Enigma Social Song Project – in retrospect
Secrecy was for many years one of the trademarks of Michael Cretu’s Enigma. Michael gave few interviews, and little was known about the creative process behind each new Enigma album. Only a few photos of the studio was shown. But all this changed with the Social Song Project, which was created to celebrate the band’s 20 years anniversary. Fans got to upload vocals, song elements and vote for their favorite song version. The result was the song MMX The Social Song.
And it didn’t stop there. Fans also were given the chance to make their own video to the song. Michale Cretu has now chosen the entry from Steadycamline as the winner. Below you can see the impressive video . The creator tells a truly “social” story he is describing as follows: “The music is represented by a female character that sends out a beam of light to people all over the world infecting their hearts and souls with the “Social Song” idea.”
There has been a survey about the Enigma Social Song Project. See it here
One of the questions was:
The Story behind Sadness Part I video
It is always exciting when new information is available about how true classics in the world art was made. So is also the case in new age music. In connection with Enigma’s 20 year anniversary, Enigmamusic.com sheds new light on the making of the Sadness Part I video – which perhaps is the most famous of all the great Enigma music videos.
French Director & Producer Michel Guimbard was kind enough to share some production details with us. He says: ”I made Sadeness video clip in 1991. The girl I found for the video was very young (17 years old, way back in then) Her name is Cathy Tastet. (Also known as Kati Tastet, born in Toulouse France on January 01, 1973) After the video, she became an Elite Model in the USA. Director of Photography of the film was Jérôme Robert. I wrote the story of the film. Shooting Ratio of the music video of Sadeness was 1.33 (4:3) “”The gate in the video was inspired by Auguste Rodin’s ”La Porte de l’Enfer” (The Gates of Hell).
Read the whole article here. And below you can enjoy the classical Enigma video.
Become Enigma’s next video director!
In the end of December the result of the Enigma Social song project, called MMX (The Social Song), was completed. Here Enigma fans showed their talent in singing, designing covers, and creating a song together, but one thing has so far been missing; the music video.
One of Enigma´s trademarks for 20 years has been the amazing music videos. And this is what Michael Cretu and the Enigma management now want help with: They encourage everyone to submit their music videos made for the “Social Song”.
The submission deadline will be February 11, 2010 at 4pm GMT+1. After closing date Michael will select his Top10 videos, which then you can select your favorite from. The winner of the overall voting will be announced on February 28, 2010. For more details on the procedure and requirements, click here.
Below are the two first videos that have been submitted. I must say I´m impressed with the quality so far.
The Enigma Social Song Completed
The result of the three month long Enigma Social Song Project is now ready. The song is a collaboration between Michael Cretu of Enigma and loyal fans online. The song is called MMX The Social Song.
In 3 steps users online participated in the creation of the song. They sent in original vocal tracks, decided on musical styles, created covers, voted and commented. Along the process mastermind Michael Cretu allowed people to look behind the curtain recording several video messages from his studio.
“The Social Song idea started as an experiment and it turned out to become a great and successful journey, which brought so many Enigma fans and music lovers together. There hasn’t been anything comparable in the music industry – namely being so social to the core. I really enjoyed this experience,” Cretu says according to EnigmaSocialSong.com.
“This was just the beginning…” Michael sums up, “there will be more collaboration projects coming in the near future.” Updates will be published on Enigma’s official website www.EnigmaSpace.com and on different social networks channels.
We here at .nu are amazed of the result. The song is catchy, fresh & modern sounding, and most importantly, very enigmatic. Excellent work, everybody! We must also thank Michael for doing this. It is truly a one-of-a-kind project, and a nice Christmas present to all his fans.
The song will be available as a digital download through major music outlets soon, but if you want it now you can get it by telling your friends about the project through Facebook and Twitter. Read more about this here.
Here you can listen to the final song.
MMX (The Social Song) by EnigmaSpace
And here are Michael’s final words:
The above cover artwork was created by Lars Doerwald.
