Enigma is a German musical project founded in 1990 by Romanian-German musician and producer

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

. Cretu had released several solo records, collaborated with various artists, and produced albums for his then-wife, German pop singer Sandra, before he conceived the idea of a

new-age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consid ...

worldbeat Worldbeat is a music genre that blends pop music or rock music with world music or traditional music. Worldbeat is similar to other cross-pollination labels of contemporary and roots genres, and which suggest a rhythmic, harmonic or textural c ...

project. He recorded the first Enigma studio album, ''

MCMXC a.D. ''MCMXC a.D.'' is the debut studio album by the German musical project Enigma, led by Romanian-German musician Michael Cretu. It was released in Europe by Virgin Records on 3 December 1990, and in the United States by Charisma Records on 12 Feb ...

'' (1990), with contributions from David Fairstein and

Frank Peterson Frank Peterson (born 29 December 1963) is a German music producer known for his work with Enigma and artists such as Sarah Brightman, Ofra Haza, Gregorian, Princessa, and Andrea Bocelli on his first international album, ''Romanza''. Peters ...

. The album remains Enigma's most successful, helped by the international hit single " Sadeness (Part I)", which sold twelve million units alone. According to Cretu, the inspiration for the creation of the project came from his desire to make a kind of music that did not obey "the old rules and habits" and presented a new form of artistic expression with mystic and experimental components. Enigma followed ''

'' with a series of albums that involved several musicians and producers working with Cretu. The first was '' The Cross of Changes'' (1993), which incorporated tribal and ethnic influences and sold over eight million copies worldwide,"''The Cross of Changes'' on UDiscoverMusic"
Retrieved on 25 August 2016. followed by '' Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!'' (1996), which blended the

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe dur ...

s reminiscent of the first album with the strong intercultural soundscapes present in the second. Enigma's fourth album '' The Screen Behind the Mirror'' (2000) started a slight departure from the previous world music themes towards a heavier electronic atmosphere. This evolution culminated with '' Voyageur'' (2003), its fifth and more pop-based album, and ''

A Posteriori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...

'' (2006), a work inspired by the future collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, with distinct operatic tones and an electronic spectrum closer to ''Voyageur'' than the earlier releases. '' Seven Lives Many Faces'' (2008) followed and contained a mixture of classical and modern elements ranging from ethnic chants to rap and

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

influences. Its eighth album, ''

The Fall of a Rebel Angel ''The Fall of a Rebel Angel'' is the eighth studio album by the German musical project Enigma, released on 11 November 2016 by Republic Records. The first studio album since '' Seven Lives Many Faces'' (2008), it is a concept album that tells ...

'', was released in November 2016. Enigma has sold over 8.5 million

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

-certified albums in the US and an estimated 70 million worldwide with over 100 gold and platinum certifications. The project has also received three

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nominations.

History

Formation

By the late 1980s, Romanian-born German musician and producer

had collaborated with several musicians, produced albums recorded by his then-wife, German pop singer Sandra, and released solo albums under his name for

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

and

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

, to varying levels of commercial success across Europe. In 1988, Cretu and Sandra married and relocated to the Spanish island of Ibiza. A home recording studio, A.R.T. Studios, was built, and Cretu began work on a new,

and

new age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

musical project named Enigma with David Fairstein and

. Cretu secured a deal with

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

-based Mambo Musik to handle Enigma's management and publishing.

1990s

The first Enigma album, ''

'', was recorded in eight months and incorporated

s mixed with atmospheric music and dance beats. He had previously used a Gregorian-type chant on the opening seconds of Sandra's 1987 single "

Everlasting Love "Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since remade numerous times, most successfully by Love Affair, as well as Town Criers, Carl Carlton, Sandra Cretu, and Gloria Estef ...

". Cretu wished to exclude his name from the album's

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the record sleeve, sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner n ...

so the listener could conjure their own interpretations. He recalled management "fell off their chairs" when he requested it, "but it worked". Cretu credits himself as "Curly M.C." and Peterson is listed as "F. Gregorian". Upon its release in December 1990, ''MCMXC a.D.'' became an unexpected commercial success, helped by the international hit single " Sadeness (Part I)", released a month prior that reached number one in 24 countries. The album reached the top 10 in ten countries, including the United Kingdom, and number six on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the United States, where it sold over four million copies and charted for more than 150 weeks. The album earned over 50

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

sales awards worldwide, and made Enigma the most successful act signed to Virgin at the time of release. Following the success of ''MCMXC a.D.'', Cretu received many offers for soundtrack work and writing film scores. He turned the majority of them down as he disliked the scripts presented to him except for the erotic thriller film '' Sliver'' (1993), for which he produced two songs for its soundtrack: "

Carly's Song "Carly's Song" is a 1993 song created by the musical project Enigma. Released as a single in Australia, it peaked at number 91 on the ARIA singles chart in November 1993, spending one week in the top 100. Overview The song is featured on the so ...

