Created by EnigmaMusic.com

1986

Sandra's second album "Mirrors" was released on Virgin Records in Germany and on the Victor label in Japan - the same label that released Arabesque records earlier in Japan and re-issued them on CD later. The first CD issue ( Virgin 257 915-225 ) differed from the second by not having a bar-code and by number (second issue was Virgin 257 915-2222 .) A third Dutch issue also exists as Virgin 0777 7 8696520. The Japanese CD ( Victor VDP-1169 ) had a larger cover picture of Sandra with a slightly warmer hue a bit more brown) and the back of the CD showed the famous picture of Sandra in a tight black dress on a red background with her hair in a braid. The same image was later used for the cover of the single release of "Loreen/Don't Cry (The Break Up of the World.)"

The album was co-produced with Armand Volker of previous collaborations with HUBERT KaH and Moti Special. In fact, the line-up of musicians on "Mirrors" could easily be considered that of a HUBERT KaH album with a female front vocalist. The character of the music, however, considerably differed from that of a HUBERT KaH album. The experimental quality and youthful melodies of " Neu Deutsche Welle - ( German New Wave )" HUBERT KaH were, on "Mirrors", heavily clad in lavish polished arrangements and grandiose chords that gave Sandra her distinct signature sound.

The same year, Cretu and Volker co-produced the album "Tensongs" for HUBERT KaH; and the difference was clear between the two works, "Mirrors" and "Tensongs". "Tensongs" was a dark, crisp, immaculately precise work of music and ambiguous lyrics. The first track, "Pogo The Clown" begins with an abrasive sweeping synthesizer that reminds of the beginning of "Gambit", Cretu's stand-alone single of that year. The album contains some synth-pop classic pieces such as "Drowning" (released as a b-side to "Limousine" from the same album.)


Shortly after the release of "Tensongs", Cretu wrote a song for HUBERT KaH; entitled "Military Drums"; and it was released as a single on MCD in Germany Intercord INT 825.583 on Blow Up Records. The song was a hit and was then released in the United States with extended mixes and promo mixes for club DJ's. The American promotional 12" - Curb Records L 33-10251 (CR-0251/2) - contained exclusive mixes that were never available anywhere else: "Crossover Radio Edit" (3:50), "Power Mix" (5:20), and "Dance Edit" by Ali Lexa (6:50). The latter mix was released in 1990 on Curb Records on the CD "Best of Dance Hits" - Curb D2-77260. Although that CD was only released in the United States, there exists and issue of it that was pressed for the Japanese market and comes with a Obi strip and a lyrics sheet in Japanese - AVU-499.

As Sandra was sweeping the Globe with a string of hits from her second album ( "Innocent Love", "Hi Hi Hi", and "Loreen" ), she remained virtually unknown in the United Kingdom and the United States. She had been featured in a small article in the British music news-paper Melody Maker in 1985 as a noteworthy act from the Montreux Music Festival. She had sung "Maria Magdalena" and the song was hailed as the best song that ABBA never sang.

Across the Atlantic, however, HUBERT KaH; was a word-of-mouth club and Hi-NRG success, in a way similar to the way Moti Special were in German clubs in 1985, somewhat underground but fashionably popular in the right circles. One could note that Enigma was not Cretu's first trans-Atlantic success. The nature of that success differed as HUBERT KaH was primarily a dance act with a highly stylized and distinctly German image. The music was equally polished with infectious melodies rendered optimally elegant by Cretu's production. The extended mixes of the various US hits by HUBERT KaH remain to this day some of the most highly sought-after gems of Hi-NRG: "Limousine - Extended Version" , 7:10), "American Remix" by Christer Modig and Boris Granich for >EAM; "Angel 07 - Extended Version", "Rock Remix" - re-mixed at Capitol Studio , Los Angeles, CA by Engineer David Leonard, "Alternative Remix" - re-mixed at the Record Plant ( a studio used by the legendary Kraftwerk for the production of their classic "Autobahn" album) by Engineer David Storrs.

The success continued throughout the 1980's where in 1989 "Machine Gun" ( The word "Welcome" in the original title of the German release was dropped from the American release) had a promotional 12" and a promotional CD-single (Curb CD45-10540.) So Many People from HUBERT KaH's album of 1989 "Sound of My Heart" was also treated with a number of masterful DJ mixes: "So Many People" [(L33 10258 (CR 258/2)] Night Mix, re-mixed by Steve Smith ( Art of Mix), 6:28, "Intro"0:46, "Back Door Mix" 6:22, "Intro" :1:43, and "Acid to AT Dub Mix" 3:43 "Intro" :1:28 (re-mixed and additional dub by Tony Garcia. In Japan, the album "Tensongs" had eleven songs as a version sung in English of "Wenn der Mond die Sonne Berührt" entitled "The Picture" was the eleventh track. The German version had appeared on the 1984 HUBERT KaH HUBERT KaH album "Goldene Zeiten". The English version released in Japan was a completely different rendering from the German one. The sound was simpler and less layered. The German version, more sophisticated and with fuller sweeps, was the one used to create the stunningly beautiful "12" Remix" and "Instrumental/ Dub" of François Kevorkian ( a New York-based DJ famous for his work with Kraftwerk, most notably his remix of their 1983 classic "Tour de France") released as a b-side for "It's Me Cathy(Follow My Heart)" in the United States in 1990. A promotional CD-single of that song was pressed in the United States (Curb CD 33-011) but contained none of those mixes, only a "Club Mix" of the title track and that mix is available on the CD "Best of HUBERT KaH Dance Hits".

Michael Cretu ~ "And I am very happy that I, with my graying hair - I'm almost one of the seniors of the business now - succeeded in finishing such a youthful, fresh and energetic album."

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Written and researched By Taha A. Al-Douri
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