Michael Cretu explaining studio processes
The Enigma Social Song Project has been like a dream come true for many fans. Over the last 20 years Michael Cretu has hold a very low profile and given few interviews and even fewer glimpses into his creative process. We have only seen some pictures of his studios and some vague description of the equipment used. In short; he has been quite enigmatic. But this has all changed with the Enigma Social Song project.
The last video posted is just incredible. The chance to stand and watch Michael over the shoulder while he is working, and hear he explaining the different segments of the song, is almost unbelievable. So Enigma fan, sit back and enjoy this presentation by the Man himself. The title of the song is MMX (The Social Song).
Also make sure to take a look at all the wonderful covers Enigma fans has produced for the upcoming single.
Michael Cretu’s comments to the social song
Here are Michael Cretu/Enigma’s latest comments on the the social song project.
Stage II of Enigma Social Song completed
The fans have spoken; now they have chosen the winning song style in the Enigma Social Song Project. They had three styles to choose from; chill out, energetic and ballad style – and chill out won with 48 % of the votes.
Michael Cretu will soon post a video with his comments, but in the meantime why not listen to the chill out version with Fox Lima’s vocal.
Demo I – Enigma Social Song by EnigmaSpace
I think the result so far is amazing, and it will be very interesting to listen to the final song. Stay tuned!
Stage II of the Enigma Social Song
The Enigma Social Song project is getting more and more interesting for each day!
Michael Cretu has now created three different musical versions of a song based on vocals submitted by fans (Fox Lima won).
Below you can hear the three versions, and here you can give your vote.
But don’t wait too long; the voting stops at November 23rd!
The Enigma Social Song – So Far
The first stage of the Enigma Social Song project is now officially over and Michael Cretu, the mastermind behind Enigma, has started working on the song. It is a collaboration between the band and loyal Enigma fans, who can conribute with song elements. Fox Lima’s vocal was recently selected to be in the song.
Here is Michael’s presentation of how he is working with the vocal and start adding drums and synth pads.
This weekend Michael will finish three versions of the musical track, and Stage two – the selection of melody - will start 16th November.
Interview with the Enigma Social Song Winner
On the Enigma Social Song project homepage an interview with the vocal winner, Alise Ketnere, has been posted.
Enigma: What prompt you to take part in Enigma’s “Social Song”?
Alise Ketnere: I suppose that it was written in the stars, that I accidentaly noticed your competition. Actually I was praying for something interesting in my life. And it happened. But I didn’t expect that I could win.
Read the complete interview here.
Enigma Social Song Winner Announced
Michael Cretu and Enigma fans have selected the vocal track Fei mea of the Latvian singer Fox Lima to be the winner of the Enigma Social Song Contest. Here the creative genius of Enigma has invited the singers of the world to contribute with a vocal – and he will later do some magic with the winner in his studio – named Merlin. This has truly been a one-of-a-kind thing for us Enigma fans – and a statement of Michael’s 20+ year long dedication to the project and his millions of fans. And WOW, what a winner!
Below is Michael announcing the final result:
And, without further ado, here is the MAGNIFICENT winner!!!
Amongst hundreds of submissions Fox Lima got most of the user’s votes closely followed by Set U Free from Mark Joshua (Brazil), Time Machine from J. Spring (Spain) and Oi giria giria from Rasa Serra (Lithuania).
Go to EnigmaSocialSong.com for more information – and we here at .nu feel confident that the result will be MAGICAL. Thank you, Michael, for starting this.
The Enigma Social Song project
In celebration of Enigma’s 20 year anniversary, the man behind it all – Michael Cretu – is inviting his loyal fans to participate in the creation of a song. A webpage has been set up for this purpose called EnigmaSocialSong.com.
On the page you can hear how Michael goes from having a bit of vocal to creating a enigmatic song segment. The result is truly beautiful. This is a very rare insight into the creative mind behind Enigma – and a statement that Michael is very dedicated to his fans.
