Created by EnigmaMusic.com

1990

This year marked a change, not only in the career of Michael Cretu, but also in the face of popular music in general by the conception of Enigma. The story of Enigma has been the subject of countless reviews, articles, web-site, etc. and so I shall not re-iterate what is already known but will talk about other works by Cretu from the same period. Before I do so, however, I would like to point out a couple of things about Enigma , we may still choose to view the work as a spaceship that happened to land on the landscape of music and, ignoring all trends, redefined them. However, the texture of Enigma's sound as expression by electronic instrumentation ran like a pure stream under the surface in Cretu's work throughout his career. That stream was sometimes more visible than other as various factors governed the work at hand. Fettered by formats of commercial music at times, by the will of other artists involved in the collaboration at other, or diluted by attempts to appeal to prevalent taste and strife for commercial success, the "voice of Enigma", so to speak, was always present. In retrospect, listeners --who are interested in the style of music that Michael Cretu has created and developed over two decades and more-can listen to his early works and trace what later became his signature in the book of music. Out of a vast spectrum of popular and dance music productions and compositions, one could fairly characterise Enigma as Michael Cretu's ultimate exercise of creative freedom. Cretu had emancipated his expression from all formats and norms so that he may create a continuum of poetic expression that transcended boundaries by recognising none.

In 1990, sampling in itself was not a new idea."Pump up the Volume" by M.A.R.R.S. had been a hit since 1987 with its curious break of ethnic chants and "borrowed" rhythm loops. There were already several legal battles in courts as Acid House music was mostly produced on single-machine studios at homes -hence the "house" name. Hip Hop beats had climbed the walls of ghettos and underground clubs and were heard in the most fashionable top 40 records such as the Enigma had already existed, and in similar combination before Enigma appeared.
It is that precedent in itself that negates the argument of those who wrote that Enigma was Gregorian Chants with Hip Hop beats slapped on top; as hardly any of those critics took upon themselves to account for Enigma's impact and enormous success. The answer, was that Enigma was much more than the simple summation of its components. The beat and chant were vocabulary for the statement of a powerful and original concept. Let us remember that the same components, namely words of English language that constitute a newspaper article, also constitute a Shakespearean play.

In the course of the same year, 1990, Sandra released "Paintings In Yellow"in Europe and Japan ( Virgin CD 260 518-222, Japan VJCP-72 in standard and promotional pressings.) The under-rated album was the first Sandra release with no collaboration with Hubert Kemmler. Instead, Frank Peterson moved to the forefront in writing and co-production. To that time, Peterson had been a sound engineer on earlier albums by Sandra ( "Mirrors", " Into A Secret Land" ) and HUBERT KaH ( "Sound of My Heart". ) He had co-written the song "Loreen" in 1986 and was co-author of Enigma's first album. The collaboration between Cretu and Peterson could not survive the success of "MCMXC a.d." "Paintings in Yellow" presented a concept of continuation amongst the tracks as some sounds were repeatedly used from one track to another thus threading them together with a unified overall feel of the album. Also, we heard an extensive use of a plucked harp simulation sound across several songs. The most noteworthy track of the album is the rather long (7:29) final song, "The Journey": a cinematic piece of various tempos, samples, and choir combined with chorus sections from most other tracks on the album. The piece is remarkable and so is the album. Unfortunately, the release was over-shadowed by that of Enigma. Although three singles were released, the impact was relatively marginal given that the album was after all by Sandra. The singles were: "Hiroshima" ( Virgin CD 663 015 ); ( Life May Be ) "A Big Insanity" ( Virgin CD 663 272, Germany and Virgin CD VSCT 1286, United Kingdom - different cover ); "One More Night" ( Virgin CD 663 633. )

Another somewhat obscure work of 1990 was a production for Richard Sanderson , a singer best known for a hit entitled "Reality". Cretu produced a cover version of his own "Wild River" of 1979. The cover appeared on Richard Sanderson's CD "Anytime At All" (WEA( 9031-71174-2 France: WE 833.) The CD incorporated the works of other former Cretu - collaborators such as Harald Steinhauer,Lothar Krell and Mats Björklund.

As we are well aware the Enigma success created many oppertunities for singles chart successs and the first single release from the "MCMXC a.D."album was "Sadeness Part 1" ( Virgin Germany 663 703; Virgin UK DINSD 101 which was released on December 11th all over Europe. The success of both the single and album leads us into 1991.

Michael Cretu ~ "Enigma is a term, an institutional word. And I still think it's beautiful. Of course, I'd be amused if people still didn't know who's behind it. But unfortunately some people couldn't keep their mouths shut."

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