1976–1988: Session work and solo career After graduating from the Academy of Music, Cretu remained in
West Germany and took up work as a
session musician. Cretu left the group before they released their second album, in 1990. His first solo album, titled
Moon, Light & Flowers, came out in 1979. It contains the singles "Shadows Over My Head" and "Wild River", released in 1978, and "Moonlight Flower" and "Love Me". His second album,
Legionäre, came out in 1983. Cretu's third album,
Die Chinesische Mauer, was released in 1985 and featured the song "
Samurai". It was issued separately with English-language lyrics and a different track listing under the name
The Invisible Man.
Collaborations and projects In 1980, Cretu cowrote the song "Woman Behind the Man" with Peter Franken, for ex-
Ebony singer
Isetta Preston, producing it as well.
Sandra In 1985, he produced, arranged, and played keyboards, drums, and programming on
The Long Play, the debut studio album by West German pop singer
Sandra.
Peter Cornelius In 1980, Cretu began a collaboration with the Austrian musician
Peter Cornelius, contributing music and production to five of the latter's albums, including
Der Kaffee ist fertig (1980,
Zwei (1980),
Reif für die Insel (1981),
Ohne Filter (1982), and
Fata Morgana (1983). In 1992, the two collaborated once more, this time on the joint album
Cornelius + Cretu.
Cretu & Thiers In 1988, Cretu released an album with former Moti Special bandmate Manfred Thiers, titled
Belle Epoque.
Trance Atlantic Air Waves In 1998, Cretu teamed up with musician and producer
Jens Gad on the project
Trance Atlantic Air Waves, which released one album,
The Energy of Sound, the same year.
A.R.T. Studios Cretu formerly owned the A.R.T. Studios in
Ibiza. His house, near
Sant Antoni de Portmany, was a
Moroccan-style mansion that featured a recording studio. The
Spanish High Court deemed it to have been built illegally and in infringement of environmental regulations, which led to the €18 million villa being razed in May 2009. Cretu has stated that was not surprised by the album's unexpected success, as he recalled telling his wife before its release, "This will be a huge hit or nothing at all". On this album, Cretu pivoted away from
Gregorian chants, present throughout
MCMXC a.D., as numerous artists had started to use them in their music, The same year, he was approached by
Paramount Pictures to contribute to the
soundtrack for the film
Sliver, and he came up with another single, "
Carly's Song", after the main female character's name. In 1996, Enigma released its third album,
Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!. Stylistically, it sounded like a combination of the first and second albums. It did not achieve the same level of success, though it sold over one million copies in the United States and received Gold certification in the United Kingdom nonetheless. In 1999, Cretu steered the project in another direction by using samples of
Carl Orff's
Carmina Burana on the fourth album,
The Screen Behind the Mirror, released a year later. This was the first Enigma record to feature
Andru Donalds and
Ruth-Ann Boyle, both of whom would provide vocals for several more of the project's albums. Although Jens Gad had worked with Cretu on earlier Enigma records, this was the first time that he received a liner credit. Cretu continued to record Enigma albums, releasing
Voyageur in 2003. Familiar sounds of the
Shakuhachi flute and tribal or Gregorian chants were replaced with more commercially friendly tunes and beat. In 2006, a new single, titled "
Hello and Welcome", was issued in anticipation of another album,
A Posteriori, which came out later that year.
Seven Lives Many Faces, Enigma's seventh studio album, was published in 2008. The project's latest release,
The Fall of a Rebel Angel, came out in 2016. ==Personal life==