''Voyageur'' is the fifth studio album by the German musical project Enigma, released on 8 September 2003 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

. ''Voyageur'' was considered to be Enigma's most distinctive album to date, due to Enigma's drastic changes in sound as compared to the previous four albums. The project's signature ''

shakuhachi A is a Japanese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

'' flutes,

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

s and tribal chants found on the earlier albums were all but gone on ''Voyageur''. Instead, most of the songs found on the album were more pop-oriented, such as "

Voyageur Voyageurs (; ) were 18th- and 19th-century French people, French and later French Canadians and others who transported furs by canoe at the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, i ...

", "Incognito", " Boum-Boum" and "Look of Today"; the latter of which interpolates the chorus of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

's " The Look of Love".

Michael Cretu Michael Cretu (, ; born 18 May 1957) is a Romanian-German musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He gained worldwide fame as the founder and musician behind the musical project Enigma, which he formed in 1990. Cretu began ...

described ''Voyageurs genre as "sophisticated pop". Only a few samples of previous works are retained; a familiar reversed

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

rhythm appears in "Look of Today", while "Incognito" contains the chorus of previous single " Sadeness" buried in the bridge of the song. The "Enigma

foghorn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. ...

" also appears at the opening of the record.

Release

''Voyageur'' was released on the CD and cassette formats, while the CD cover art (done by Johann Zambryski) has two different versions: *A normal version with full paper inserts (which can be harder to find compared to the "special package" edition); *A "special package" edition with a transparent CD cover, with the album art printed on the inside of the CD case and partly on the CD itself, and a ring-shaped booklet placed under the CD. In May 2018, the album received its first vinyl release as part of The Colours of Enigma series of reissues, which includes all other Enigma studio albums.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Voyageur''. *

Ruth-Ann Boyle Ruth-Ann Boyle (born 26 April 1970) is an English singer. Together with producers Tim Kellett and Robin Taylor-Firth, she formed the British band Olive (band), Olive. The band's single "You're Not Alone (Olive song), You're Not Alone" reached n ...

– lead vocals *

Andru Donalds Andru Donalds (born 16 November 1974) is a Jamaican musician and vocalist, who also worked in collaboration with the Enigma project. Donalds had a hit single in America in 1995 with " Mishale", which reached No. 38 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 10 ...

– lead vocals *

– lead vocals ; arrangements, engineering, production *

Sandra Cretu Sandra Ann Lauer (born 18 May 1962), later Sandra Cretu, commonly known mononymously as Sandra (), is a German pop singer who enjoyed mainstream popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s with a string of European hit singles, produced by her the ...

– female voices *

Jens Gad Jens Gad is a German Record producer, producer, songwriter and guitarist of Denmark, Danish parents. He started making music at a young age. Gad produces music for many artists (Sandra Cretu / Sandra Gambino) and was previously co-producer for the ...

– arrangements, engineering, guitars * Johann Zambryski – artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Voyageur (Album) 2003 albums Albums produced by Michael Cretu Enigma (German band) albums Virgin Records albums