was later released as a single. On 28 August 2005, Enigma's management Crocodile Music announced the release of "Hello and Welcome" as a single. It was released in Germany on 10 March 2006.

On 26 September 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". A DVD version of A Posteriori was released on 16 December 2006, which featured kaleidoscope images in synchronization with the multi-channel remastered music. A Posteriori received a Grammy nomination as Best New Age Album, its second in that category following 1996's Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! nomination. In late March 2007, a Private Lounge remix album version of A Posteriori was released on the iTunes Music Store. This compilation includes twelve 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 the previously mentioned DVD release.

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

The Platinum Collection, a three-disc compilation, was released on 27 November 2009 in Germany, and on 9 February 2010 worldwide. The first CD contains Enigma hits. The second CD contains remixes. The third CD is a collection of "lost tracks", musical experiments which never were finalized and released previously.

2010s–present

On 5 October 2010, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first album MCMXC a.D., the "Enigma's Social Song" project began. Enigma fans were asked to submit vocals for a new Enigma song. The public was then asked to vote, with the winning submission "Fei mea" being provided by Latvian singer Fox Lima (real name Alise Ketnere) for the chorus. The top three runners-up, Mark Joshua from Brazil, J. Spring from Spain, and Rasa Serra from Lithuania, provided other important parts of the vocals like the bridge, backing and verse of the final version of the single. Fans also influenced further stages of the song's creation by voting on elements such as a lead instrument, general mood, and style of the track. The final mix of the single named "MMX (The Social Song)" was released on 15 December 2010. It became the first song ever created for and by the fans via the internet.

Throughout 2019 and into 2020, three former vocalists for Enigma—Andru Donalds, Angel X and Fox Lima—embarked on a world tour under the name Original Enigma Voices. This marks the first time Enigma's music has been performed live.

Awards

World Music Award
Most Popular German Solo Artist, 2002
ECHO
Most Successful German Production Abroad, 1991
Best Marketing, 1992
Best National Artist, 1992
Most Successful German Production Abroad, 1995
"Beyond the Invisible", 1997
Over 100 platinum awards worldwide
7 RIAA platinum awards
2 RIAA gold awards
5 BPI platinum awards
2 BPI gold awards

Recording technologies

Cretu recorded the first five Enigma albums at A.R.T. Studios, a home recording studio located on the Spanish island of Ibiza. From 1988 until 2001, Cretu lived in Santa Eulària des Riu followed by, from 2001 to 2008, a villa near Sant Antoni where the studio was redesigned and built by Gunter Wagner and Bernd Steber. A Posteriori and Seven Lives Many Faces were recorded using an all-in-one mobile digital recording studio named Alchemist. In 2010, a reworked version of Alchemist was built and named Merlin. "MMX The Social Song" was the first Enigma release recorded with this model.

Sampling and lawsuits

In 1991, Cretu was sued by and later settled with Munich-based choir Capella 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 (Part II)". The samples were taken from Capella Antiqua's 1976 LP Paschale Mysterium. Although the musical compositions were in the public domain, Capella Antiqua's recording of them was copyrighted. European law also recognizes moral rights (droit moral) in works.

In 1998, Cretu was sued by Taiwanese musicians Difang and Igay Duana (also known as Kuo Ying-nan and Kuo Hsiu-chu), whose voices are used in "Return to Innocence", over the unauthorized usage of their song without credit. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money and all further releases of the song were credited (including royalties) to the Kuos. Cretu has stated that he had been led to believe that the recording was in the public domain and that he did not intentionally violate the Kuos' copyright.

Musical style

Enigma generally produces worldbeat and New-age songs.

Enigma's first album, MCMXC a.D., combines Gregorian chants and religious overtones with atmospheric synths, a hypnotic music-set, and a dance-like beat, along with elements of pop and ambience with ethnic and tribal chanting. The album is atmospheric and spiritual like MCMXC a.D., but is combined with more well-developed beats Most other albums follow similar themes that often "revolve around religion, sex, numerology, and life" according to Micheal.

Legacy

Enigma's international success with MCMXC a.D. was a precursor to the creation of several other musical projects that follow similar styles and marketing approaches, especially the use of the term "project" as opposed to the band to denominate themselves, and the label "enigmatic music", employed mainly by radios and listeners, to categorize their music inside the new-age umbrella. Cretu has cited the progressive rock band Yes as an influence.

