Michael Cretu "Voyageur" Interviews Part 3


Michael Cretu

ENIGMA - "Voyageur" Biography
With "Voyageur", 13 years after the phenomenal debut "MCMXC a.D.", Michael Cretu presents the fifth album of his ENIGMA project. After the release of the greatest hits album "LSD" (2000), which had, naturally, been another multi-million seller, there were speculations about the end of ENIGMA. And the enigma is solved now. The title is motto: the musical voyage will go on with "Voyageur".

Outlook


The sound designer Michael Cretu surprises us: 11 songs and none of the classic ENIGMA ingredients as monks' choirs, Ethno sounds or flutes. Cretu intentionally passed on these elements this time: "If I hate anything, it's copying myself".

And so "Voyageur" - with 47:20 minutes playing time the longest of the ENIGMA albums so far - offers a collection of sounds, rhythms and virtual instruments inspiring the listener such: they're new! Cretu states soberly:" For me, songs like the first five on "Voyageur" are not to be compared with anything on this planet musically. I've never heard anything like it." And truly, the compositions, the arrangements and instrumentations are different but not strange. Full of contrasts as never before, ENIGMA takes the "Voyageur" on a trip.

"Musically, this record is the most exciting one," Cretu says, "no song is like the other." Loud and quiet, slow and fast, classical and experimental, simple and complicated - and all harmonically, hypnotically blending into one another. Yet, words and music have become more "down to earth". Everyday life, human relations are the topics this time instead of philosophical statements in regard to religion or sexuality as on the previous albums. "But the order of the titles, their names and what they're like, all this runs into a conclusive entity."

"Voyageur" is a Pop song oriented album. Off the mainstream, landmark for a new arena. "Sophisticated Pop," Cretu describes the style appropriately. "ENIGMA is an experimental project on a Pop music basis. A confession, too, of my understanding of popular and commercial music." It's not surprising then, that there are a number of potential hits on "Voyageur" again: next to the first single "Voyageur", the intriguing mid tempo track "Boum-Boum" and the dreamy ballad "Following The Sun" have a lingering after effect.

"No words can explain music, music always explains itself," says Michael Cretu, born in Bucharest 46 years ago. As a little boy, Cretu had already been accepted to the "Highly Gifted Advancement for Musical Talents" as a pianist. In 1978 he finished his musical studies at the Frankfurt music school Cum Laude. Intentional was his step from classical music to Pop.

As a musician, instrumentalist, soloist, composer, arranger he became one of the "most successful German music producers" (Focus Magazine). Whether he produced his wife Sandra, German Pop act number 1 of the 80's (no. 1 charts positions in 30 countries) or next to countless others, international Pop artists like Mike Oldfield or Andru Donalds - the numerous international awards and the sales of more than 100 million records say enough. His work ethics: to not pay attention to the laws of the market and trends, Cretu has definitely proved to be right when he revolutionized the world of sound with his project ENIGMA.

Looking Back


ENIGMA - October 1990, a birth of the superlatives. Already the next single, "Sadeness Part I" became a bestseller busting limits and uniting generations. The single climbed the top charts positions of 24 countries. The debut album "MCMXC a.D." has sold more than 14 million copies up to now. It stayed in the US Billboard charts for 282 weeks.

Like a musical Noah's Boat, Cretu unites the most different cultures of all continents from the most various epochs on his sound ship ENIGMA. The American Billboard Magazine celebrates ENIGMA as "the music for the new millennium", The New York Times state: "the most refined studio Pop music of ENIGMA is an international phenomenon." "The Cross of Changes" (1993), "Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!" (1996), "The Screen Behind The Mirror" (2000) and the best of album "Love. Sensuality. Devotion. The Greatest Hits." (2002) are all sweeping the charts, ensuring that ENIGMA sells 30 million CDs worldwide, has 50 no. 1 charts positions and receives 90 platinum awards proving it has become the commercially most important German music project of all times.

Looking Ahead


Whether copied, quoted or adapted - ENIGMA has been a platform for others from the beginning. Similar sounds and rhythms are to be found everywhere: from DJ projects to commercials and film music, to experimental sound performances. "Even though it's quite enervating to be stolen from, it is some kind of compliment", says Cretu about his enigmatic sound inspiration. Each album individually is an evolution, a statement for the zeitgeist. And if you were number one in every country that has something like a charts system, it's "naturally a wonderful feeling giving one a great inner satisfaction".

After 30 million sold albums, he still doesn't feel the pressure of commercial success. He has to like it first and above all. And who is he? Composer, arranger, sound engineer, sound designer, instrumentalist, pianist, singer… Lots of "discipline" is needed to keep the differing characters of this multiple personality in line and make them agree on a concept. So the playfulness, the freshness, the naivety and childlikeness make up the special charm of "Voyageur". Unfortunately, there still won't be a live performance of Michael Cretu and ENIGMA: "I'm not a psychological exhibitionist, for that's what you have to be as a front man. I prefer to know that after the Beatles, mine is the best sold back catalogue. It's a great honor for my music. If 80,000 would cheer at me, it would only tell me that I'm fashionable at the moment. These parameters are not part of my life."