Letter from Michael Cretu Summary

April 1995

After much effort from myself in contacting record companies and management, I was finally able to get Michael Cretu to answer commonly asked questions from the Enigma Mailing List. Below is the summary of these questions and answers, along with some answers Michael's manager provided.

It is with pleasure that I am now able to present you all with all those questions this list has wanted to ask Michael Cretu and his manager for some time (well most of them anyway!) for it was yesterday that I received a letter from Enigma's manager and Michael Cretu himself, both signed. So sit back, relax, take a deep breath, and learn much, much more!

Summary of Answers from Enigma's Manager

• Enigma, Michael Cretu, and Sandra have been managed by the same person for 10 years. He looks after all the contracts, all business worldwide, all promotion, all marketing decisions, and so on.
• The weird release of Out from the Deep can be attributed to the various countries, each which have their own release plans. To quote: "We let them decide for themselves, for every label (the) manager knows which release date is best for his country. If the arguments are ok, we mostly agree."
• A music video was made for Out from the Deep (as we already worked out)
• Sadeness part 1 came about as a wordgame on "Marquis de Sade" and "Sadness". Some countries asked to go with the title "Sadness" instead of this idea though.
• MCMXC a.D - The Complete Video Album was made with Virgin Video who manufactured the video in England for all countries. There will not be a complete video album for The CROSS of Changes
• Believe it or not, nearly 1 million hologram editions of MCMXC a.D. were released in the world! (I personally find this hard to believe)
• As of late March, Michael is working on a new Sandra album of which there is currently no track listing. Sandra is getting twins (!!) which is why there is no real release plan for the album. The album will be called Fading Shades and it's release will probably be in May (as we have since found out).
• Sandra's first single Nights in White Satin is a cover version from the Moody Blues and was released in Germany around March 21, 1995.
• Enigma 3 will probably be out in Autumn 1996. To quote: "Michael has some ideas, but we keep them secret."

Summary of answers from Michael Cretu

• Michael has plans to bring Enigma for one concert on stage. He wishes for it to be in a spectacular place and has some in mind. It may occur in 1996 or 1997, but for now they are just ideas.
• When asked what music artists he particular likes, Michael only mentioned Jon Anderson. Asked whether he'd like to work with other artists he said that he had no time to do so: "I'm doing my own music ideas and that takes most of my time with Enigma, Sandra and Angel."
• Michael Cretu is not associated with Vangelis or other similar artists in any way.
• When asked whether he has ever considered changing his style of music, either as a side project or under another artist name, Michael said that he may one day do it and would probably do different music under a different name. He has no idea to do so in the near future though. I asked him which styles he might like to do, but he never answered.
• When asked about the 2 different versions of I Love You... I'll Kill You, Michael said that the new mix (with the line "You'll be fine") is simply another mix which he loved more than the first one after several listenings. It is for this reason that the albums changed.
• Michael had no knowledge of the credits changing with later versions having less samples credited.
• When asked about the images and religious overtones in his music and booklets, Cretu replied: "The symbols may look like this, but they are only illustrations for the music. I have no connection to (the) church (in) resp(ect) religious music. On 'The Cross....' you can find many ideas against the church, which killed people over hundreds of years in the name of God. Some overtones are inspired by Numerology."
• When asked to give any information about Enigma 3 (samples, style, etc.) Michael only said that it's his secret and that nobody except himself knows of his ideas and concepts.
• Michael claimed that he gives very few interviews because he is not a very good promotion man and prefers to be the 'music man in the back'. He only gives 7 to 10 days of promotion upon the release of an album and all this is arranged by management.
• Michael has no problems with things like our mailing list, WWW site, FAQ, and so on but stressed that he has no times for interviews or supplying information "like I do it now for you.... If I start to answer all of them, I would never have any minute for the studio."
• Michael didn't read the FAQ but looked over it and said he thinks most of it is OK.

So there you have it! There's a wealth of information there, some of which we had worked out since I sent that letter on February 17, and some of which we didn't know (Sandra's twins, Enigma 3 in Autumn 1996, .....)