Group "Enigma": the history of the most mysterious musical project of the 90s

Perhaps, there is no such person, even a world far from the world of music, who would not have heard about what the Enigma group is. Their mysterious, bewitching music, incredibly popular in the 90s of the last century, and today has not lost its relevance, becoming at the same time a modern classic.

In fact, "Enigma" is not so much a band in the usual sense of the word, as a musical project. So, he did not have a permanent membership of the participants, did not give interviews, did not play at festivals and did not give any concerts at all, since he was originally conceived as an exclusively studio project.

The idea of creating

At the bottom of the project are the spouses Cretu: Michelle Cretu, composer and producer, and Sandra Cretu is a popular singer of the 80's, a performer of many compositions of the collective. Initially, the Enigma group was conceived by Michel as completely mysterious. Even the name was chosen not by chance, because it is translated as "secret".

It was planned that this would be a pure musical work, deprived of all the interference of the performer's personality. For this, the project's composition was kept secret for a long time. And they were not even going to disclose it. Perhaps Michel would have succeeded, but the judicial argument did not allow keeping the secret. The matter is that in the first album the group "Enigma" used samples from the record of Gregorian chorals. It was they who gave the music that depth and mysticism, as well as a recognizable sound. But the owners of the sound recording, which was applied to the samples, sued her for illegal use. During the trial, the artists' personalities were declassified. The press mentioned the names of those who drafted the Enigma. The group, whose participants' photos appeared on the covers of musical publications, still did not become less popular.

Best albums of "Enigma"

If the first album was used samples of monastic chants, then in the second - The Cross of Changes, they were replaced by songs of American Aborigines combined with French speech, which made the band fans resent the flute and the chorals. But nevertheless the album was successful and was sold by millions of copies around the world. But the third disc, according to the plan of the creators, became like a child of the first two, having absorbed all the best that they had. This third album was released in 1996 and was called Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! Further in his work, Cretu and his partner Frank Peterson continued to experiment, inscribing the bells of church bells, organ sounds or classical Japanese instruments into the songs of the Enigma group.

The second chapter in the life of the project

It became increasingly difficult tracks "Enigma" to call songs, even the voice began to appear only in a small part of the tracks. And in many cases it's hard to say whether it's a voice or an instrument. Cretu himself talks about his music: "It's hard to express in words, no words can describe it."

Despite this, many fans believe that the main merit is that the project became popular, belongs to the voice of soloist Sandra. However, to the sixth album, her participation in compositing ceased, as the marriage with Michelle virtually disintegrated. But, contrary to everything, it was the sixth album A Posteriori that many described as the best in the music career of Cretu. But the next disc, although it returned to the traditional ethnic sound, was not commercially successful.

The fate of the band after 20 years of existence

In 2009, the group "Enigma" celebrated its 20th anniversary, publishing a musical collection of three albums. They were not only the best hits of the group, but also remixes, as well as tracks that had not previously been published.

To date, the musical style in which the group plays is characterized as an enigmatic. And he has a lot of followers. Interest in such music and the project itself is not weakening, in spite of the fact that the best albums of "Enigma" are in the past.