" and "Carly's Loneliness". The former was reworked into " Age of Loneliness" in 1993. Cretu was unable to contribute more to the soundtrack as he wished to spend his time working on the second Enigma album. '' The Cross of Changes'' was recorded in 1993. The long period in between the first and second was partly down to Virgin and Cretu's manager forgetting to extend his contract with Virgin. This led to Cretu signing a new, five-album deal. Cretu retained many of the elements from the first album, but "wanted to have a completely different experience. I wanted to mix as much as possible rock elements and ethnic and classical". Numerous samples were used, including from songs by

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped de ...

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

, and U2. Cretu made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of Gregorian chants incorporated into the album. Cretu based much of its lyrics on the concepts behind

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

, and read books on the subject. ''The Cross of Changes'' was released in December 1993, and reached number one in the UK and number 9 in the US. Four singles were released in 1994: "

Return to Innocence "Return to Innocence" is a song by German musical group Enigma. It was released on 4 January 1994 as the lead single from their second album, '' The Cross of Changes'' (1993). It became the project's most successful international single after ...

", " The Eyes of Truth", "Age of Loneliness", and " Out from the Deep". The former became an international top-10 hit in 12 countries and is certified gold in the US for selling half a million copies. ''The Cross of Changes'' sold an estimated 8 million copies worldwide. In 1996, '' Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!'' was released. Cretu's idea was that this third album was the child of the previous two albums, and therefore included familiar elements of Gregorian chants and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

chants in it. It did not achieve the same level of success that they enjoyed previously, and as a result, only two of the three singles originally slated were released. ''Le Roi est mort, Vive le Roi!'' sold over one million units in the United States, achieved a Gold certificate in the United Kingdom and two Grammy nominations: one for its artwork design and the second as Best New Age Album. After the album's release, Cretu found that several fake Enigma albums were released onto the market that Cretu deemed as "awful messes".

2000s

The 2000 release of '' The Screen Behind the Mirror'' included samples from

Carl Orff Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata '' Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education. Life Early life Ca ...

's ''

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreveren ...

'' on four tracks on the album. This time the Gregorian chants were toned down tremendously, although

Shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese 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 and other traditional Enigma signatures remain. Only "

Gravity of Love "Gravity of Love" is a song by the musical group Enigma. It was released in November 1999 as the lead single from the album ''The Screen Behind the Mirror''. The song features guest vocals by Ruth-Ann Boyle of the British band Olive and has samp ...

" and "

Push the Limits "Push the Limits" is a 2000 song created by the musical project, Enigma. The single was the second one released from ''The Screen Behind the Mirror''. Single track listing * 2-track CD single # "ATB André Tanneberger (; born 26 February 1 ...

" were released as singles from the album. Ruth-Ann Boyle (from the band

Olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

) and

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 100 ...

mark their first appearances on the Enigma project. In 2001, Cretu released a new single called " Turn Around" together with '' Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits'' and '' Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection'' to end what he considers to be the first chapter of Enigma. A light show was held at the Munich Planetarium in conjunction with the release of the compilation albums. 2003's '' Voyageur'' saw a change of direction for the project, with most of the prominent Enigma signature elements (the ethnic and Gregorian chants, the Shakuhachi flutes) no longer employed. To commemorate the fifteen years of Enigma, a limited-edition album called

15 Years After ''15 Years After'' is a box set by the musical project Enigma (German band), Enigma. It was released by Virgin Germany on 9 December 2005. The box set contains eight discs, five of them original studio albums created from 1990 to 2003, two DVDs, ...

was launched, which was the size of an LP vinyl disk, with

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially re ...

's art in the cover, a big booklet with extra art, and featured eight compact discs: all the previous albums, the DVD ''Remember the Future'', and a special and exclusive bonus CD, ''The Dusted Variations'', which included Chill-out versions of several of the project's greatest hits. All of the songs are different from the originals and use minimal percussion. This disc also contained the single version of " Hello and Welcome", which was later released as a single. On 28 August 2005, Enigma's management Crocodile Music announced the release of "Hello and Welcome" as a single. It was released in Germany on 10 March 2006. On 26 September 2006, Enigma's sixth album ''

'' was released worldwide, containing a new version of "Hello and Welcome" and the new song "Goodbye,

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked ey ...

