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A Posteriori

 
Album Review: A Posteriori

  • Artist: Enigma
  • Rating: StarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: September 26, 2006
  • Type: Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: New Age

Review

Enigma records must sell here in the States. In Europe, where virtually anything goes, they do; but here, one has to wonder after five albums that are only subtly different from one another, along with countless singles and 12" remixes, what's left to engage the imagination. Such is the case with A Posteriori, which in Italian means anything from "what comes after" to "behind." Dedicated to "all visionaries of human race" (sic), A Posteriori is once again beautiful in its sonics, textures, and grooves. Michael Crétu does almost everything here save for a couple of recitations. Once more, the songs of Enlightenment composers such as Gesualdo and Monteverdi are sampled in the tranced-out mix. Are they prayers? Are they amorous songs? Unless you can understand Latin or Italian, there's no way of knowing. But Crétu has always been able to weave together the spiritual and the carnal, and it's his trademark. The more obvious trance and house beats are a near constant. One has to believe that if the folks in Tangerine Dream would have started in the 1990s instead of the 1960s, they'd sound something like this, as many of Crétu's pulsing textures are reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's Stratosfear and Tangram years. While the sound Crétu employs is now familiar, perhaps listeners should be thankful for it. He's managed to find something that works, and goes for it with gusto. Perhaps nothing on this set is as striking as "Remembrance," but then who would ever want to hear that cut again? "Feel Me Heaven" is a wild, pulsing, throbbing trance cut that blends everything listeners know of Crétu's previous music into a lovely whole. It is followed by "Dreaming of Andromeda," a slower though no less hypnotic slice of chilled house. Some things here seem just plain dumb -- "Dancing with Mephisto" and "Sitting on the Moon" feel more like new age cuts than anything else. Crétu's vocal on the latter sounds like Robbie Robertson's from his solo albums. The glissando guitar that opens the completely dancefloor-driven "Invisible Love" works well, but Crétu's vocals are irritating. The shifting dynamics in "The Alchemist" make it one of the most compelling cuts on the disc, and it is a perfect candidate for an extended remix by some wise and imaginative soul. The bottom line: if you like the Enigma sound, this will be up your alley, full of the things you may seek out in a recording, but there is little new here. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Eppur Si Muove Enigma (3:41)
Feel Me Heaven (Lyrics) Enigma (4:50)
Dreaming of Andromeda Enigma (4:26)
Dancing with Mephisto (Lyrics) Enigma (4:25)
Northern Lights Enigma (3:39)
Invisible Love (Lyrics) Enigma (4:55)
Message from 10 Enigma (3:09)
Hello and Welcome (Lyrics) Enigma (5:08)
20,000 Miles Over the Sea Enigma (4:23)
Sitting on the Moon (Lyrics) Enigma (4:21)
The Alchemist Enigma (4:41)
Goodbye Milky Way (Lyrics) Enigma (5:58)

Credits

Michael Crétu (Arranger), Michael Crétu (Producer), Michael Crétu (Engineer), Michael Crétu (Performer), Louisa Stanley (Narrator), Dirk Rudolph (Artwork), Marc Lagrange (Photography)
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Wikipedia: A Posteriori
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A Posteriori
Studio album by Enigma
Released September 22, 2006 (Germany)
September 25, 2006 (International)
Recorded 2005—2006
at various places with the ALCHEMIST (all in one computed mobile studio)[1]
Genre New Age, Ambient, Trance, House, Electronic music
Length 53:38
Label Virgin, EMI
Producer Michael Cretu
Professional reviews
Enigma chronology
15 Years After
(2005)
A Posteriori
(2006)
Seven Lives Many Faces
(2008)

A Posteriori is the title of the musical project Enigma's sixth studio album, released in September 2006. In December 2006, the album was nominated in the Best New Age Album category in the 2007 Grammy Awards.[2]

While the previous album, Voyageur, contained minimal amounts of the project's signature sounds, A Posteriori only contains the signature "Enigma horn" (a foghorn) during the opening minute of the album, and even then it is a fleeting glimpse. Coupled with the album's subject matter of the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, A Posteriori is, compared to earlier releases, stark and foreboding.

