Enigma

[nicola]

I first came across Enigma when they released a song called 'Gravity of Love'. The song was a bit late in the day (9 years after they formed in fact). Anyhow, I went about bought the album in question immediately. Yesterday I got their box set with eight cds (it only costs £20 on amazon!) I must say I am really enjoying it along with their old material.

Has anyone seen their music videos? I watched the DVD that came with it and their videos are extremely strange (they all seem abstract some way). My favourite video is 'Beyond the Invisible' featuring some Ice Skaters. Then there was their video for 'Principles of Lust' which was released early 90's. Surely it was banned?!

What does everyone else think of this group? It seems they created a whole new era of electronica/meditation music.

[Joe]

Hi Nic,

I really like Enigma also. The song 'Gravity of Love' includes a portion of 'Carmina Burana' (my first hearing of Orff's work). Enigma's first cd 'MCMXC' was my fav. in high school. I liked the Latin lyrics of some of the songs.

Enigma has a nice DVD video compliation released about five years ago called "Remember the Future". Yeah, that 'Principles of Lust' video was banned at some point. The video for 'Beyond the Invisible' is wonderful. I LOVE the ice skating pond in the middle of the woods. So much imagery as well. I don't fancy their 5th CD...'Voyageur' I think is the title.

I'm quite sure Amazon still have this DVD video collection for sale. It's got 11 videos and is outstanding.

Edit...it's available on amazon.co.uk, Nicola. Here's the link.

[nicola]

Thanks for the link Joe, but the box set that I purchased included the DVD. It was really good value. It had all five all their albums, a dvd (titled Remember the Future) and cd of remixes of their singles (not so good actually) and a bonus edition of their debut album. All for £20

I think five songs from their album 'The Screen Behind the Mirror' includes snippets from 'O Fortuna'. I adore that song. Another group quite similar to Enigma has done the same thing. They are called 'Era'. I came across them about 5 years ago and have all their albums. They released a CD recently called 'The Mass' which includes 'O Fortuna'. They mix it with their own song called 'Divano' from their second album. You should really check it out. Their CD 'Era 2' is the best one, though it's quite difficult to get hold of.

Voyaguer was quite different to what we were used to However, I did like 'Total Eclipse of the Moon' and 'Following the Sun'. I do like their 'songs' (as in verse, chorus, verse etc). They never disappoint.

My favourite of their cds would have to be a flip between 'Screen Behind the Mirror' (my first CD of theirs) and 'Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!' (that one's a mouthful!) I think Lei Roi Est Mort was the first album of theirs to be kind of different from the others, the kind of first step towards the likes of SBTM and Voyageur.

[nicola]

So, Enigma released their new album today. Naturally I pre-ordered it and it came through the door this morning.

What a disappointment. There is not one track on it I like. I think it's time Michael Cretu gave up before he makes a complete fool of himself. It all sounds the same. I know the songs are supposed to meld together but when I can't tell which is which there is something wrong. He uses the same drum loop all the way through and slightly changes synthesizers for each song. Bored. From beginning to end. I was expecting something good. I was thinking... it can't possibly be worse than 'Voyageur' (which apart from two tracks, was very poor).

I understand this album to be the last in their contract. I have a feeling he may just not renew it. He seems to have lost his enthusiasm for this project. And why not, I'm sure he has enough money for five life times (inflation included).

[Joe]

Hi Nic

Thanks for the news about a new Enigma CD, entitled 'A Posteriori'. The title means "derived from experience" but six albums and fifteen years of music won't make me buy this one.
The constant beat is more dance than trance

Cheers,
Joe