NEW ALBUM OUT
Legendary multiplatinum Award-winning German music project Enigma returns with its long-awaited eighth full-length album, The Fall Of A Rebel Angel, available in stores and at digital retailers.
The album is available in four different configurations:
Standard
jewel case, 28p booklet including 12 paintings
Limited Deluxe
2CD including narrated story, digipack, 40p extended
booklet
Limited Super Deluxe
Deluxe version, signed picture frame,
exclusive online content
LP Vinyl
gatefold, 16p booklet including
12 paintings
Driven by founder, composer, and producer Michael Cretu, The Fall Of A Rebel Angel weaves together twelve conceptual tracks, known as “Chapters,” into one cohesive and compelling story. The music paints a picture of a protagonist’s progression, growth, and ultimate evolution. Gradual change, with sometimes psychedelic undertones, leads him to new horizons. Grammy and Echo-award-winning writer, Michael Kunze, has created the story in words to accompany the music – which will be featured in its entirety on the album’s multi-lingual Special Edition. Wolfang Beltracchi, one of the greatest and most controversial painters of our times, has crafted the album’s artwork in addition to 12 original paintings, each to accompany the 12 album “Chapters”. Created with the Enigma spirit in mind, the record confidently stands at the intersection of classical influences, dubstep, chant, intriguing vocals, and whirling, wild emotions.
Since releasing its groundbreaking 1990 debut, MCMXC a.D., with the
hit-single Sadeness (Part I) Enigma have become one of electronic music’s most influential entities. Its
success continued with the massive single Return to Innocence of its 1993 album, The Cross of Changes. Over
the course of seven releases, Enigma has sold a total of 70 million-plus copies, scored 60 number ones
worldwide, and achieved more than 100 platinum certifications around the globe.
Now, Michael Cretu
re-connects with the bold, pioneering musical sound-world and returns with his finest hour yet, The Fall Of
A Rebel Angel.
SINGLE RELEASE
With the global release of Enigma’s eighth journey, The Fall Of A Rebel Angel, the hypnotically heavenly ‘Amen' is made available as the album’s latest single. Scroll down for the song's official music video.
Amen features the talented electro-pop duo Aquilo from Manchester, UK. “The album could not have had a better ending.” mastermind Michael Cretu summarises. “The song represents the moral of our story: Don’t give up your dreams and start living the life you want - against injustices, social constraints and even your own fears!” With Amen Enigma concludes its eighth instalment, a journey that started 25 years ago with the groundbreaking debut album.
Stream nowREMIXES
On Oct 24, Enigma is releasing a 2-track EP with remixes of its latest single, Sadeness (Part II). Skip through the player's tracks above to listen to:
1. Sadeness (Part II) (MDZN Destiny Remix)
2. Sadeness (Part II) (MDZN Red Line Mix)
Both tracks are produced by international hit-producer and songwriting team Madizin. Over the last years, their work has sold more than 8 million copies and has been awarded with over 65 platinum and more than 97 gold records.
BUY NOWSINGLE RELEASE
On Oct 10, 2016 Enigma is releasing its first single, Sadeness (Part II), from the new album, The Fall Of A Rebel Angel. It is made available as a digital release as well as instant grat download. Scroll down for the single’s official music video.
With Sadeness (Part II) mastermind Michael Cretu has created a sequel to the project’s most notable and successful hit Sadeness (Part I). While referencing the famous Gregorian chants of its predecessor, the new single is based upon the classical theme of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and includes the voice of Asian superstar, Anggun. The combining element is a modern dubstep beat that turns Sadeness Part (II) into a piece of musical Zeitgeist.
BUY NOWLIMITED REISSUE OF BEST OF
Accompanying the upcoming album, The Fall Of A Rebel Angel, Enigma is re-releasing its famous compilation, Love Sensuality Devotion: Greatest Hits & Remixes. The best of comes as a 2CD, remastered edition including world-hits such as Sadeness (Part I), Mea Culpa and Return To Innocence as well as Enigma’s most popular remixes.