Soon after working with Michael Cretu on the first Enigma album, German producer Frank Peterson left the project to focus on Gregorian, a band that performs mostly covers of modern pop and rock songs with Gregorian-like vocals and symphonic instruments. Likewise, French musical project Era features Gregorian chants mixed with pop-rock arrangements and is also frequently compared in scope to Enigma.

More electronic projects that often draw comparisons with Enigma are French act Deep Forest, Canadian duo Delerium, Danish project Achillea (created by Enigma's co-producer and guest guitarist Jens Gad) and German project Schiller.

Personnel

Current members

Michael Cretu – music, lyrics, vocals, production, arrangements, programming, engineering (1990–present)

Former members and guest artists

Fabrice Cuitad (alias David Fairstein) – lyrics (1990–2000)
Frank Peterson (F. Gregorian) – samples, production, engineering, co-writer (1990–1991)
Sandra Cretu – vocals, voices (1990–2003)
Louisa Stanley – voices (1990–1996; 2006)
Jens Gad – guitars (1993; 2000–2003), arrangements and co-writing (2000–2003)
Peter Cornelius – guitars (1993–1996)
Andreas Harde (Andy Jonas / Angel X) – vocals (1993)
Todd Peleg – backing vocals (1993–1994)
Andy Kanavan - percussion (2000-2003)
Andru Donalds – vocals (1999–2008), co-writer (2008)
Ruth-Ann Boyle – vocals (1999–2003; 2008)
Elizabeth Houghton – voices (1999–2000)

Sebastian C. – vocals (2008)
Nikita C. – vocals (2008)
Margarita Roig – vocals, co-writer (2008)
Nanuk – voices (2008, 2016)
Alise Ketnere (Fox Lima) – vocals, co-writer (2010)
Jérôme Pringault (J. Spring) – vocals, co-writer (2010)
Mark Josher (Marcelo Amaral Pontello) – vocals, co-writer (2010, 2016)
Rasa Veretenceviene (Rasa Serra) – vocals, co-writer (2010)
Anggun – vocals (2016)
Aquilo – vocals (2016)
Michael Kunze – story, co-writer (2016)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20

PlotArea = left:110 bottom:80 top:0 right:20

Alignbars = justify

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy

Period = from:01/01/1990 till:12/11/2016

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy

Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom

ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1990

Colors =

id:Production value:yellow legend:Production

id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals

id:Lyrics value:claret legend:Lyrics

id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitar

id:Back value:pink legend:Backing_vocals

id:Samples value:lavender legend:Samples

id:lines value:black legend:Studio_albums

BarData =

bar:Michael text:Michael Cretu

bar:Sandra text:Sandra Cretu

bar:David text:David Fairstein

bar:Louisa text:Louisa Stanley

bar:Frank text:Frank Peterson

bar:Jens text:Jens Gad

bar:Ruth-Ann text:Ruth-Ann Boyle

bar:Andru text:Andru Donalds

bar:Peter text:Peter Cornelius

bar:Andreas text:Andreas Harde

bar:Todd text:Todd Peleg

bar:Elizabeth text:Elizabeth Houghton

PlotData=

width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)

bar:Michael from:start till:end color:vocals

bar:Michael from:start till:end color:yellow width:3

bar:Sandra from:start till:30/09/2003 color:vocals

bar:David from:start till:01/01/1997 color:lyrics

bar:Louisa from:start till:20/11/1996 color:vocals

bar:Louisa from:01/01/2005 till:30/09/2006 color:vocals

bar:Frank from:start till:01/01/1991 color:samples

bar:Peter from:01/01/1993 till:20/11/1996 color:guitar

bar:Jens from:01/01/1993 till:22/09/2003 color:guitar

bar:Andreas from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 color:vocals

bar:Todd from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 color:back

bar:Elizabeth from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2001 color:vocals

bar:Ruth-Ann from:14/01/2000 till:22/09/2003 color:vocals

bar:Andru from:14/01/2000 till:19/09/2008 color:vocals

LineData =

at:10/12/1990 color:black layer:back

at:06/12/1993 color:black layer:back

at:20/11/1996 color:black layer:back

at:14/01/2000 color:black layer:back

at:30/09/2003 color:black layer:back

at:22/09/2006 color:black layer:back

at:19/09/2008 color:black layer:back

at:11/11/2016 color:black layer:back

</timeline>

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)
Seven Lives Many Faces (2008)
The Fall of a Rebel Angel (2016)

References

Sources

[ Allmusic biography and discography]
Discogs.com Biography and discography