". A DVD version of ''A Posteriori'' was released on 16 December 2006, which featured

kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

images in synchronization with the multi-channel remastered music. ''A Posteriori'' received a Grammy nomination as Best New Age Album, its second in that category following 1996's '' Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!'' nomination. In late March 2007, a ''Private Lounge'' remix album version of ''A Posteriori'' was released on the iTunes Music Store. This compilation includes 12 new remixed tracks from the album by artists such as

Boca Junior Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, Tocadisco, and more. Some of these tracks were available previously on the original ''A Posteriori'' iTunes version of the album and the previously mentioned DVD release. On 19 September 2008, Enigma's seventh album '' Seven Lives Many Faces'' was released worldwide. The lead single, " Seven Lives", is a fusion of modern and classical elements. '' The Platinum Collection'', a 3-CD compilation, was released on 27 November 2009 in Germany, and on 9 February 2010 worldwide. The first CD contains Enigma hits. The second CD contains

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es. The third CD is a collection of "lost tracks", musical experiments which never were finalized and released previously.

2010s–present

On 5 October 2010, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first album ''

'', the "Enigma's Social Song" project began. Enigma fans were asked to submit vocals for a new Enigma song. The public was then asked to vote, with the winning submission "Fei mea" being provided by Latvian singer

Fox Lima Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

(real name Alise Ketnere) for the chorus. The top 3 runners up, Mark Joshua from Brazil, J. Spring from Spain, and Rasa Serra from Lithuania provided other important parts of the vocals like the bridge, backing, and verse of the final version of the single. Fans also influenced further stages of the song's creation by voting on elements such as a lead instrument, general mood, and style of the track. The final mix of the single named " MMX (The Social Song)" was released on 15 December 2010. It became the first song ever created for and by the fans via the internet. In August 2016, Enigma's eighth studio album ''

'' was announced for a release on 11 November 2016. It features guest musicians Brazilian singer-songwriter Mark Josher, Indonesian singer

Anggun Anggun Cipta Sasmi (; born 29 April 1974), better known as Anggun C. Sasmi or more often mononymously as Anggun, is an Indonesian-born French singer-songwriter and television personality. Born in Jakarta, she began performing at the age of sev ...

, female voice Nanuk, and English electro-pop duo Aquilo. Two singles from the album have been released, "

Sadeness (Part II) "Sadeness (Part I)" is a song by German musical project Enigma, released in 1990 as the debut single from their first album, '' MCMXC a.D.'' (1990). It became an international hit, reaching number one in 14 countries. In the United States, the son ...

" featuring Anggun, and "

Amen Amen ( he, אָמֵן, ; grc, ἀμήν, ; syc, ܐܡܝܢ, ; ar, آمين, ) is an Abrahamic declaration of affirmation which is first found in the Hebrew Bible, and subsequently found in the New Testament. It is used in Jewish, Christian, and ...

" featuring Aquilo. In May 2018, limited edition coloured vinyl editions of Enigma's entire catalogue were released in a new collection, ''The Colours of Enigma – The Vinyl Series''. The set features new artwork and remastered stereo mixes made from the original master tapes. Throughout 2019 and into 2020, three former vocalists for Enigma, Andru Donalds, Angel X, and Fox Lima, embarked on a world tour under the name Original Enigma Voices. This marks the first time Enigma's music has been performed live.

Awards

World Music Award The World Music Awards is an international award show founded in 1989 under the patronage of Albert II, Prince of Monaco and co-founder/executive producer John Martinotti. The event is based in Monte Carlo. Awards are presented to the world' ...

** Most Popular German Solo Artist, 2002 *

ECHO In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the li ...

**Most Successful German Production Abroad, 1991 **Best Marketing, 1992 **Best National Artist, 1992 **Most Successful German Production Abroad, 1995 **"Beyond the Invisible", 1997 *Over 100 platinum awards worldwide **7

platinum awards **2 RIAA gold awards **5 BPI platinum awards **2 BPI gold awards

Recording technologies

Cretu recorded the first five Enigma albums at A.R.T. Studios, a home recording studio located on the Spanish island of Ibiza. From 1988 until 2001, Cretu lived in

Santa Eulària des Riu Santa Eulària des Riu (, es, Santa Eulalia del Río) is a coastal town on the south eastern seaboard of the Spanish island of Ibiza. The town is located on the designated road PM 810."579 Regional Map, Spain, Islas Baleares." Pub:Michelin ...

followed by, from 2001 to 2008, a villa near Sant Antoni where the studio was redesigned and built by Gunter Wagner and Bernd Steber. ''

'' and '' Seven Lives Many Faces'' were recorded using an all-in-one mobile digital recording studio named Alchemist. In 2010, a reworked version of Alchemist was built and named Merlin. "MMX The Social Song" was the first Enigma release recorded with this model.