Introduction:
The EnigmaSocialSong.com project has been online for quite some time – and about 60 vocal submissions are so far available on Youtube. It will be exciting to hear what Mikael can make of them.
Song update:
A Cultural and Spiritual Mix
One of the things I find most interesting with the new age music genre is how different cultural and spiritual expressions can be mixed, creating an almost larger-than-life result. It can take you to the beginning of time (example from Amazon), through history of great myths (example), into modernity (example) and long into the future (example) too.
This is perhaps also why so many people doesn’t like new age music; by communicating such raw and deep emotions, it strangely enough sometimes comes trough as bland and uninspired. An example here is of course Enigma’s mix of Gregorian chants and club music, or Deep Forest’s mix of ethnical samples and deep synth pads. Or, to go even further back, how Mike Oldfield was inspired by English folk music and brought this into the prog rock scene of the ’70s with Tubular Bells.
It was, well, just too much for many ears.
Still I find it fascinating that you can actually mix very different cultural expressions and create a result that is highlighting not the culture itself, but the overall communicated feeling. An example here is the greatness of pyramids and the history of Egypt. Or the crusades and medieval Christianity. Or the history of a great country – like India – and its culture. All this in a flash.
It is the cultural and spiritual mix that is new age music.
Don’t you believe me? It is true, just sample this video of Enigma’s Rivers of Belief (1990):
This is taking the mix to its very limits; it is without a doubt a mishmash of elements, of great and important things that are not related. The quote from the Revelations: “And the lamb opened the seventh seal, and silence covered the sky” – and the devil part too – is perhaps taking it a bit too far. Enigma has never gone down this road again. But I still find it to be a very interesting mix of cultural and spiritual symbols, both in the music itself and the video.
Bottomline; it is all about emotions and how these are communicated through music. This is strangely enough both a strength and weakness for our genre; Strength since it is giving the listener a feeling that she cannot avoid being affected by - and a weakness, since it easily becomes too much, too heavy, like trying to eat a plate full of fudge. And when using strong symbols people start to think and ask questions:
Who said that this was easy listening? Not me 
Picture copyright BigStockPhoto – MaX81r
Cretu and the Samurai
When looking at the Enigma discography it is easy to overlook Michael Cretu’s solo works. Even though his early LPs are mostly labeled as pop, there is plenty here for the Enigma fan – or any new age music fan for that matter – to enjoy.
Michael Cretu (born 1957) debuted as an artist in 1979 with the album Moon, Lights and Flowers after having received education in classical music – but deciding that synth music was his “thing”. His second album came in 1983, called Legionare. Here mostly German music fans got to hear Michael’s impressive keyboard and composition skills. Singing was never his strongest card, but he was a decent singer in the 80s and the early Enigma period.
His third album is called The Invisible Man (1985), which I will review in this article. I find this to be a very elegant album, with beautiful and heartfelt synth melodies, some with that emotional depth that made Enigma into such a winner 5 years later – in 1990.
The Invisible Man album is the very first sign of what eventually would become Enigma.
BT Fasmer
Note that there is also a German version available of this album – which is ready for playback in many music on demand services. This version is called Die Chinesische Mauer, and has German lyrics and a different track listing. But it is basically the same album.
The English version starts with the international hit Samurai. Cretu’s synth work and singing are here at their very best. The lyrics are perhaps a bit too enigmatic, yes, but the opening song has that rare groove that also made Sandra’s Maria Magdalena – produced by Cretu – into such a winner in the same period. It is simply a great pop song with an unusual and dramatic backdrop. This is not “baby, I love you” pop – just the way we Enigma fans like it.
With that tour-de-force of a first song out of the way, the album moves on with the song Carte Blanche. This is a slower, more thoughtful piece, a perfectly composed synth melody. Talking of synths; it must be said that the album sounds somewhat dated, but that will not stop a new age music fan. Never.
