Product Details
- Artist: Enigma
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- Binding: Audio CD
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- EAN: 0724384861629
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- Label: Virgin Records Us
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- Manufacturer: Virgin Records Us
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- Number of Discs: 1
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- Product Group: Music
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- Publication Date: 2000
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- Publisher: Virgin Records Us
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- Release Date: 2000-01-18
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- Studio: Virgin Records Us
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- Title: The Screen Behind the Mirror
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- UPC: 724384861629
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: Michael Cretu, the man behind Enigma, formulates an intriguing symbiosis between New Age musicality, classical and world-music influences, and dance-club rhythms. Gregorian chants, Native American meditations, and the breathy musings of a French chanteuse have been incorporated into legendary dance-floor hits from his previous three albums. The leitmotif of his fourth album, The Screen Behind the Mirror, is the grandly ominous "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. "O Fortuna" opens the set and appears repeatedly throughout the tracks, sometimes lurking in the background, sometimes storming into the forefront. This album marks Enigma's continued foray into the ambient New Age realm, as Cretu's efforts focus more and more on melding compatible styles of world music, while the tracks are mixed into a single continuum. There's a lot to chew on; bits and pieces of church bells, Middle Eastern singing, and native instrumentation from you-name-it fold into each other on a steady current of shuffling hip-hop rhythms and velvety synthesized melodies. Cretu lends vocals to several songs, and his voice stands somewhere between Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins (though it's not as good as either), tending to distract from the album's flow and mood, lending it more of a prog-rock feel at times that he probably intended. Albums like this continue to invoke the same question: Is this a beautiful, transcendent union of artificial and indigenous sounds or is it just a bunch of self-indulgent schlock? It can be answered either way with equal conviction. --Beth Massa
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Customer Reviews
Music to slip into unconciousness by
This is the perfect music to kill yourself by. Just sit in the bathtub and slit your wrists and listen to the music. Now if you want to go out with a bang, I would recommend Stairway to heaven and a Glock 9mm.
BORING!!! EVEN MORE SO THAN ENYA AND ALL OF HER MUSIC SOUNDS THE SAME!!
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A good test for audiophile equipment
I believe this to be 1 of Enigma's 2 best albums. It compares very well to MCMXC A.D. but in a different light. MXMXC was more electronic classical. This CD is more European Classical meets Japanese Taiko Drumming. Booming bass and great sound effect. It really cries out to be played on great audio equipment and really good speakers. It just won't be as good on your car CD player and only degrades more though headphones. So listening to your IPod or a portable CD players will greatly reduce the experience. This cd demands an auditorium to fully enjoy the smorgasbord of musical experience. Go chase down your audiophile friend and listen to this album on his stereo. You'll see what I mean.
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The loonely dove....
What a phrase!!!!!
Every body find a different meaning for each word or sentence, for this CD I found the smooth part of the world of Enigma.
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The Heart is the Engine of Enigma
This is a review I wrote almost three years to the day on a different amazon account that I am deleting, and I just wanted to put in my two cents.
Being the fourth album from the legendary musical mastermind Michael Cretu, it was also at the time the most different (now his fifth album voyageur stands out as the most individual). I consider this album and Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi to be his (Michael Cretu) best album. The amazon editorial review said it all. Of the two questions posed at the end of her review, i must say that Enigma's music is a beautiful union between artificial and indigenous sound. This album is beautiful. Tracks that stand out the most are "Between Mind and Heart" "Modern Crusaders" "Gravity of Love" and the second track, which i forgot the name of. Buy this album!
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My favorite Enigma album
Even non-Enigma fans can appreciate this CD. There is not a single weak track on here and the songs range from really upbeat (Push the Limits) to slow and relaxing (Traces), uplifting (Between Mind and Heart) to almost angry sounding (Camera Obscura). If you don't get any other Enigma album, get this one (and maybe "Le Roi..."). I mean "Smell of Desire" is pretty much worth the price of the CD all by itself.
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