Voyageur

EnigmaMusic.com review of the upcoming album:


Enigma "Voyageur" (Virgin/EMI Records)

"Voyageur" - A Voyage For Your Imagination – Part 1
How do you start a review that fans expect, almost demand, from you that truly reflects feelings and expectations that are now different? A question I had to ask of myself this time around...fans love the track-by-track accounts that I have created over the years that describe my innermost joy when hearing a brand new Enigma or Cretu produced offering. Even more so I loved being able to create that magic for fans to be able to relate to - after all I am in a fortunate position to have something in my hands that others would kill for. So this time around the mental pictures, sounds and feelings I received whilst listening forced me to re-consider which direction this review would demand. Why change something that most fans of the web page love and expect? After listening to the brand new creation from Enigma, your sub-conscious demands that this be done. You feel obligated to take the same approach as before - I mean why not - the formula has worked many times before and you do not want to disappoint so many friends and fans of the page who are not as fortunate and have waited so patiently for some new Enigma music - but as with this new Enigma journey it has to be done differently.
Michael Cretu has demanded your sub-conscious to release the shackles of expectancy for sounds, stories and a formula that has taken us from "MCMXC a.D." thru "The Screen Behind The Mirror" with 13 years of euphoria every time you put each chapter in the player - but cast your mind back to before "MCMXC a.D." - what was your expectation of sounds and feelings - if you are honest most would say you had none - or that you heard this amazing blend of "monks and beats" - but the rest of the album was going to be a complete mystery and crap shoot. You had an anxiety that the sound was going to be something different and without a formula and almost child like you forced it into the CD player to hear. The rest is history and you would not be reading this now if it did not capture your imagination.
"Voyageur", the first Enigma album since January 2000 is going to expect the same feelings and emotions from 13 years ago when you first played "MCMXC a.D." - how and why in today's crazy world could we get so surprised again...the answer is simple - Michael Cretu. The question I ask of you is "Are you strong enough to free your mind to accept what you are going to hear"? If the answer is yes - read on.
WARNING - if you cannot open your mind and release the chains of previous Enigma offerings then please leave now - only the bravest fans can move aboard the mind ship "Voyageur”.
The story starts with a personal struggle, what is the new Enigma album going to bring to me? I have lived and breathed 13 years of a project and a mastermind that has brought me so much inner happiness and created so many wonderful dreamscapes. But those that know me closely understood my concerns on what came next - yes I loved E4, but the fact remained it was the least played Enigma album I have. Un-explainable really as such classics as "Push The Limits", "Smell Of Desire", "Silence Must Be Heard" and "Gravity Of Love" were all in my top 15 all time Enigma chart. Nevertheless, I had some feelings that this was a crossroads for Enigma and me - could I take the same something that really left nothing for me this time around. Did E4 mean an end to the Enigma journey? Had Cretu run out of ideas? Was this just to be another Andru Donalds album? Was today’s music market place of failing record company profits, the sad music sound of trip hop, rap, and house going to threaten the future of such an experimental project.
So my thoughts were always becoming slanted to maybe accept a gracious end to the Enigma honeymoon. Was everything slanted against what had led us 13 years ago. It was interesting reading the Michael Cretu interview that was released to coincide with the "Voyageur" release. He too suggested a struggle within himself to create a new Enigma baby.
So with all of these emotions running high it was interesting to play the single "Voyageur (Radio Edit)" when it first arrived - how would it sound? What was going to hit me? Would it be the same feelings that had been with every other release before it? My opinions have been well documented on the EMB with my usual blow-by-blow account of the sound. You could tell right away it was something new - Cretu had not settled, and had created a brand new identity - full of emotions, beats and even a millennium trance feel. My initial gut feel was that fans are going to have a hard time putting this new identity in its rightful place. There was not much left from previous sounds, so how would they embrace this? I love electronica and trance but there are die hard fans that will not understand the lack of monk and ethnic chants or the Enigma trademarked pan flutes.
Then my own warning sound went off - well I had no preconception of E1 so why should we with this. It was easy to follow the same path as before but even I was hoping for something new. I sensed the sound should not be taken out of context - just a gut feel that if you did that then you would fall into the same trap as many do, who just do not understand Enigma music.