History Music / Enigma

Si tu es contre Dieu, tu es contre l'homme''\\\

->''Sade dis moi''\\
''qu'est ce que tu vas chercher?''\\
''le bien par le mal''\\
''la vertu par le vice''\\
''Sade dit moi pourquoi l' 'evangile du mal?''\\
''quelle est ta religion ou' sont tes fide'les?''\\
''Si tu es contre Dieu, tu es contre l'homme''\\
\\
''Sade es-tu diabolique ou divin?''[[labelnote:English translation]]\\
''Sade, tell me''\\
''what is it that you seek?''\\
''The rightness of wrong''\\
''The virtue of vice''\\
''Sade, tell me why the Gospel of evil ?''\\
''What is your religion? Where are your faithful?''\\
''If you are against God,(so) you are against man''\\
''\\
''Sade, are you diabolical or divine?''[[/labelnote]]\\

--"Sadeness, Part 1"

** ''MCMXC a.D.'' contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Music/MikeAndTheMechanics song, Aphrodite's Child and the infamous Gregorian chanting.

** Certain samples, such as a distinctive horn motif, Irene Papas' heavy breathing from Aphrodite's Child's song "∞", drumming from Music/LedZeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and several guitar licks, have become an intricate part of Enigma's sound palette. When these sounds disappeared altogether from ''A posteriori'', there was a sizable amount of concern from fans.

** Cretu has sampled his own work in other songs, such as the chorus of 1990's "Sadeness" appearing in 2003's "Incognito"; and 1996's "Odyssey of the Mind" in 2016's "Diving." Again, this sampling is done for conceptual continuation. "Diving" also contains samples of the track "Encounters" (the intro to the seventh album) as well as the Phrase "And when the lamb open the seventh seal, silence covered the sky" which had been sampled from Aphrodites Child and had previously appeared on "Back to the Rivers of Belief" on ''MCMXC a.D.''.
* ShoutOut: Apart from all the sampling, Cretu has included shout outs to hard rock and metal bands of the 1970s, as well as pop music from the 1980s ("Look of Today" reuses the chorus from ABC's "The Look of Love", for example.)

** Another infamous sample is Difang's ''Jubilant Drinking Song'', a Taiwanese aboriginal chant used in "Return to Innocence" that was often mistaken as Native American origin by critics and listeners alike.

** ''MCMXC a.D.'' contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Aphrodite's Child and the infamous Gregorian chanting.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enigma.png]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: The Fall of a Rebel Angel is their darkest album of their discography. It's filled with symbolic journeies to redemption along with psychedelic undertones.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The Fall of a Rebel Angel is their darkest, moodiest album of their discography.

** There is a musical passage on the 2016 album The Fall of a Rebel Angel which appears a total of three times on the album, starting on track two.

--"Sadeness"

* {{Yandere}}: What else could "I Love You … I'll Kill You" possibly be about? It seems to be sung in second person as a warning to the victim; much SanitySlippage applies.

** ''Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!'' ends with the intro track playing in reverse, with two lines of dialogue added.

* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonym of "Curly M.C." as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Aphrodite's Child and the infamous Gregorian chanting.

** ''The Screen Behind the Mirror'' received negative critical reaction for sampling Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from his work ''Carmina Burana'' across four separate songs, to thematically unite the album. The same wasn't said for ''MCMXC a.D.'', which featured the same drum beat -- itself a Soul II Soul sample -- for ''half of the album's runtime.''
** The Tocatta in D is also liked by Cretu appearing in "The Rivers of Belief" aswell as "Hello & Welcome" and "Sadeness (Part II)"
** Cretu has sampled his own work in other songs, such as the chorus of 1990's "Sadeness" appearing in 2003's "Incognito"; and 1996's "Odyssey of the Mind" in 2016's "Diving." Again, this sampling is done for conceptual continuation.
*** "Diving" also contains samples of the track "Encounters" (the intro to the seventh album) as well as the Phrase "And when the lamb open the seventh seal, silence covered the sky" which had been sampled from Aphrodites Child and had previously appeared on "Back to the Rivers of Belief" on the first Enigma album.

