''The Cross of Changes'' is the second studio album by the German musical project

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

, headed by Romanian-German musician and producer

Michael Cretu Michael Cretu ( ro, Mihai Crețu, ; born 18 May 1957) is a Romanian-German musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He gained worldwide fame as the founder and musician behind the musical project Enigma, which he formed in 1990. Cretu ...

, released on 6 December 1993 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

internationally and by

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der ...

in the United States. Following the worldwide commercial success of the first Enigma album, '' MCMXC a.D.'' (1990), Cretu began to write and record music for a new album at A.R.T. Studios, his home studio in

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

, Spain. Cretu sampled songs from several artists, including

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

, U2,

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

and

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

. ''The Cross of Changes'' was a commercial success. Upon its release, it debuted at 1 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, becoming Enigma's second consecutive number-one album in the United Kingdom, and peaked at number nine on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the United States, where it sold over two million copies. In 1994, four singles were released from the album: "

Return to Innocence "Return to Innocence" is a song by German musical group Enigma. It was released on 4 January 1994 as the lead single from their second album, ''The Cross of Changes'' (1993). It became the project's most successful international single after "S ...

", " The Eyes of Truth", " Age of Loneliness (Carly's Song)" (originally written for the film ''

Sliver Sliver may refer to: Entertainment *Sliver (novel), ''Sliver'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Ira Levin **Sliver (film), ''Sliver'' (film), a 1993 film adaptation of the novel **Sliver (soundtrack), ''Sliver'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the 1993 fi ...

''), and "

Out from the Deep "Out from the Deep" is a 1994 song created by the German electronic band Enigma. This single is the fourth and last single released from the band's second album, ''The Cross of Changes''. The single cover art is a simplified version of ''The Cros ...

". A special limited edition of the album was released on 21 November 1994 on a 24- carat gold-plated disc, containing three additional remixes.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''The Cross of Changes''. * Andreas Harde (credited as Angel) – additional voice *

Sandra Cretu Sandra Ann Lauer (born 18 May 1962), commonly known under her stage name Sandra and Sandra Cretu (), is a Franco-German pop singer who enjoyed mainstream popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s with a string of European hit singles, produced ...

– additional voice *

(credited as Curly M.C.) – additional voice, instruments, programming, production, engineering * Louisa Stanley – additional voice *

Jens Gad Jens Gad is a German producer, songwriter and guitarist of Danish parents. He started making music at young age. Gad produces music for many artists (Sandra Cretu / Sandra Gambino) and was previously co-producer for the musical project, Enigma. I ...

– guitars *

Peter Cornelius Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. Life He was born in Mainz to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors i ...

– guitars

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

Short article about the album

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross Of Changes, The 1993 albums Albums produced by Michael Cretu Charisma Records albums Enigma (German band) albums Virgin Records albums