Sampling and lawsuits

In 1991, Cretu was sued by

-based choir Capella Antiqua and its record label

Germany for infringing its "right of personality" through distortion in the samples used in " Sadeness (Part I)" and "

Mea Culpa (Part II) "Mea Culpa (Part II)" is a song by German musical project Enigma. It was released in April 1991 as the second of four singles from their debut album, '' MCMXC a.D.'' (1990). Like their previous single "Sadeness (Part I)", it is sung in French and ...

". The samples were taken from Capella Antiqua's 1976 LP ''

Paschale Mysterium ''Paschale Mysterium'' is Latin for "The mystery of Easter". The words have been used as the title of albums of Gregorian chant for Easter. Sony An album entitled ''Paschale Mysterium'' was issued as a vinyl record in 1976; it was re-relea ...

''; while the musical compositions were in the public domain, Capella Antiqua's recording of them was

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

ed. European law also recognizes moral rights ('' droit moral'') in works. In 1998, Cretu was sued by Taiwanese musicians

Difang and Igay Duana Difang Duana (March 20, 1921 – March 29, 2002) and Igay Duana (August 9, 1922 – May 16, 2002), Chinese names Kuo Ying-nan (郭英男) and Kuo Hsiu-chu (郭秀珠), were Amis husband and wife farmers from Taiwan who became known as a folk mu ...

(also known as Kuo Ying-nan and Kuo Hsiu-chu), whose voices are used in "

", over the unauthorized usage of their song without credit. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money and all further releases of the song were credited (including royalties) to the Kuos. Cretu has stated that he had been led to believe that the recording was in the public domain and that he did not intentionally violate the Kuos' copyright.

Musical style

Enigma generally produces

and

songs. The musical project is very experimental, often combining elements from other genres like ambience, pop, or rock. Michael Cretu has said in an Q&A that he is " always looking for the unknown and I am trying to find new ways to express my ideas." He later said: Enigma's first album, ''

'', combines Gregorian chants and religious overtones with atmospheric synths, a hypnotic music-set, and a dance-like beat, along with elements of pop and ambience all accompanied by French-like whispers and somewhat erotic gasps, provided by Sandra. The Cross of Changes, Enigma's second album, replaces the Gregorian chants from the MCMXC a.D. and replaces them with ethnic and tribal chanting. The album is atmospheric and spiritual like MCMXC a.D., but is combined with more well-developed beats and lyrics about love and self-awareness.

Legacy

Enigma's international success with ''

'' was a precursor to the creation of several other musical projects that follow similar styles and marketing approaches, especially the use of the term "project" as opposed to the band to denominate themselves, and the label "enigmatic music", employed mainly by radios and listeners, to categorize their music inside the

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

umbrella.“''Some European Acts Being Marketed as ‘Brands’ Instead of Faces''”

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

. 29 August 1998. Retrieved 14 October 2016. Cretu has cited the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band Yes as an influence. Soon after working with Michael Cretu on the first Enigma album, German producer

left the project to focus on Gregorian, a band that performs mostly covers of modern pop and rock songs with Gregorian-like vocals and symphonic instruments. Likewise, French musical project

Era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Com ...

features Gregorian chants mixed with pop-rock arrangements and is also frequently compared in scope to Enigma. More electronic projects that often draw comparisons with Enigma are French act

Deep Forest Deep Forest is a French musical group originally consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance ...

, Canadian duo

Delerium Delerium is a Canadian new-age ambient electronic musical duo that formed in 1987, originally as a side project of the influential industrial music act Front Line Assembly. Throughout the band’s history, their musical style has encompassed ...

, Danish project

Achillea ''Achillea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, known colloquially as yarrows. The plants typically have frilly leaves. The common name "yarrow" usually refers to '' A. millefolium''. The genus was named after the G ...

