ENIGMA is Evolution
»The past only matters in that we can learn from it.«

In mathematical terms, ENIGMA came of age in 2008: Michael Cretu is set to release »Seven Lives Many Faces«, the seventh album in his music project, almost 18 years to the day since the arrival of the project’s spectacular debut »Sadeness Part I« in autumn 1990. For all those interested in statistics: ENIGMA have collected top marks en masse – 40 million records sold, 50 no. 1 chart positions, around 100 platinum awards, and a presence on more than 1000 compilations so require no further superlatives: »I’m a musician, no statistician.« Michael Cretu is loathed to comment on his bestseller records. »The only explanation that I have is: I do what I feel – I respond to what moves me and I’m always at my best when the odds are against me. As soon as I try to adapt, it doesn’t work.« And so the latest ENIGMA expedition has turned into an omni cultural trip, which lasts 47 minutes and 35 seconds, but goes on resonating much longer. The 12 chapters of Cretu’s seventh musical puzzle go well beyond the scope of the familiar sound range, expanding their audience’s aural horizon, living up to the high standard of adding another shade to the united colours of music and building a new foundation for the architecture that the musical status quo is based on. »In its voluminous way, this is a very direct and transparent album. It transports power, like a mental vitamin pill« ...........