Silver Water is a refreshing song. Even though Michael’s singing is very loud, almost to the point of screaming at some parts, the song as a total is very well balanced.
Another truly beautiful song is track four, Your favorite toy. Here the lyrics are just as important as the music, telling the sad story of a toy. The German title is, translated, Tin soldier.
The album is in many ways divided into three. I have commented the first part above. The second part is the three songs Intro, Mikado and Coda. And this is the very first signs of what eventually would become Enigma. These tracks have deep synth pads, a heart-like rhythm and strong melodic elements; the very fingerprint of Cretu’s later masterworks. My only objection to this part of the album is that it is too short; it is only about five minutes long. These three tracks are, by the way, the intro to the German album.
The song Heavy Traffic is as relevant today as back in 1985; “Heavy traffic / Never ending / Spitting poison in the air / Metal river, who’s pretending / you’ll never get me there”.
The album ends with the title song. The Invisible Man is a track with a magnificent trumpet solo and a very satisfying build-up. It reminds of later Enigma masterworks such as Out of the Deep and Return to Innocence.
The Invisible Man album is only 33 minutes long, originally meant for LP and cassette formats, but it is a short album not to be missed. And note that this is not only for fans of 80s synth music – but for all fans of great pop/new age. The Invisible Man is an early example of the genius that in time would sell many million albums – and get just as many fans.
The album is available everywhere, from iTunes to your local CD store.
Enigma’s New Studio
Michael Cretu of Enigma has always made sure to use the latest studio technology available. In this way he has been able to produce new and fresh sounds, and each album is closely connected to the technology used.
The legendary Ibiza studio where the three first Enigma albums were created was called the Euphonix consol studio – or simply A.R.T. (you can see pictures of it here). On the latest albums Michael has used less hardware and more software synths, resulting in the Alchemist studio (see a comprehensive presentation of it here).
Now Michael Cretu has built a new and more compact studio which is called MERLIN (picture to the right). According to Enigmaspace.com:
“Merlin is not only a mobile studio, it fits perfectly to the way I am usually working. It can be seen at the intersection between playing, recording and mixing.” Michael Cretu says.
Similar to the Alchemist, Merlin combines the four key parameters of recording in one box: a computed recording environment, a modular hardware concept, a control surface and a surround monitoring system.
In the very center of the studio is an Apple Mac Pro 8-core with an 30” Cinema display – and of course the Logic Studio software. If you are interested in all the technical details, see here.
I think that all of this is fascinating – to a certain point. As a Michael Cretu fan of almost 20 years I’m glad that Michael is doing what he does best, with the tools he needs to create magical sounds. But I know for sure that he would create magic with almost any synth – for instance his old friends, Roland JD-800 or Korg DSS-1. But new is always better, right? .
Bottomline; We now know how the studio looks like; the wait for the new Enigma album can begin.
Also see Enigmamusic.com . Picture copyright Enigmaspace.com.
Enigma Wallpaper contest
Going along with Enigma‘s 20th anniversary after the first “MCMXC a.D.”
release in 1990, official homepage EnigmaSpace wants to celebrate this special year with its fans worldwide.To kick off the “Enigma Year” they invite everyone to send in their wallpaper creations themed “Enigma’s 20th Anniversary”.
EnigmaSpace is looking for creative, high quality and extraordinary work. A jury of Enigma’s management and Michael Cretu himself will choose the Top10 creations and feature them exclusively within the Fanlibrary section on www.EnigmaSpace.com. The Top3 will win a signed copy of the current “Platinum Collection” release, a compilation of Enigma’s most famous singles, remixes and unreleased tracks.
Enigma on NYC Time Square
American fans of Enigma must mark the date February 9 on their calendar; this is when Platinum Collection finally will be released in the US. This upcoming event was very visible on NYC Time Square lately, where large commercials told about the February 9 release. It is nice to see that the label is doing an effort for Enigma in a time where their sales are falling.
