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1988

This was the year when Cretu and Sandra moved to Ibiza. The effect on the music was of added beauty and depth to the sound with somewhat of a loss of urgency. Sandra released the ambitious album "Into A Secret Land", still her favourite offering lots of fans. The album was written and performed with HUBERT KaH ( Hubert Kemmler, Markus Löhr, Klaus Hirschburger) and broke through with the track "Heaven Can Wait". A slew of successful singles followed : "Secret Land", "Around My Heart", and "We'll Be Together". All single releases contained extended versions by Michael Cretu ( "Heaven Can Wait", Virgin CD 661 507-211; "Around My Heart", Virgin CD 662 208; "Secret Land", Virgin CD 661 750-211; "We'll Be Together" Virgin West Germany 661 750-211 and Virgin France 30201). The album was released on CD in a limited silk-screened picture CD ( Virgin Austria 259 371 P-222 ).

In 1988 there appeared another limited silk-screened picture CD edition, only it was of Sandra's first album "The Long Play" ( Virgin Austria TPAK 29 0777 7 86968 2 7). A Japan promotional issue was pressed of "Into A Secret Land" ( Virgin VJD-32102, a standard issue of the same number, and a Dutch re-issue on Virgin 0777 7 86967 28 ). The title-track was one of the few by Sandra to released on 3"-CD format in Japan ( VJD-10010 ) in standard and promotional pressings. The other two songs to be released in 3" MCD in Japan were a 1988 MCD of "Sisters and Brothers" ( from "The Long Play" 1985 ) as the song was used for a 1988 Toyota Tercel commercial advertisement in Japan. The CD also contained "Stop for a Minute". The other 3" issue would be a 1992 promotional pressing of "Don't Be Aggressive" ( VJPR-19 with an exclusive "Wut Meoto Mix" (4:20) that mixed "Don't Be Aggressive" with "Sadeness Part I" ).

Michael Cretu teamed once more with Manfred "Thissy" Thiers of Moti Special to produce and co-write the album "Belle Epoque". The album ( CD Virgin 258 578-222 ) contained eight tracks and yielded one single release and a promotional issue of another single. "Mona Lisa", the first song on the CD was a cover of Cretu's song "Silver Water" from 1985's "The Invisible Man" ( Die Chinesische Mauer -Schwarzer Engel.) The second CD-single released was "Don't Say You Love Me" (Let Me Feel It) ( Virgin CD 661 503 ); the first single was pressed for promotion only : "When Love is the Missing Word" ( Virgin CD 659 448-000 ). The pressing contained no mixes but two other tracks from the CD ( "200 Ways to Heaven" and "Snowing Under My Skin" ) . The latter track was covered in 1999 by Andru Donalds ; a Jamaican artist with whom Cretu was to collaborate later. The promotional pressing was dated to 1987 and so was a vinyl-only issue of a CaT cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out" (Virgin 12" 608 853-213.) On the vinyl issue is written that the song is taken from the forthcoming album "Introducing". No such album was seen, nor there was an official CD release of "School's Out" or "When Love is the Missing Word". Instead, as 1988 arrived, "Don't Say You Love Me" and the album "Belle Epoque" were released. It is noteworthy that the b-side of "School's Out" was an instrumental entitled "Collage"(3:57). That instrumental was clothed with lyrics and appeared on "Belle Epoche" as "Snowing Under My Skin".

Five years later there was a curious release of song "Captain Right" on CD-single with "Crazy Life" ( another track from "Belle Epoque") with no mixes or extended versions (Virgin CD 7243891068.) The CD-single appeared with a promotional sticker as well as in a standard release.

Michael Cretu ~ "People think I just come across a sound and add a rhythm and that's it. But I showed it to a few people and they just shook their heads surprised at how complex it is to construct and build a melody."

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Written and researched By Taha A. Al-Douri
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