Created by EnigmaMusic.com

1997

A new musical project by Michael Cretu appeared for the first time - Trance Atlantic Air Waves or TAAW. This work of 1997 had an unusual character for, in spite of the fact that most tunes were written by others, the project was not a collection of re-makes in the direct sense. Had it not been for three tracks that were written by Cretu and Gad, the album would have been easier to categorise; however, as some critics wrote, the best tracks on the album were the original tracks. One may conclude that Cretu's tracks were simply better pieces of music than the ones selected to be covered of other people's works. That conclusion would not be true by necessity since some of the pieces covered include such classics as Alan Parson's Project's "Lucifer" and Giorgio Moroder's "Chase" from the movie "Midnight Express". How could we, then resolve that the original tracks on the album have an equals or stronger resonance than do pieces of pop instrumentals of long history and well-established majesty. The answer lies in the difference between a re-make or a cover and an interpretation.

Michael Cretu had re-created a number of music pieces through the mind of someone who had lived those years when those pieces were famous and resonated through the life and society in which they were conceived and were famous. Cretu's music - even the material he creates today - is laden with the richness of the late '70's and 80's. That was the period when club music was taking simmering under the ashes of disco as ABBA were cooling off and New Wave and Neo-Romanticism were re-defining style and fashion from an angle alternative to that of Punk Rock. In a sense, Trance Atlantic Air Waves is not so much a re-visit against a change of time as it is one against a change of social order and memory. The melodies on "The Energy of Sound" were braided with distorted electric guitars and layered synthesisers with scattered voices to create the closest physical sound could ever come to that of the elusive resonance of music as heard in a memory flash. In retrospect, sounds, faces, and memories always seem more beautiful, glorious and in general more dramatic than during their current occurrence or being. By the same token, Trance Atlantic Air Waves was a collection of memories, brought to the present with no illusion of newness or commitment to questions of reverence usually associated with re-visiting works of the past.

Michael Cretu celebrated the mist of the past covering those sounds by preserving the mist and the melody. In some of the pieces, "Pulstar" and "Axel F" only the main line of melody is heard and not some of the less memorable diversions that Cretu had dropped from the melody just as they were dropped from the registry of memory. Trance Atlantic Air Waves is comprised of an album and three CD-singles. The first CD-single was "Magic Fly", written by Ecama, a pseudonym for the French synth-pop pioneer Didier Marouani the founder and only member of the influential group Space.
There is a German promotional CD pressing in custom card sleeve with the title written in green on a white background ( Virgin VGP 000155, LC 3098 ); a United Kingdom CD-R issue for Virgin UK dated 22/07/97 and made by and engineered by Doug (no last name given). The standard CD issue has the number 7243 8 94470 2 6 DINSD164 PM 515.

The album, "The Energy of Sound", had a promotional pressing on CD in the Unites States that was packed in a custom picture sleeve card that showed a connection of two large stereo-speakers. The cover is blue on a white background and the issue was numbered 7087 6 13182 2 7 DPRO-13182. The cover read : Trance Atlantic Air Waves. "The Energy of Sound". From the mastermind of the provocative sounds of Enigma. The Japanese standard issue of the CD has the number VJCP 25385 and was issued by Virgin Japan. There is also a Russian bootleg issue of the album with no number and the cover reads : New project of Michael Cretu ( producer of Enigma ) Trance Atlantic Air Waves. "The Energy of Sound". The standard European issue was in digipak by most likely to have been limited to a certain number then the rest would be in jewel-case ( Virgin CD pressings: A European digipak CD ( Virgin 7243 8 45346 2 2.)

Michael Cretu ~ "You need this ability to let go of a plan which is more than a year old maybe because you realize that something else is probably better."

Credits
Written and researched By Taha A. Al-Douri
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©EnigmaMusic.com and Martyn Woolley
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E-Mail : cretu@enigmamusic.com