(created by Enigma's co-producer and guest guitarist Jens Gad) and German project

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

Personnel

Current members *

– music, lyrics, vocals, production, arrangements, programming, engineering (1990–present) Former members and guest artists"Enigma Members on Google Books"
Retrieved on 25 August 2016. * David Fairstein – lyrics (1990–2000) *

(F.Gregorian) – samples, production, engineering, co-writer (1990-1991) * Sandra Cretu – vocals, voices (1990–2003) * Louisa Stanley – voices (1990–1996; 2006) *

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

– guitars (1993; 2000–2003), arrangements and co-writing (2000-2003) *

Peter Cornelius Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. Life He was born in Mainz to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors i ...

– guitars (1993–1996) * Andreas Harde (Andy Jonas / Angel X) – vocals (1993) * Todd Peleg – backing vocals (1993-1994) *

– vocals (1999–2008), co-writer (2008) * Ruth-Ann Boyle – vocals (1999–2003; 2008) * Elizabeth Houghton – voices (1999-2000) * Sebastian C. – vocals (2008) * Nikita C. – vocals (2008) * Margarita Roig – vocals, co-writer (2008) * Nanuk – voices (2008, 2016) * Alise Ketnere (Fox Lima) – vocals, co-writer (2010) * Jérôme Pringault (J. Spring) – vocals, co-writer (2010) * Mark Josher (Marcelo Amaral Pontello) – vocals, co-writer (2010, 2016) * Rasa Veretenceviene (Rasa Serra) – vocals, co-writer (2010) *

– vocals (2016) * Aquilo – vocals (2016) *

Michael Kunze Michael Rolf Kunze (born 9 November 1943, in Prague) is a foremost German musical theater lyricist and librettist. He is best known for the hit musicals ''Elisabeth'' (1992), ''Dance of the Vampires'' (1996), '' Mozart!'' (1999), ''Marie Antoin ...

– story, co-writer (2016)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:80 top:0 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1990 till:12/11/2016 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1990 Colors = id:Production value:yellow legend:Production id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:Lyrics value:claret legend:Lyrics id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:Back value:pink legend:Backing_vocals id:Samples value:lavender legend:Samples id:lines value:black legend:Studio_albums BarData = bar:Michael text:Michael Cretu bar:Sandra text:Sandra Cretu bar:David text:David Fairstein bar:Louisa text:Louisa Stanley bar:Frank text:Frank Peterson bar:Jens text:Jens Gad bar:Ruth-Ann text:Ruth-Ann Boyle bar:Andru text:Andru Donalds bar:Peter text:Peter Cornelius bar:Andreas text:Andreas Harde bar:Todd text:Todd Peleg bar:Elizabeth text:Elizabeth Houghton PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Michael from:start till:end color:vocals bar:Michael from:start till:end color:yellow width:3 bar:Sandra from:start till:30/09/2003 color:vocals bar:David from:start till:01/01/1997 color:lyrics bar:Louisa from:start till:20/11/1996 color:vocals bar:Louisa from:01/01/2005 till:30/09/2006 color:vocals bar:Frank from:start till:01/01/1991 color:samples bar:Peter from:01/01/1993 till:20/11/1996 color:guitar bar:Jens from:01/01/1993 till:22/09/2003 color:guitar bar:Andreas from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 color:vocals bar:Todd from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1994 color:back bar:Elizabeth from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2001 color:vocals bar:Ruth-Ann from:14/01/2000 till:22/09/2003 color:vocals bar:Andru from:14/01/2000 till:19/09/2008 color:vocals LineData = at:10/12/1990 color:black layer:back at:06/12/1993 color:black layer:back at:20/11/1996 color:black layer:back at:14/01/2000 color:black layer:back at:30/09/2003 color:black layer:back at:22/09/2006 color:black layer:back at:19/09/2008 color:black layer:back at:11/11/2016 color:black layer:back

Discography

Studio albums * ''

'' (1990) * '' The Cross of Changes'' (1993) * '' Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!'' (1996) * '' The Screen Behind the Mirror'' (2000) * '' Voyageur'' (2003) * ''

'' (2006) * '' Seven Lives Many Faces'' (2008) * ''

'' (2016)

References

Sources

Allmusic biography and discography AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the datab ...

* Billboard.com, biography, discography and US chart historybr>rateyourmusic.com, biography and discographyDiscogs.com Biography and discographyOfficial Charts Company, UK chart historyChartssurfer.de, German chart history

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Enigma (Musical Project) 1990 establishments in Germany Musical groups established in 1990 New-age music groups Worldbeat groups Virgin Records artists Charisma Records artists Ambient music groups German electronic musicians German house musicians German techno musicians German trance musicians German world music groups Downtempo musicians