Michael Cretu
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Michael Cretu, also known as Curly M.C. (born May 18, 1957) is a Romanian musician best known as the creator of the Enigma project.
He has worked with many producers, musicians, and artists in his long career. These include: Frank Farian, Boney M, Goombay Dance Band, Peter Cornelius, Manfred "Tissy" Thiers, Jens Gad, Frank Peterson, Sandra Lauer, ATB, Jam & Spoon, Ruth-Ann Boyle and Andru Donalds.
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Background
Cretu studied classical music at Lyseum No 2 in Bucharest in 1965 and in Paris, France in 1968. He later attended the Academy of Music in Frankfurt, Germany from 1975 to 1978, attaining a degree in music. Cretu was taken on as a keyboard player and producer for Frank Farian, the German mastermind behind successful acts of the 1970s and 1980s such as Boney M and Milli Vanilli.
Cretu met his future wife Sandra Lauer when he was playing keyboards on the Arabesque live touring show. He married Sandra on January 7, 1988. They have twins named Nikita and Sebastian who were born in 1996.
He owned the A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, before moving to a new mansion in the Ibiza hills. His new house in Ibiza features a brand new, state-of-the-art recording studio, from which he hopes to release more albums in the future.
In 1998, Michael Cretu once again teamed up with Jens Gad (they previously worked together on Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!) and created the album The Energy of Sound under the name Trance Atlantic Airwaves.
Michael as a solo artist
Michael's first solo release was the single Wild River, in 1978. His first solo album was released in 1979 and was entitled Ausgewählte Goldstücke as a German release, and Moon, Light & Flowers as an English release.
Michael's second solo album, titled Legionäre, was released in 1983. This album had German lyrics and was sung by Michael. It was co-produced and supervised by Harald Steinhauer and mastered by Armand Volker.
Michael's third solo album was entitled Die Chinesische Mauer, and was released in 1985. The literal English translation of the title is "The Chinese Wall", or as it is better known, "The Great Wall of China". Like his previous album, this had German lyrics, was sung by Michael, and was co-produced by Armand Volker. This album was also released as a separate album with English lyrics and a different track listing under the name "The Invisible Man". Several of the tracks on "The Invisible Man" were edited slightly, and, therefore last for a different length than the German versions on Die Chinesische Mauer.
The Enigma project
Main article: Enigma (musical project)
After Cretu's marriage to Sandra in 1988, he had an idea for a 10-year musical project under the name of "Enigma". Cretu worked with Frank Peterson and David Fairstein to create their ground-breaking first album, MCMXC a.D., which was released in 1990. The album was huge hit, albeit hitting a few snags with people critical of the overtones in it.
MCMXC a.D. stayed on the charts for 282 weeks on the Billboard charts and dropped off even before their second album, The Cross of Changes was released in 1993. Prior to this, Frank Peterson had some disagreements with Cretu and he left the project in 1991. Cretu changed Enigma's direction from Gregorian chants to tribal chants for the second album, and this led to "Return to Innocence" being the worldwide hit.
Cretu was approached by Paramount Pictures to write the soundtrack for the movie Sliver and he came up with another 1993 single, Carly's Song, the title of the track based on the character of the leading actress in the movie.
In 1996, Enigma's third album, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! was released. It was a combination of the first and second album and despite its improvements, it failed to achieve the same level of success of the first two albums.
For the fourth album, Cretu steered the project into another direction by using samples of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" for The Screen Behind the Mirror. Andru Donalds and Ruth-Ann Boyle first appeared on this album. Although Jens Gad had been working with Cretu in the earlier albums, this was the first time that he had been credited on the album.
Deciding that the first chapter for Enigma was closed, Cretu released two sets of compilation albums — Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits and Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection.
Album discography
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Solo career
Collaborations
Michael Cretu worked as a writer, perfomer, or producer on these albums:
- 1985 – Moti Special: Motivation
- 1988 – Cretu and Thiers: Belle Epoque
- 1992 – Cornelius and Cretu: Cornelius and Cretu
- 1998 – Trance Atlantic Air Waves: The Energy of Sound
Enigma
- 1990 – MCMXC a.D. (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 1993 – The Cross of Changes (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 1996 – Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 1998 – Trilogy (3xCD) (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 2000 – The Screen Behind the Mirror (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 2001 – Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 2001 – Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection (Virgin Schallplatten GmbH)
- 2003 – Voyageur (Virgin Records)
See Also
- Sandra (group)
- Sandra Cretu
- Enigma