Enigma - The Cross Of Changes (Special Edition) (1994)

Enigma is a German new age musical project formed in 1990 by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived the Enigma project while working in Germany, but based his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, from the early 1990s until May 2009, where he has recorded all of Enigma's studio releases to date.
 Cretu is both the composer and the producer of the project. His former wife, pop singer Sandra, often provided vocals on Enigma tracks. Jens Gad co-arranged and played guitar on three of the Enigma albums. Peter Cornelius also contributed to Enigma during the 1990s.
The Cross of Changes is the second studio album by the musical project Enigma, released three years after MCMXC a.D..
The most notable songs on the album are "Return to Innocence", which was released as a single and featured in several film soundtracks, "Age of Loneliness (Carly's Song)" which was originally written especially for the film Sliver and remixed for this album, and "The Eyes of Truth" which was also used as the music on the trailer for the film The Matrix The song "Out From the Deep" was the final song released from the album, although it was only available in a handful of territories.
A more rock-infused sound is present in The Cross of Changes, and the Gregorian chants from the previous album were replaced with ethnic-style world chants.
Cretu being no fool, he figured if it worked the first time, no need to change things much for the second. But he also knew not to simply go ahead and just rehash his debut for Cross of Changes, resulting in a just different enough effort along the same overall lines. The usual air of tasteful middle-of-the-road spirituality takes precedence, right down to the cover art and appropriately pantheistic quote from Persian mystic poet Rumi in the CD booklet. Needless to say, the music attempts to match the same throughout, and often succeeds.
Things kick off with more of the synth-whale song noises and atmospherics from MCMXC, however there aren't any monks to be found this time around, but what sounds like the same whispering woman talking about "clearing the debts of many hundred years" and the like. From there, Cretu merrily takes the same plunge -- some of his sample choices this time around show he's got a decent record collection, including parts from Songs From the Victorious City, the striking fusion of Egyptian and Western musics from Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman. His work with beats and loops noticeably shows a more developed edge while hardly an innovator, there's a bit more grime and loud in his rhythms, which in combination with extra electric guitar make a reasonable contrast to the smoother elements. Consider the rampaging conclusion to "I Love You...I'll Kill You," which while sharing some cheese with the title itself still works surprisingly well, right down to a clever Robert Plant vocal sample at the end. "Return to Innocence" was the big single from this one, not quite up there with "Sadeness" in the popular culture in the U.S. but almost inescapable elsewhere. There's another Led Zeppelin sample (this time John Bonham) and a haunting male vocal providing oomph under the fuzzy-headed greeting card philosophy of the main lyrics. It's an impressive effort, showing Cretu had a definite something in his own way.

Track listing

01. "Second Chapter"   (Curly M.C.)  - 2:16
02. "The Eyes of Truth"   (Curly)  - 7:13
03. "Return to Innocence"   (Curly, Kuo Ying-nan, Kuo Hsiu-chu)  - 4:17
04. "I Love You ... I'll Kill You"   (Curly, David Fairstein)  - 8:51
05. "Silent Warrior"   (Curly)  - 6:10
06. "The Dream of the Dolphin"   (Curly, Fairstein)  - 2:47
07. "Age of Loneliness (Carly's Song)"   (Curly)  - 5:22
08. "Out from the Deep"   (Curly, Morsman, Pierlejewski)  - 4:53
09. "The Cross of Changes"   (Curly)  - 2:23
10. "Return to Innocence  (Long & Alive Version)"  - 7:07
11. "Age of Loneliness"  (Enigmatic Club Mix)  - 6:23
12. "The Eyes of Truth"  (The Götterdämmerung Mix)  - 7:18

Credits
Peter Cornelius – guitar
Michael Cretu (credited as "Curly M.C.") – vocals, production
Sandra Cretu – vocals
Jens Gad – guitar
Andreas Harde (credited as "Angel X") – vocals
Louisa Stanley – vocals

Production
Produced & engineered by Michael Cretu
All Songs Published By Enigma Songs, except track 4 (Enigma Songs-Wanho Music) and track 7 (Ensign Music/Data Alpha-Wanho)

Notes
Release date: 6 December 1993
Recorded at: A.R.T. Studios, Ibiza, 1993
Genre:  New-Age, Ambient
Length: 65:00
© 1994

Label - Virgin/Charisma (US)