Enigma : A Posteriori
Michael Cretu has been recording ethereal dreamscapes under the name Enigman since 1990, and in that time, Enigma’s music has been consistently associated with transcending soundscapes, Gregorian chants, and New Age atmospherics. Cretu’s latest release for Enigma, A Posteriori is an opus of streaming music notes that, if the celestial bodies in space could sing, they might sound like these compositions. The streaks and beams of sound waves and bubbling notes bobbing through the synth sequences are bright and glistening.
A Posteriori is arranged, performed, engineered, and produced by Cretu and continues on Enigma’s path to a sonic odyssey of harmonious ether. The songs segue into each other and weave a glittering tapestry. The liner notes reveal the premise of Enigma’s opus, which is to tell the tale that will begin 3 billion years from now, when the Andromeda Galaxy is expected to collide with the Milky Way to create a new gigantic cosmic world. With tracks like “Dreaming Of Andromeda,” “Hello And Welcome,” and “Goodbye Milky Way,” Enigma creates a cosmic haze of music notes that describes the story which will emerge as a result of the collision of the two galaxies.
Collision often equates destruction but Enigma’s vision is of grandeur and opulence. The synth-generated ambience and drum machine beats produce prodigal reservoirs and lush aesthetics with a World Music flare similar to the Symbion Project and Philip Glass’ compositions for the feature film The Illusionist. The liquefied synths for “Feel Me Heaven” display ethereal tones that engage into a quadrille-like dance. The airy films and reels of interspersing notes on “Dancing With Mephisto” create esoteric passages and reposing tempos. The fluidity of the notes and the splendor of tender lapses create channels of escape and portals into sonic odysseys. The soft vocal registers of Louisa Stanley on the track cushion the flowing verses and fluff up the orchestral atmosphere, likened to etudes by Rob Byrd and Freezepop. The latticed notes on “Message From 10” are bathed in light donning an aural landscape. The number “Hello And Welcome” exhibits lances of lucent guitar swizzles along lightning streaks of sound waves. It is the only song with guitar intervals that endow the synthetic landscapes with an organic element.
Cretu’s Enigma crafts a cosmic world of empyreal music notes and prophetic passages that fascinates and holds the listener’s gaze. A Posteriori is Enigma’s eighth album and though the compositions have similar tenets to Enigma’s smash hit “Return To Innocence,” the music tides on A Posteriori are renewed, inspired by a story that becomes re-told through a unique and strangely familiar vision.
Similar Albums:
Symbion Project – Immortal Game
Freezepop – Fancy Ultra Fresh
Rob Byrd – Bells Of Tomorrow