** ''The Screen Behind the Mirror'' received negative critical reaction for sampling Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from his work ''Carmina Burana'' across four separate songs, to thematically unite the album. The same wasn't said for ''MCMXC a.D.'', which featured the same drum beat for ''half of the album's runtime.''

* XMeetsY: Combining church music with techno and sex was a big deal in 1991.

** Cretu has sampled his own work in other songs, such as the chorus of 1990's "Sadeness" appearing in 2003's "Incognito"; and 1996's "Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!" in 2016's "Diving." Again, this sampling is done for conceptual continuation.

* FunWithAcronyms: The title of the 2001 greatest hits collection, '''''L'''ove, '''S'''ensuality, '''D'''evotion.'' The typeface used on the cover makes this explicit. The same trick was repeated with the Limited Super Deluxe edition of ''the Fall of a Rebel Angel''.

Enigma is a New Age / chillout musical project created by Michael Cretu in 1990. Cretu has remained the only consistent member of the project for its entire existence, with his wife Sandra providing many of Enigma's vocals. Enigma is primarily known for its singles "Sadeness" and "Return to Innocence", which combined Gregorian chanting, aboriginal folk song, ambient music and hip hop beats into a unique sound.

The debut album ''MCMXC a.D'' created great controversy in Europe for combining breathy vocals about the Creator/MarquisDeSade, bondage and {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}, alongside its extensive sampling – itself a hot button issue at the time in North America. Cretu credited himself as Curly M.C. on the album to maintain anonymity, but the subsequent lawsuits revealed Cretu's identity, alongside his wife's. Nonetheless, ''MCMXC a.D.'' and its followup ''the CROSS of Changes'' were large successes for fans of worldbeat and ethnic electronica. Enigma's greatest critical success was ''The Screen behind the Mirror'', showcasing a mature and distinctive musical palette, but did not sell as well as his first two albums. After a lengthy hiatus, Enigma returned in 2016 with the release of their eighth album, ''the Fall of a Rebel Angel''.

* FollowTheLeader: Frank Peterson, a member of Enigma for the first album, left to create Era and Gregorian, two other bands that attempted to replicate Enigma's success. Other bands haven't been as lucky as Peterson's projects.

''Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!'' ends with the intro track playing in reverse, with two lines of dialogue added.

The debut album ''MCMXC a.D'' created great controversy in Europe for combining breathy vocals about the Creator/MarquisDeSade, bondage and {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}, alongside its extensive sampling – itself a hot button issue at the time in North America. Cretu credited himself as Curly M.C. on the album to maintain anonymity, but the subsequent lawsuits revealed Cretu's identity, alongside his wife's. Nonetheless, ''MCMXC a.D.'' and its followup ''the CROSS of Changes'' were large successes for fans of worldbeat and ethnic electronica. Enigma's greatest critical success was ''The Screen behind the Mirror'', showcasing a mature and distinctive musical palette, but did not sell as well as his first two albums. Enigma has been on hiatus since their seventh album, 2008's ''Seven Lives Many Faces''.

* FunWithAcronyms: The title of the 2001 greatest hits collection, '''''L'''ove, '''S'''ensuality, '''D'''evotion.'' The typeface used on the cover makes this explicit.

* {{Leitmotif}}: The quiet, spacey brass lick that opens and closes almost all of the albums tells you that you're listening to an Enigma album.
* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Mea Culpa" is a monologue by a submissive woman giving herself up very aggressively to her master. (If you don't know much about BDSM, no, this is not a contradiction.) And "Sadeness", the song that started it all, is about Creator/MarquisDeSade.
* {{Sampling}}: Enigma gained a certain notoriety for doing this at a time when it was a major controversy in the hiphop world; though the ensuing lawsuits led to the producers of the samples being properly compensated, Cretu lost his anonymity as a result. The first album contains samples as diverse as Maria Callas, Music/BlackSabbath, an ''extremely'' obscure Mike + the Mechanics song, Aphrodite's Child and the infamous Gregorian chant.

** Certain samples, such as a distinctive horn motif, Irene Papas' distinctive heavy breathing from Aphrodite's Child's song "∞", drumming from Music/LedZeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and several guitar licks, have become an intricate part of Enigma's sound palette. When these sounds disappeared altogether from ''A posteriori'', there was a sizable amount of concern from fans.