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Biography
BLP sources|date=July 2010Infobox musical artist | name = Michael Cretu| image =| caption =| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist| birth_name = Mihai Cre?u| alias = Michael Crétu Curly MC Curly M.C.| birth_date = Birth date and age|1957|5|18|df=yes| birth_place = Bucharest , Romania | origin = Romania | instrument = MIDI keyboard , guitar | genre = New Age music|New Age , Electronic music|electronic , Trance music|trance | occupation = Musician , Record producer|producer | years_active = 1978–present| label = Virgin Records|Virgin | associated_acts = Moti Special , Enigma (musical project)|Enigma , Sandra (singer)|Sandra , Trance Atlantic Air Waves|Trance Atlantic Air Waves Project | website = URL|www.enigmaspace.com| notable_instruments = Alchemist Merlin Michael Cretu (lang-ro|Mihai Cre?uIPA-ro|mi'haj 'kret?su|pron; born 18 May 1957, Bucharest , Romania ) is a Romanian musician . He is known also as Curly , MC or Curly M.C. because of his fair curled hair ( cre? means "curly" in Romanian language|Romanian ). His peak musical activity was with the Enigma (musical project)|Enigma project, which was mainly based in Germany.
He worked with many musicians along his career. The first one to mention is his future wife Sandra (singer)|Sandra Lauer ( Sandra Cretu from marriage in 1988), musician Peter Cornelius (musician)|Peter Cornelius , guitar player Manfred Thiers and Jens Gad , Frank Peterson , David Fairstein , D.J André Tanneberger (from the ATB|A.T.B. Music Poject ), Peter Ries , Bernt Moehrle, singer Ruth-Ann Boyle & Andru Donalds , latter one produced the single Mishale in 1995.
In 2002, Crocodile-Music, Cretu's management company stated 100 million Cretu-produced records had been sold worldwide.cite web|url= http://www.crocodile-music.de/enigma/index.php? cat=bio& detail=2 |title=ENIGMA : Biographie - english Biography / Crocodile-Music Management & Publishing |publisher=Crocodile-music.de |date=2008-09-19 |accessdate=2012-03-31 By the year 2008, Michael Cretu's Enigma project had sold over 50 million studio albums according to his official site.Citation needed|date=September 2010 He owns A.R.T. Studios , a recording studio facility located near the resort on the Balearic Island s, where he lived with his wife and their two teenagers, Nikita and Sebastian born in 1995. He and Sandra divorced in 2007. Cretu has been reported as living in Germany since that time.
Studies
Cretu studied music at the Dinu Lipatti (Musical High School) former #2 Highschool in Bucharest (in 1965) and later on he continued his studies at the Frankfurt Conservatory in West Germany from 1975 to 1978. He graduated and has a title in music.
Cretu met his future wife, Sandra (singer)|Sandra Lauer , when he was playing keyboards on the band Arabesque (group)|Arabesque ’s live touring show. In collaboration with several Hubert Kah band members, he co-wrote and produced several successful albums and singles for her, beginning with the song (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena|"Maria Magdalena" which topped the charts in 21 countries. The band was simply called Sandra Cretu|Sandra , although Sandra's full name is now often used for filing and identification purposes. Cretu married her on 7 January 1988. They have twins named Nikita and Sebastian, who were born in July 1995. Michael and Sandra divorced in November 2007, citing "personal and professional differences".MySpace|sandracretuofficial
Background
Cretu was born to a Romanian father and an Austrian mother in Romania, Iasi. His uncle, Ion Voicu , a Romanians|Romanian violin-player and former director of the Bucharest Philarmonic, told Michael's parents that he had talent in music and as such, he studied classical music at Liceul Nr. 2 in Bucharest in 1965 and in Paris, France , in 1968.ro icon http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/824300/Enigma-Michael-Cretu-intalnire-cu-omul-invizibil/ "Enigma Michael Cretu: întalnire cu omul invizibil" , Evenimentul Zilei , 14 October 2008 He later attended the Academy of Music in Frankfurt , Germany, from 1975 to 1978, attaining a academic degree|degree in music. Cretu was taken on as a keyboard player and producer for Frank Farian .Citation needed|date=September 2010 In the 1980s, Cretu took over production for the pop quartet Hubert Kah and started writing songs with the band leader Hubert Kemmler, achieving a number of hits. Among his other work, Cretu was also one of the producers of Mike Oldfield 's 1987 album Islands (1987 album)|Islands and the producer of Peter Schilling 's 1989 The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime) album.
In 1992 Cretu worked with Peter Cornelius on the Return to Innocence (album) , to provide the guitar riffs.
For the third album, Cretu teamed up with Jens Gad to work together on Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! and launched in 1999 a new trance project Trance Atlantic Airwaves and the album The Energy of Sound .
