MCMXC a.D. Songwriting Credits by Enigma

Seven tracks, one writing hand. Michael Cretu is the only name on all seven, credited as Curly M.C., and he is the sole writer of "The Voice of Enigma", "Callas Went Away" and "Knocking on Forbidden Doors". The two names beside him are pseudonyms of collaborators, not outside hit-writers: F. Gregorian is Frank Peterson, who takes a music credit on "Principles of Lust" and "The Voice & the Snake", and David Fairstein is Fabrice Cuitad, who wrote text on "Principles of Lust", "Mea Culpa" and the closing "Back to the Rivers of Belief". The harder authorship question on this record is what the writing credits leave out. Every track sits on borrowed sound, and none of the sampled sources appears in the writer line. The Gregorian chant on "Sadeness" and "Mea Culpa" came off Capella Antiqua München's 1976 recording Paschale Mysterium, which is why Polydor Germany sued in 1991; the claim was a right of personality claim over the choir's performance, not a copyright claim, because the chants themselves are public domain, and it settled with a public apology from Virgin and compensation from Cretu. "Callas Went Away" samples Maria Callas, and "The Voice & the Snake" lifts from "The Seven Bowls" on Aphrodite's Child's 1972 album 666, which Vangelis composed with lyricist Costas Ferris. Neither Callas nor the writers of 666 appear in this album's credits.