MCMXC a.D.
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| MCMXC a.D. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Enigma | ||||
| Released | 10 December 1990 | |||
| Recorded | A.R.T. Studios, Ibiza, 1990 | |||
| Genre | New-age, ambient house,downtempo, chillout | |||
| Length | 40:16 | |||
| Label | Virgin, Charisma | |||
| Producer | Michael Cretu | |||
| Enigma chronology | ||||
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| Singles from MCMXC a.D. | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (A-)[2] |
MCMXC a.D. ("1990" in Roman numerals followed by an abbreviation of "Anno Domini") is the first studio album from the electronic music group Enigma, headed by Michael Cretu. Recorded at A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, it is one of the first albums to be recorded on a computer's hard disk drive.
Released in 1990 on Virgin Records, the album reached number one in 41 countries[3] including the UK. It peaked at number 6 in the United States, and remained on the Billboard 200 for 282 weeks. The album spawned four singles: "Sadeness (Part I)", "Principles of Lust", "Mea Culpa (Part II)" and "The Rivers of Belief". "Sadeness (Part 1)" topped the UK singles charts and peaked in the US at number 5.
Contents
[hide]Overview[edit]
MCMXC a.D. starts with the mellow sounds of a foghorn, later on to be known as the "Enigma horn" and the voice of Louisa Stanley, who at the time was an executive at Virgin Records speaking in "The Voice of Enigma". The Gregorian chant "Procedamus in pace!" then segues into the first three-part movement of the album even before it starts, "Principles of Lust".
The first part, "Sadeness", received the most attention through its unique and previously unheard mix of Gregorian chants and dance beat. Triangles and synthesized shakuhachi flutes add to the French vocals and breathy sounds of Michael's wife, Sandra. Cretu did not say who was the male voice speaking in French in "Sadeness (Part I)", only describing him as a good friend of his. The song fades into "Find Love", in which Sandra instructs the listeners to follow their lust. Reversed chants signal the start of "Sadeness (reprise)" and continues with a short piano piece, based on the same tunes as the shakuhachi flute earlier. The flute returns as chants of "Hosanna" gradually bring an end to the movement.
The next song, "Callas Went Away" is a tribute to the opera singer, Maria Callas. Chirps from electronic birds at the beginning, mixed with a slow beat and sounds of a piano leads to Sandra's whispers and ends with some samples of Callas singing the aria Ces lettres, ces lettres from the opera Werther by Massenet.
The rain at the beginning of "Mea Culpa" is a sample taken from the introduction of Black Sabbath's self-titled album and song. The plainsong chant "Kyrie Eleison" (from Mass XI, Orbis Factor, in the Liber usualis) appears predominantly, alongside Sandra's vocals and the same flute. It fades into the experimental track, "The Voice and the Snake", which is based on "Seven Bowls", a song from Aphrodite's Child where a group of people describe the end of the world in an eerie and haunting manner, as mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
A bowl falls to the ground and breaks, leading it to "Knocking on Forbidden Doors". The drums beats in the song made to resemble the sound of a door being knocked, before it progresses into a faster beat. A guitar enters and slips aside quietly for more Gregorian chants, this time a part of "Salve Regina", and fading into the following track.
The second three-part movement in the album, "Back to the Rivers of Belief", begins slowly with John Williams' five-toned notes from Steven Spielberg's movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which leads to mellow Gregorian chants in the first part of the movement, "Way to Eternity". The same beat from "Sadeness" enters for the start of "Hallelujah" as the strong sounds of violins accompany the beat. The triangle and voices from the first track reappears and repeats itself. An Orthodox/Byzantine chanting style is apparent in this part and segues into the next part, "The Rivers of Belief", the only track where Michael Cretu sings in the album. After Cretu sings the chorus, the music stops completely and an unfamiliar male voice intones Revelation 8:1: "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, silence covered the sky". This is also sampled from Aphrodite's Child album 666 (the voice here is of John Forst). The sentence about the Seventh Seal enters at the 7th minute and 7th second of the 7th track, although in some pressings, it appears at the 7th minute and 17th second. The music resumes with the shakuhachi flute and Cretu's vocals. The album ends with the falling star effect and the "Enigma horn".
