FSC March
Enigma is an electronic musical project founded by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990 in Germany. Cretu, who based his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain in the early 1990s is both the composer and the producer of the project.
Cretu was born to a Romanian father and a mother of Austrian ancestry. His uncle, Ion Voicu, a famous Romanian violinist and the director of the Bucharest Philharmonic told Michael's parents that he has talent in music and as such, he studied classical music at Liceul Nr. 2 in Bucharest in 1965 and in Paris, France in 1968. He later attended the Academy of Music in Frankfurt, Germany from 1975 to 1978, attaining a degree in music.
After Cretu's marriage to Sandra in 1988, he had an idea, following suggestions made by David Fairstein, for a musical new-age dance project under the name, presented by Fairstein, of Enigma. Cretu worked with Frank Peterson and David Fairstein to create their ground-breaking first single "Sadeness," which became a surprise hit. MCMXC a.D., the album, which was released in 1990, was hugely successful. It is believed to have sold about 20 million copies worldwide.[citation needed] One of the aims of Enigma was to present music that was never been heard before and is not being produced anywhere, which also forced Cretu to continually move in new musical directions and to stay ahead of imitators.
MCMXC a.D. stayed on the charts for 282 weeks on the Billboard charts and dropped off two years after its second album, 2 the Cross of Changes, was released in 1993. Prior to this, Frank Peterson had some disagreements with Cretu and he left the project in 1991. Cretu changed Enigma's direction from Gregorian chants to tribal chants for its second album, and this led to “Return to Innocence,” which became a worldwide hit.
Cretu was approached by Paramount Pictures to write the soundtrack of the movie Sliver and he came up with another 1993 single, “Carly's Song,” the title of the track based on the character of the leading actress in the movie.
In 1996, Enigma's third album, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! was released. Stylistically, it sounded like a combination of the first and second albums, but it failed to achieve the same level of success.
For the fourth album, Cretu steered the project in another direction by using samples of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana for the album The Screen Behind the Mirror. Andru Donalds and Ruth-Ann Boyle first appeared on this release. Although Jens Gad had been working with Cretu on the earlier albums, this was the first time that he had been given actual credits.
Deciding that the first chapter for Enigma was closed, Cretu released two sets of compilation albums: Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits and Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection.
By then Cretu was undecided if he should continue with the project, but eventually he came up with Voyageur in 2003. Familiar sounds of the Shakuhachi flute, tribal, or Gregorian chants were replaced with more pop-oriented tunes and beats. In March 2006, a new single called "Hello & Welcome" was released in anticipation of another album.
A Posteriori was the sixth Enigma album. It was released on 22/25 September 2006.
A seventh album, named Seven Lives Many Faces, was released on 19 September 2008.
You can see two nice photomontages on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq9gOGcET_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OgL9Mj2QXs
The Same Parents
We all had the same parents
Many million years ago
Why can't we live in freedom
Without hunger, with no war?
At the beginning,
We all had one mother and one father
That's where we're descending from (attention)
I don't, I don't understand why so much hate (attention)
Between races, and religions
Its smile, insane
I don't understand (amazing)
Why it hurts, people died (incredible experience)
We all had the same parents
Many million years ago
Why can't we live in freedom
Without hunger, with no war?
(attention) I don't, I don't understand
why so much hate (amazing)
??three braces are ___ chance?? (incredible experience)
We all had the same parents
Many million years ago
Why can't we live in freedom
Without hunger, with no war?
At the beginning
We all had one mother and one father
That's where we're descending from
We all had the same parents
Many million years ago
Why can't we live in freedom
Without hunger, with no war?
I don't, I don't understand...
I don't, I don't understand...
I don't, I don't understand...
We all had the same parents
many million years ago...
We all had the same parents
many million years ago...