Another band of Cretu's was called Moti Special ("Cold Days, Hot Nights"), which Cretu produced and performed with in the mid-1980s.
He owns the A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza before moving to a new mansion in the Ibiza hills. His new house, near Sant Antoni de Portmany on the western coast of Ibiza, is a Moroccan-style mansion that was designed and built by Bernd Steber and Gunter Wagner in more than nine years. It also features a brand new, state-of-the-art recording studio. The Spanish High Court deemed the house to have been built illegally and in infringement of Spanish environmental regulations which led to the €18 million villa being razed in May 2009.Cite news | last = | first = | coauthors = | title = Ibiza: Pop-Produzent Cretu muss seine Villa abreißen | work = Der Spiegel | place = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date = 2009-05-10 | url = http://www.spiegel.de/reise/europa/0,1518,623917,00.html | accessdate = 2009-05-11
Cretu as a solo artist
Cretu's first solo release was the single Wild River in 1978. His first solo album was released in 1979 and was a double titled album: Ausgewählte Goldstücke as German-language release, and Moon, Light & Flowers as English-language release.
Cretu's second solo album, titled Legionäre|Legionaire , was released in 1983, also in English and German versions. This album had German language|German-language lyrics and was sung by Michael. It was co-produced and supervised by Harald Steinhauer and mastered by Armand Volker .
Cretu's third solo album was titled Die Chinesische Mauer and was released in 1985. The literal English translation is The Chinese Wall . Like his previous album, this had German language|German-language lyrics, was sung by Michael, co-produced by Armand Volker and Michael Cretu. This album was also released as a separate album with English-language lyrics and a different track listing under the name The Invisible Man . Several of the tracks on The Invisible Man were edited slightly and, therefore, was different length than the German-language versions on Die Chinesische Mauer . This featured the song "Samurai," which became a minor hit.
Among his early successful works it is worth mentioning Mike Oldfield 's 1987 album entitled Islands (Mike Oldfield album)|Islands .
The Enigma project
Main|Enigma (musical project)After Cretu's marriage to Sandra in 1988, he had an idea for a musical new-age dance project under the name of Enigma, presented by Fairstein. Cretu worked with Frank Peterson and David Fairstein to create their ground-breaking first single " Sadeness (Part I) ", which became a surprise hit. MCMXC a.D. , the album, which was released in 1990, was hugely successful.
MCMXC a.D. stayed on the charts for 282 weeks on European charts and dropped off two years after the second album, The Cross of Changes , was released in 1993. Prior to this, Frank Peterson had some disagreements with Cretu and he left the project in 1991. Cretu changed Enigma's direction from Gregorian chant s to Tribe|tribal chant s for its second album, and this led to the single " Return to Innocence " with Peter Cornelius, which became a worldwide hit.
Cretu was approached by Paramount Pictures to write the Sliver (soundtrack)|soundtrack of the movie Sliver (film)|Sliver and he came up with another 1993 single " Carly's Song " after the main female character's name.
In 1996 Enigma's third album Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! was released. Stylistically, it sounded like a combination of the first and second albums, but it failed to achieve the same level of success.
In 1999 Cretu steered the project in another direction by using samples of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana (Orff)|Carmina Burana for the fourth album The Screen Behind the Mirror , released in 2000. Andru Donalds and Ruth-Ann Boyle first appeared as features on this Enigma project. Although Jens Gad had been working with Cretu on the earlier albums, this was the first time that he had been given actual credits.
Deciding that the first chapter for Enigma was closed under the Virgin Records label, Cretu releases a set of compilations: Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits and Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection that include credits to ATB .
He had continued the Enigma project, and in 2003 he came up with Voyageur (album)|Voyageur album. Familiar sounds of the Shakuhachi flute, tribal, or Gregorian chants were replaced with more commercially-friendly tunes and beat. In March 2006, a new single called " Hello and Welcome " was released in anticipation of another album.
A posteriori (album)|A posteriori is the sixth Enigma studio album. It was released on 22 September 2006.
Seven Lives Many Faces became the seventh Enigma studio album. It was released on 19 September 2008 and has not received yet a critical or positive review from the musical scene or the printed media in Europe. This is because of the musical genre of Enigma that developed as many DJs tried to go beyond Enigma's influences.
EnigmaSandra Persondata|NAME=Cretu, Michael |ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Curly M.C. |SHORT DESCRIPTION = Musician |DATE OF BIRTH = 18 May 1957 |PLACE OF BIRTH = Bucharest, Romania |DATE OF DEATH = |PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Cretu, Michael Category:1957 births Category:Electronic musicians Category:Enigma members Category:German people Category:German people of Austrian descent Category:German people of Romanian descent Category:German record producers Category:Living people Category:Virgin Records artists Category:People from Bucharest Category:Romanian expatriates in Germany Category:Romanian people Category:Romanian pianists Category:Romanian Roman Catholics