Contents

Overview

History

News about the album's title and tracklist were first made public on July 18, 2006 through Crocodile-Music.de news page and EnigmaMusic.com's forums, while the album cover was made public ten days later. The first track from the album to be made public was "Hello and Welcome," released as a stand-alone single in 2005. Enigma's management subsequently stated that a new version would be included on the album, while the lead single off the album proper would be "Goodbye Milky Way."[3]

Recording

A Posteriori became first Enigma album to be recorded using Cretu's new 5.1 fully computerized mobile music studio "Alchemist". "Alchemist" represents a machine of comparably small size with main keyboard and a number of hardware Midi controllers with some "special" expansions and central computer with LCD screen. It was designed for Michael Cretu privately and according to him helped a lot producing music, transferring ideas into sound.[1]

Etymology

A posteriori, a Latin phrase translated as "after the fact," refers to empirical knowledge, the epistemological concept of deriving knowledge from past experience.

Eppur si muove, alternately spelled E pur si muove, is an Italian phrase translated to "And yet it moves," attributed to Galileo Galilei after he was sentenced by the Roman Inquisition to recant his belief in heliocentrism.

Track listing

All songs written, arranged, performed, engineered & produced by Michael Cretu. 4 & 12 narrated by Louisa Stanley. Backing vocals on 8 by Andru Donalds.

All songs published by 1-2-3 Music / Crocodile Music.

  1. "Eppur Si Muove" – 3:41
  2. "Feel Me Heaven" – 4:50
  3. "Dreaming of Andromeda" – 4:26
  4. "Dancing with Mephisto" – 4:25
  5. "Northern Lights" – 3:34
  6. "Invisible Love" – 4:55
  7. "Message from IO" – 3:09
  8. "Hello and Welcome" (new version) – 5:09
  9. "20.000 Miles over the Sea" – 4:22
  10. "Sitting on the Moon" – 4:21
  11. "The Alchemist" – 4:41
  12. "Goodbye Milky Way" – 5:58

Apart from the album, some additional remixes were released exclusively through the iTunes Store. They are:

  • "Eppur Si Muove" (Tocadisco Remix) – 6:39
  • "Dreaming of Andromeda" (Jean F. Cochois Remix) – 7:28
  • "20.000 Miles over the Sea" (Boca Junior Remix)– 7:07
  • "The Alchemist" (The Alchemist's Vision by Ralf Hildenbeutel) – 7:17

A Posteriori (Private Lounge Remix)

The Private Lounge remix album version of A Posteriori was released via iTunes Store on March 18, 2007 in Germany and on March 26 in the rest of Europe.

Track listing:

  1. Eppur Si Muove (Tocadisco Remix 2) - 6:11
  2. Feel Me Heaven (Boca Junior Remix) - 6:24
  3. Dreaming of Andromeda (Jean F. Cochois Remix) - 7:29
  4. Dancing With Mephisto (Boca Junior Remix) - 5:28
  5. Northern Lights (Boca Junior Remix) - 5:41
  6. Invisible Love (Boca Junior Remix) - 5:45
  7. Message from IO (Boca Junior Remix) - 5:33
  8. The Alchemist (Christian Geller Remix) - 6:54
  9. 20.000 Miles Over the Sea (Boca Junior Remix) - 7:08
  10. Sitting On the Moon (Boca Junior Remix) - 5:31
  11. The Alchemist (The Alchemist's Vision By Ralf Hildenbeutel) - 7:16
  12. Goodbye Milky Way (Boca Junior Remix) - 5:10

Charts

  • Worldwide sales: 1,200,000 copies (Gold)
  • US sales: 160,000 copies (Silver)
  • UK sales: 50,000 copies
  • Gremany sales: 60,000 copies (Silver)
Charts
Chart (2006) Peak
Europe 31
Greece 2
USA Billboard Top Electronic Albums 2
Netherlands 7
Turkey 7
Germany 15
Austria 16
Switzerland 23
Hungary 23
Portugal 26
Italy 31
Czech Republic 33
Slovakia 34
Poland 43
Spain 79
USA Billboard Top 200 94
France 97

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b "The Alchemist Studio" (in Spanish). Enigma Música.com. http://www.enigmamusica.com/estudio/alchemist.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-30. 
  2. ^ "49th Annual Grammy Awards Nominee List". GRAMMY.com. http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/49th_Show/list.aspx#09. Retrieved 2006-12-09. 
  3. ^ "New Enigma Album". Enigma News. Crocodile Music Management GmbH. http://www.crocodile-music.de/enigma/index.php. Retrieved 2006-07-17. 

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "A Posteriori" Read more