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Michael Cretu is a singer, songwriter, and producer. Born on May 18th, 1957, in Bucharest he is ENIGMA - the man who created the secretive project, releasing the first album in late 1990. He has also worked with or for Sandra, Andy Hard ("Angel"), Cretu and Thiers, Moti Special, Mike Oldfield, Peter Cornelius, and Hubert KaH, as well as doing his own solo albums.In 1965, Cretu’s music career began when he entered "Lyzeum No. 2" in Bucharest, a college for young and gifted musicians. His main instrument was piano (which he started playing from the age of five and a half). In 1968, he went on to Paris to study for 5 months, and in 1975, at the age of 18, he left Romania and moved to Bad Homburg where he was successfully admitted to the Academy of Music in Frankfurt. Graduating in 1978 with distinctions, Cretu started working as a studio musician and arranging songs. Releasing his first album, Moon, Light, And Flowers on the Polygram label in 1979, Cretu’s other work paid off with him getting his first award in 1980, this one being gold for his work as a producer.In 1983 Cretu released Legionare through Virgin Records and by 1985 had achieved top chart positions as writer, producer, and keyboarder of Moti Special. He produced Sandra’s first international 1 hit single Maria Magdalena and released another solo album called Die Chinesische Mauer (The Chinese Wall). Soon after followed The Invisible Man which was the same album Die Chinesische Mauer (The Chinese Wall) but with English lyrics. From 1985 onwards he mostly worked as a producer, working with Moti Special, Tissy Theirs, Cretu and Thiers, and in 1987 with Sylvie Vatan. During his time with Sylvie Vatan in Paris he was introduced to Mike Oldfield whom he helped with on his album Islands. It is believed that Oldfield encouraged Michael to start focusing less on producing and more on writing music.February 7th, 1988, we saw Michael Cretu married with Sandra Lauer, with them both settling on the island of Ibiza in Island shortly after. They still live here today and own 2 properties there - an old farm house which is both their residence and studio (A.R.T. Studios), and a renovated house in the centre of Ibiza Town which is a historical monument from the 18th century. It is in the basement of this house that Cretu has established a restaurant, and Cretu is known to often invite musicians to dine there. Cretu is clearly very happy where he lives for as he stated in an interview in Music Mag in January 1994: "I leave Ibiza only for taxes and for the new video".December 1990 saw the release of Cretu’s most popular album to date, MCMXC a.D. under the alias of ENIGMA. From this came the extremely popular single, Sadeness Part I in 1990, followed by Mea Culpa Part II, Principles Of Lust, and The Rivers Of Belief in 1991. Two years later came his first soundtrack work (for the movie Sliver) and his much anticipated follow up ENIGMA album, The CROSS Of Changes which had 1.4 million advance orders! From this album came the top charting single Return To Innocence, as well as The Eyes Of Truth, Age Of Loneliness, and Out From The Deep. Another two years on comes the release of Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! which translates to "The King Is Dead, Long Live The King!". Only the singles Beyond The Invisible and T.N.T. For The Brain have been released from this album thus far.Enigma records must sell here in the States. In Europe, where virtually anything goes, they do; but here, one has to wonder after five albums that are only subtly different from one another, along with countless singles and 12" remixes, what’s left to engage the imagination. Such is the case with A Posteriori, which in Italian means anything from "what comes after" to "behind." Dedicated to "all visionaries of human race" (sic), A Posteriori is once again beautiful in its sonics, textures, and grooves. Michael Crétu does almost everything here save for a couple of recitations. Once more, the songs of Enlightenment composers such as Gesualdo and Monteverdi are sampled in the tranced-out mix. Are they prayers? Are they amorous songs? Unless you can understand Latin or Italian, there’s no way of knowing. But Crétu has always been able to weave together the spiritual and the carnal, and it’s his trademark. The more obvious trance and house beats are a near constant. One has to believe that if the folks in Tangerine Dream would have started in the 1990s instead of the 1960s, they’d sound something like this, as many of Crétu’s pulsing textures are reminiscent of Tangerine Dream’s Stratosfear and Tangram years. While the sound Crétu employs is now familiar, perhaps listeners should be thankful for it. He’s managed to find something that works, and goes for it with gusto. Perhaps nothing on this set is as striking as "Remembrance," but then who would ever want to hear that cut again? "Feel Me Heaven" is a wild, pulsing, throbbing trance cut that blends everything listeners know of Crétu’s previous music into a lovely whole. It is followed by "Dreaming of Andromeda," a slower though no less hypnotic slice of chilled house. Some things here seem just plain dumb -- "Dancing with Mephisto" and "Sitting on the Moon" feel more like new age cuts than anything else. Crétu’s vocal on the latter sounds like Robbie Robertson’s from his solo albums. The glissando guitar that opens the completely dancefloor-driven "Invisible Love" works well, but Crétu’s vocals are irritating. The shifting dynamics in "The Alchemist" make it one of the most compelling cuts on the disc, and it is a perfect candidate for an extended remix by some wise and imaginative soul. The bottom line: if you like the Enigma sound, this will be up your alley, full of the things you may seek out in a recording, but there is little new here. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide.