Impact of MCMXC a.D.[edit]
The album was named as one of the most important albums of mainstream New Age in the 1990s. The album not only popularized the "Enigmatic" music style but also introduced some technical music production changes. With MCMXC a.D., Michael Cretu developed the technical features and intentions of sampling. Though samples were in use long before (introduced by such musicians as Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze and others), Cretu built his own music around whole sequences of previously recorded parts. His method was not remixing and remodelling, but rather recontextualisation: changing a piece of music’s natural environment. This new method of composing and album creating process was mainly adopted by hip-hop artists, as well as electronic music producers. It was one of the first albums to be recorded directly to hard drive. MCMXC a.D. was one of the first steps in a series of developments which would eradicate the division between mainstream and underground culture.[4]
Controversy surrounded the music in the album for both its religious and sexual overtones, particularly on the first three singles. The video clip for "Principles of Lust" was banned from MTV and most TV stations, who were also unwilling to play the music video for "Sadeness (Part I)". The album itself was banned in several countries because of that same reason,[citation needed] while critics slammed the songs on the album as blasphemous. Nevertheless, the popularity of the album shot up to number one in at least 24 different countries in where it was released, reaching gold and platinum status.
The success of MCMXC a.D. influenced the works of B-Tribe (Fiesta Fatal!), Delerium (Semantic Spaces, Karma), Banco de Gaia, and even Sarah Brightman (Eden). The album was also a stepping stone for the creation of many other groups who mainly include Gregorian chants in their music, such as Era and Gregorian, which was founded by Frank Peterson prior to his falling out with Michael Cretu.
In addition, Cretu received a total of 1.4 million pre-orders of their next album, The Cross of Changes which was launched even before MCMXC a.D. fell out of the charts after four years.
In 1994, Polydor Germany sued Cretu and Virgin Germany for infringing on its "right of personality" in the samples used in "Sadeness (Part I)" and "Mea Culpa". The lawsuit was settled out of court, after Cretu agreed to pay compensation to the original creator of the samples.
Sleeve[edit]
The artwork on the sleeve of MCMXC a.D. was designed by Johann Zambryski, who also continued to design the sleeves of the next four albums after MCMXC a.D. and its compilation and DVD covers. It depicted a thick, black frame surrounding a silhouette of a figure being enshrouded in a bright light, and a Christian cross in the lower centre of the album for emphasis towards the themes of the album. The sleeve bears a strong resemblance to that of the 1986 Dead Can Dance album Spleen and Ideal.
Several quotes are printed on the booklet of the album, including the following:
The cover of the "Limited Edition" of the album is the same as for the original release, but has a grainy dark green background instead of black. The first million copies of the album also have a holograph of the monk and cross on top of the album instead of the normal art work.
Track listing[edit]
Original album[edit]
Most releases contain these seven tracks; some subsequent releases gave a track to each part.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Voice of Enigma" | Curly M.C. | 2:21 | |
| 2. | "Principles of Lust" "Sadeness" "Find Love" "Sadeness (reprise)" | Curly, David Fairstein, F. Gregorian Curly Curly, Fairstein, Gregorian | 11:43 | |
| 3. | "Callas Went Away" | Curly | 4:27 | |
| 4. | "Mea Culpa" | Curly, Fairstein | 5:03 | |
| 5. | "The Voice & The Snake" | Curly, Gregorian | 1:39 | |
| 6. | "Knocking on Forbidden Doors" | Curly | 4:31 | |
| 7. | "Back to the Rivers of Belief" "Way to Eternity" "Hallelujah" "The Rivers of Belief" | Curly Curly Curly, Fairstein | 10:32 | |
Total length:
| 40:16 | |||
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