Music

Enigma has become a familiar name for music lovers in last fifteen years. The man behind Enigma is “Michael Cretu” who does almost every single step in Enigma music. Enigma was born on October 1st, 1990 with “Sadness Part 1″. On September 22nd, 2006 Enigma released it’s sixth album.

For me, Enigma’s music has been the only music kind that never takes my mood down. The music is very special that you never understand the depth and beauty in the first time of listening. As you listen over and over, you get into the depth more. Enigma’s latest album, “A Posteriori” is no exception and it is a big step forward compared to 2003’s “Voyageur” album.

In my own opinion, Enigma’s music is an extraordinary one which does not bind itself to this world. In fact, we’re talking about the music which is beyond normal human understanding. That’s why Enigma rules. What comes from the heart, goes to the heart, Spiritual and direct. Yeah, that’s why.

Below is a summary of what is written in Enigma’s official web site about new album:

“I lock myself in my own world of thought, in a kind of hypnotic trance,” says Michel Cretu. He writes, composes and arranges this seemingly other-worldly music in the same way he wants his listeners to experience Enigma. “I was able to transform myself into a kind of tranquil, spiritual state, so that I could reach a completely different atmosphere.” The musical rush was just as strong on the maker of this music as it is on the listener. “I am always grateful for sources of inspiration, but there weren’t any.” No TV, no video clips, no studying the music charts. Instead Cretu was able to create his own Enigma universe with just a view of the Mediterranean and the stars, and his studio control room, which is a bit smaller these days. He “wanted to do justice to my own high musical ambitions.” The result is an intergalactic sound trip, in twelve stages, that lasts 53 minutes and 42 seconds. It is the longest of all of Enigma’s voyages so far, and one that guides its guests into unknown worlds, with every song leading into another orbit.

In a change from the previous five albums, there are hardly any lyrics on “A Posteriori”. Language appears only in fragments, or as reminiscences of Enigma’s own history. “Language is too limited and words are too small to get my sentiments and deepest thoughts across to other people,” Cretu says. The musical vision of Enigma lives off what Michael Cretu calls “positive confusion”. Whereas in the past Enigma used voices to serve as “human instruments” within an integrated concept, this album finds voices being used in a very different fashion. “Voices for me are effects and sounds, nothing more”, explains Cretu. He created digital voices-immaculate sounds from another dimension. “Although these artificial voices can be associated with human voices, something about them is disorienting, abnormal.” The effect is magical.

“The Alchemist” is not only the title of the second to last track on “A Posteriori”, but also the ideal definition of what the album’s creator represents. Alchemist is the perfect description of the Michael Cretu of the 21st century: singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer and sound engineer. The set of musical formulas that he deciphered and commands mirrors those of the wizards of organic and inorganic sciences. “What is completely new about “A Posteriori”, is that, for the first time in my life, with the exception of two spoken lines, I have done everything myself.” That, too, is a conscious result of his new minimalism. “I felt that if I wanted a guitar, I didn’t necessarily need a guitarist.” Indeed, even experienced guitar players will find it difficult to believe that most of the subtle riffs and effervescent solos were done on keyboards. “It’s probably the first pure synthesizer-album that doesn’t sound like synthesizers at all.” The dream of latter-day alchemist Michael Cretu has come true.

You can draw an analogy between Enigma and silent movies. With silent movies, the music, the sound, and the words emerged from inside the viewers’ minds. With Enigma, the pictures, the colors and worlds are created in listeners’ heads and allow them all to experience the unique, personalized intoxication of being transported to another dimension. The acoustic gravity dissolves. You lift off – most effectively at night. “A Posteriori” does this without cheap sound effects and trance-inducing loops. “Not a single measure is repeated. And I played nearly everything through from start to finish, as opposed to building it measure by measure.” On no other Enigma album before has his classical training as concert pianist has come in so handy as with this one. “There are these little serendipitous coincidences on “A Posteriori”, where I transformed a mistake into something positive, I integrated a false note harmonically in such a way that the listener gets confused in a positive way. Only then music becomes alive.” For Michael Cretu musical success means emotion trumping rationality. Which is another reason why this time, he has bridged the transitions between the songs with “more emptiness, with absurd, multidimensional sounds. I wanted to create a tonal vacuum similar to the sensation you get when pressure builds up when dive under water.” But these are only short moments before you re-enter the “living, constantly morphing monotony,” as Cretu describes it. “This monotony, of course, is false, because with every new measure something different happens.”

As an Enigma listener, I tell you, Enigma’s “A Posteriori” stands as a most recommended album ever. So, give it a try and let the music spread spirituality.