Personnel: Michael Cretu (vocals, various instruments); Sandra Cretu, Louisa Stanley (vocals); Peter Cornelius (guitar).
Recorded at A.R.T. Studios, Ibiza, Spain.
LE ROI EST MORT, VIVE LE ROI was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album and for Best Recording Package.
On its third album, Enigma reshapes the most interesting aspects of its previous two into a distinctly different atmosphere. ENIGMA3 has tangible Indonesian influences, as did 1994's THE CROSS OF CHANGES; it also smoothly and dramatically incorporates Gregorian chant, which was prominent on Enigma's debut, MCMXC A.D. Unlike those albums, it features significant vocals by Enigma mastermind Michael Cretu. His voice brings tension and emotion to tracks such as "Why!..." and "The Roundabout."
There is an altogether moody, sensuously brooding ambience to the entire album, sustained by muted drum beats and soft, ethereal layers of sounds drawn from chant, opera, tribal chant, choir, and various instruments and effects. Like the band's previous albums, ENIGMA3 possesses both the otherworldliness of new-age music and the groove of hip-hop. It is a voyage to somewhere exotic and seductively danceable.