For Love Sensuality Devotion: Greatest Hits & Remixes, mastermind Michael Cretu has selected 18 landmark tracks from the first four albums which reflect his "Memories Of The Future”. Intentionally ambiguous, he has chosen the special title for his hit collection, LSD. "I'm addicted to music. So, music is like a drug for me. With this collection, listeners will be able to go on a trip, in a good sense." The ciphers stand for love, sensuality, devotion. "For me these are elementary terms of happiness, of a fulfilled life." Cretu sums up his intentions.
BUY NOWbiography
Eight. At this age Michael Cretu was already sitting in the cockpit of a spaceship, floating through his imaginary universe. These days he may no longer be a young boy, but he still travels through space.
All he needs to navigate his spaceship through the universe is 88 keys - the same 88 keys that inspired him as a child in Bucharest. Whilst playing his piano he always imagined himself traveling through space and musical talent soon matched his limitless imagination. His music teachers and professors at various conservatories saw great potential in the young boy and soon realized that Michael Cretu would one day be a great concert pianist. After being sent abroad for further training, the Frankfurt Music Academy praised the young Romanian for his outstanding musical talent. There was no question; He was destined for a future in the world of classical music.
But it all turned out quite differently for him. In the 70s Michael discovered electronic music. It played to both of his strengths, allowing him to express his imagination and musicality in unexpected ways. Naturally, the synthesizer became his new cockpit to steer his spaceship out of the galaxy of classical music and into new planetary systems, new worlds and new music.
Today his cockpit actually resembles a spaceship. In his control room he sits in front of Merlin - an all in one computed mobile studio. Day by day he uses it to steer his way through already discovered and brand new worlds of sound. His excursions usually take him several years but eventually he will always return with new discoveries. This way, over the last 25 years, seven records under the project name Enigma came into being.
There is no other music project comparable to Enigma. It defies categorization. New Age, Electronic, Sound Collage, Ambient Rock Symphony, Pop Avant-garde? None of these labels fit and still all of them do. Each beat shows the unmistakable signature of an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed.
The amazing feedback and admiration he has received over the years is surprising given the fact that he never played "the game" like so many others. There have been no screaming fans, no hype and he had always succeeded in keeping his name out of the gossip pages. Despite this, he has still managed to sell 70 million records, reached the top of the charts 60 times and entered the top 10 an impressive 80 times. He stayed in the Billboard album charts for five years straight, got three Grammy nominations and has achieved Gold and Platinum sales over 100 times. To call Enigma an international phenomenon would be an understatement.
This time Michael Cretu wanted to again create something extraordinary. It’s his eighth album, and eight is known to be a very special number. It represents a new beginning and eternity. To Christians the number eight is sacred and Maori see it as the sign of kinship. For Enigma it means perfection.
The Fall Of A Rebel Angel tells the story of no one and everyone. Our "hero" is a human being like you and me. One day nothing seems like it used to be. He feels monitored and not in control of his destiny. He's scared and does not know of what and why. His life seems to slip away from him. While navigating through an imaginary town he has experiences that change him. He meets a priestess whose God is Marquis de Sade - a continuation of the legendary Sadeness (Part I) from the first Enigma album, MCMXC A.D. While wandering restlessly through this new world he learns that sexuality has nothing to do with luck, that faith no longer lives in cathedrals and death doesn't have to be a terrible thing. These experiences give him the strength to let his passivity go. He destroys his own reflection in the water of a lake and accepts responsibility for his life.
To tell this story, Michael Cretu's music summons childlike wishes, dreams, visions and imagery drawn from memory. With quotes from religious texts, literature and pop culture, it leads the listener through a coloured labyrinth of the subconscious in search of identity and security in a world that is cold, dangerous and indifferent to the individual. One can always imagine a distant cry for love within the soundscapes of this album.
The Fall Of A Rebel Angel is the musical parable of a sensitive artist's view of the human condition. The twelve musical chapters are based on an epic poem of the writer and playwright Michael Kunze included in the album. 13 paintings of Wolfgang Beltracchi, the genius painter who had to hold up a mirror to the world of art before he got the praise he deserves, complement them.
Enigma is a constant in the fast paced world of pop music. The gaps between his releases are long. The spirit and the ambition of The Fall Of A Rebel Angel build a bridge back to the first Enigma album and also lead the way into the future. Michael Cretu's new masterpiece was worth the long wait.
It was not three years this time, not six. But Eight.