It is of course a shame that Platinum Collection didn’t get an international release at the same date. European Enigma fans have been enjoying the album since November last year…
The picture is borrowed from the great Enigmamusic Forums. You can sample the album here.
For our German speaking friends – this commercial is currently on Channel 24. The presentation is, well, a bit cheesy.
Michael Cretu Helps Haiti
The devastating earthquake on Haiti has made people all over the world collect money and do what they can to help in this desperate situation. Also new age music superstar Michael Cretu of Enigma is reaching out a helping hand to the people of Haiti. In cooperation with EMI Germany and the German division of Red Cross, he is doing what he can to create awareness of the earthquake – see the video below.
Our translation from German:
Many of you have in the recent days seen the horrific pictures from Haiti. Over 100.000 have died in this tragedy, over 100.000 have become homeless. Diseases are spreading, and there is no medical help available. This nation is now totally dependent on foreign help. I urge you all to give a donation to Haiti via the provided bank account number. Please give, and tell your friends to do the same. Even a small donation will make a big difference.
Source: The Enigma Forum
The New Enigmaspace.com
In connection with the release Enigma’s ”Best of” and ”Lost Tracks” Album, the group’s official English homepage has received a major facelift and many new features have been added (the official homepage, Enigma.de, has received the same treatment). The most important features are perhaps the media players, which naturally are filled with music and videos from Enigma’s 20 year long history. The selection of music is actually very generous, so here the fan will find both new and old favorites.
Another new feature on Enigmaspace.com is the social aspect. Over the last year, official Enigma pages have been made on MySpace, Youtube and Bebo. On Enigmaspace.com you are also welcome to leave comments, and you can download exclusive graphics made by the designers who have created “the Enigma look” on the band’s covers and videos.
But most interesting is without a doubt the exclusive view into Michael Cretu’s ALCHEMIST studio, or the All In One Computed Mobile Studio. You can read all about it here, and see pictures too!
Enigma: The Platinum Collection
Enigma: The Platinum Collection is now released in Europe. It is a three disc “Best of” collection, with one disc with hits, one with favorite remixes and one with so called “Lost tracks” – or demo tapes if you will. American Enigma fans sadly have to wait until January 26, 2010. Such a delay should really be a thing of the past, but hey, that’s still the nature of major label music…
Both the selection of hits and remixes are, needless to say, great. There are some true classics among the remixes, like Sadness Part I – Violent US Mix – which truly takes the original song’s Gregorian chants samples to a new dimension. Another favorite of mine is the last one, Dreaming of Andromeda – Jean F. Cochois Remix. There are interestingly enough no Seven Lives remixes on this disc (even though there was a very good remix competition recently – but it must be said that the “Lost track” 10 is a Je T’aime Till My Dying Day remix).
So what is there to say about The lost tracks? As a Michael Cretu fan for over 20 years – and a fan of all his most recent material too – I was surprised to learn that he, the perfectionist, was to release a demo collection. It is very much out of character. But, when listening to it, I think that it gives a nice view into his studio, showing the master at work.
The lost tracks is a collection of selected demos that probably were created for Seven Lives – but didn’t make the cut. The disc does not have an overall sound design (with an intro and ending), like his “normal” albums. The songs does not have names, only numbers. I especially like track 2, which has that enigmatic melancholy that we know so well from the past. Track nine also has a nice feel. Track four could have been included in a “normal” Enigma album, it is that good.
The lost tracks would have been a much better release if there was older “lost tracks” too – like demos from the first three-four Enigma albums. This one is very close to the “synth VST” sound. But it is not like it is meant as a complete album.
It is what it is; a collection of songs that was left over when Seven Lives was mixed. Not a top Enigma release, true, but still a welcome gift to any Enigma fan since the first disc is a superb “best of” collection.
Sample it on Amazon.de.
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