Review of "Beyond The Invisible"

By Ye Min Than (than@webster.ch), October 14, 1996. Revised October 24, 1996

The cover features a man giving his back and his head is circled by a kind of a huge metal ring (or something like that). In the picture, the man looks like half-robot and half human. On top of it, it is written Enigma 3. Inside the booklet, there are two pictures of Eiffel Tower, Paris from different angles.

Now, the CD features 5 tracks as following....

1. Beyond the Invisible (Radio Edit) 4:30
2. Almost Full Moon 3:42
3. Beyond the Invisible (Album Version) 5:05
4. Light Of Your Smile 5:10
5. Beyond the Invisible (Short Edit) 3:42

The lyrics of the song is written in the booklet and it is as followed...

"BEYOND THE INVISIBLE"

I Look into the mirror
See myself, I'm over me
I need space for my desires
Have to dive into my fantasies
I know as soon as I'll arrive
Everything is possible...
Cause no one has to hide
Beyond the invisible

Close your eyes...
Just feel and realize
It is real and not a dream
I'm in you and you're in me
It is time
To break the chains of life
If you follow you'll see
What's beyond reality


Lyrics by Michael Cretu and David Fairstein
Music by Michael Cretu
Produced and engineered by Michael Cretu

Samples taken from:

- GREGORIANI CANTUS/PIERRE KAELIN with kind permission of Tudor Records
- LEFTONIE MUSIQUE DES RITES SOLAIRES by RASA ENSEMBLE RIGA

Strangely enough, in the booklet of Beyond the Invisible, there is a new URL address for Enigma and it is

http://www.enigma.de

I tried to reach that page but without any success. If anyone can reach it please inform others about it. Now here is my review of the Maxi CD Beyond the Invisible.....

Track 1 - "Beyond the Invisible" (Radio Edit)

The song starts with intro of low-volumed pan-flute (or Shakuhachi if you like). And there is also a strange synth sound (like the siren of a train or a kind of strange human "synth" voice) playing single notes as the intro builds up. The voice of Sandra comes in around 0:19 and sings (or rather speaks) the first verse. Her voice is as recognizable and mystifying as in The Second Chapter, The Voice of Enigma or I Love You...I'll Kill You. After she sings the lines ".....beyond the invisible..", the main melody of the song comes in. The melody is built of a strange female voice that is repeated and processed with "multi-delay" EFXs (or simply "Delay" effects)!!! Here again, Michael uses human vocal as an instrument itself to build a melody. Technically speaking, Beyond the Invisible is like Return to Innocence. But Beyond the Invisble is much much better than Return to Innocence!!!! It sounds more mysterious and more beautiful. No doubt, this will be one of the favourite songs of the Enigma fans.

The chorus is sung by Michael Cretu himself. He vocal is like usual and he sings the chorus line "Close your eyes........What's beyond reality." After the first chorus, the Gregorian Chants kicks in. It is at the middle of the song and moreover, there are sounds of female moanings (those of Sandra) through out the song. This parts give you the feel of MCMXC a.D. but mind you, in term of style and music, "Beyond the Invisible" is not similar to the songs like Sadeness, or Mea Culpa. If you want, the song Beyond the Invisible is like a subtle mixture of Return to Innocence and Sadeness!!!!!! But it is distinctive and of course, it's a great song.

After the Gregorian chants, the drums kick in louder but missing is the groove beats like in Sadeness. The rest of the song is repeating of Michael's singing until fade out. The main melody of the song is played constantly at the background while Micheal sings the chorus. The melody of this song is very distinctive and sounds very mystifying. Beyond the Invisible is truely a great song........

Track 2 - "Almost Full Moon"

This is a new track. It is not a remix of Beyond the Invisible. There is no lyrics inside, just an instrumental song with a kind of tribal chants (strange chant though) that is repeated again and again. The chant sounds like a child singing. The same chant is repeated again but in a adult male vocal. It seems that Michael uses a voice transformer (maybe a BOSS VT-1) to change the same chant from a child voice to an adult one. Very neat!!! The chants is looped constantly along the whole song.

The song is very atmospheric and it is a slow song. There are slow drums with all kinds of synth sounds at the back. The melody comes in the middle of the track. This song is just above average. It is just a backup song for the Maxi CD.

Track 3 - "Beyond the Invisible" (Album Version)

The same as Radio Edit but with longer intro and fade out. The sounds of train siren or human synth sound is omitted.

Track 4 - "Light Of Your Smile"

This is a great track!!! At first listening, it sounds like a Deep Forest song. This is because the chant Michael uses for this track is somewhat similar to those of Deep Forest. Musically and technically speaking, it has nothing to do with Deep Forest style. The essence of this track is its distinctive composition of rhythm.

This song starts slowly and then builds up its rhythm. Its rhythm is very good and distinctive like typical of Michael's style. The rhythm is composed of different sounds from Drum kits and Michael mixes these with sounds of birds (like pigeons). This is VERY COOL!!!!! VERY NEAT!!! The sounds of synth make the track more colorful and uplifting (giving the vision of a shooting star!!!).

Overall, the song is very atmospheric and upbeating. This track is really excellent indeed. Maybe this is the best track of the Maxi CD.

Track 5 - "Beyond the Invisible" (Short Edit)

This is a short version of Track 1. Nothing new here.........

Well, I guess this shed some lights on the new single of Enigma. Please excuse me if my writing is abrupt or short. That is partly because the new single is excellent and it excited me so much!!!

But personally, I do not think that Track 2 and Track 4 will appear on the forthcoming album Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!. Because they don't sound like they appeared on the track listing on the album. Moreover, there are no indication or citation of these tracks being on the album. I don't know for sure but that is my opinion. If ever they appear on the album, it seems to me that the album will likely be a double CD album. Well again here, I may be wrong but let's wait and see.

So here it is......enjoy it!!!!

Updated November 5, 1996 by Joar Grimstvedt joarg@hsr.no