This time Cretu used classical music as his inspiration, taking samples from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana to be used on four tracks on the album. There was the Gregorian chant as well as Sanskrit and Vedic chants all crafted into the familiar Enigma sound, but the album failed to arouse the interest garnered by the first two releases.įor 2000’s release, The Screen Behind the Mirror, Ruth-Ann Boyle (from the band Olive) and Andru Donalds make their first appearances on an Enigma record. Long live the King!”) was issued and once again explored familiar territory. Three years later, Le Roi est mort, Vive le Roi! (French for “The King is dead. This album developed the sound of Enigma with World music sounds and while not as successful commercially is a very satisfying recording. He felt unable to do the whole thing, given his commitments to a second Enigma record.

In retrospect this helped the marketing of the album, adding to the mystery.Įnigma’s second album, The Cross of Changes, came along in 1993 and includes the single, ‘Carly’s Song’ (“Age of Loneliness”) that was also featured in the movie Silver, which Cretu had been asked to compose the soundtrack to. Real names were shunned and Cretu credited himself as Curly M.C initially, people were unsure whether it was a band, a person or quite what it was. The riddle of Enigma was fueled by the fact that Cretu was shy in revealing almost any information on the album, it’s said because he was unsure of its potential. According to Cretu, the album was about, “unsolved crimes and philosophical themes such as life after death, hence the name Enigma.” It became Virgin’s most successful worldwide album and its success was helped by the single, ‘Sadeness (Part I),’ which included Gregorian chants and pseudo-sexual sounds all arranged over a dance beat – impossible to pigeonhole, but almost impossible to resist. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, where he both wrote and produced the album. Cretu had spent eight months working on MCMXC a.D. (the roman numeral from 1990), at his studio A.R.T.

List of enigma albums