Enigma – MCMXC a.D. (1990) CD Album
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Enigma – MCMXC a.D. (1990)
MCMXC a.D. is the debut album by Enigma, the project of German-Romanian producer and musician Michael Cretu, released in December 1990 on Virgin Records. The album sold over 7 million copies worldwide and spawned one of the most distinctive and immediately recognisable singles of the early 1990s — Sadeness (Part I), which reached No. 1 in over 30 countries and introduced a completely new sonic vocabulary to mainstream pop: Gregorian chant samples layered over trip-hop rhythms, ambient synthesiser textures and breathy, sensual vocals. Cretu recorded the album largely in his home studio in Ibiza, drawing on samples of Gregorian chant from the Capella Antiqua München, and the album's title — the Roman numeral for 1990 followed by the Latin phrase Anno Domini — establishes its mystical, quasi-religious aesthetic from the outset. The album's influence on the subsequent decade of new age, ambient and electronic music was considerable, and it remains one of the most commercially successful electronic albums ever recorded.
Highlights
- Sadeness (Part I) — The album's defining moment and one of the most distinctive singles of the early 1990s; the combination of Gregorian chant, trip-hop rhythm and breathy vocal creates a sound that was completely unlike anything in the mainstream at the time of release, and its No. 1 success in over 30 countries demonstrated that the appetite for genuinely experimental pop was larger than anyone had anticipated.
- Principles of Lust — The album's most extended and structurally ambitious track at nearly twelve minutes; a three-part suite that moves through Sadeness, Find Love and a reprise, demonstrating Cretu's ability to construct a sustained musical narrative across an extended form and giving the album one of its most immersive and cinematic sequences.
- Mea Culpa (Part II) — One of the album's most atmospheric and melodically compelling tracks; a slower, more meditative piece that showcases the interplay between the Gregorian chant samples and the electronic production at its most refined and gives the album one of its most genuinely beautiful and haunting moments.
- Back to the Rivers of Belief — The album's closing suite and its most spiritually ambitious; a ten-minute sequence that moves through Way to Eternity, Hallelujah and The Rivers of Belief, building to a climax of real emotional and sonic grandeur and bringing the album to a conclusion that is both musically satisfying and genuinely moving.
- Callas Went Away — One of the album's most unexpected and affecting moments; a tribute to Maria Callas that incorporates operatic vocal textures into the Enigma sound with surprising elegance, and demonstrates Cretu's willingness to draw on the full breadth of Western musical tradition in constructing his sonic world.
CD Details
- Title: MCMXC a.D.
- Artist: Enigma
- Year: 1990
- Label: Virgin Records / EMI
- Producer: Michael Cretu
- Format: CD Album
- Barcode: 5012981209025
Condition
Condition: Good/Good — see our Condition Grading Guide.
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