Fun fact: Enigma (i.e. Michael Cretu) were sued over this song by the folk music duo Difang and Igay Duana, whose performance of Amis chant ‘Weeding and Paddyfield Song No. 1’ is sampled throughout ‘Return to Innocence’.

Hailing from Taiwan, these Amis musicians were in a cultural exchange program in Paris in 1988 when their performance of the song was recorded by the Maison des Cultures du Monde and later distributed on CD. The producer of Enigma, Michael Cretu, later obtained the CD and proceeded to sample it.

In March 1998, Difang and Igay sued Cretu, Virgin Records and a number of recording companies for unauthorised use of their song without credit. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money and “full attribution” to the Duanas “including liner notes on all future releases featuring the work”. Cretu has stated that he had been led to believe that the recording was in the public domain and that he did not intentionally violate the Duanas’ copyright.

The music video is by the rather well-known English director Julien Temple, who’s made a variety of films, documentaries, and music videos. He’s known e.g. for the film ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ and for Sex Pistols’ video for ‘God Save the Queen’, Culture Club’s ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me’, Depeche Mode’s ‘Leave in Silence’, Sade’s ‘Smooth Operator’, etc. etc.

Another fun fact is that Sandra, the female singer in Enigma, was an accomplished singer of her own in the eighties — Michael Cretu produced some of her records, and was her husband at the time.

I fucking adore this song. Pure Moods got me hooked and I binged so much Enigma in my angsty teenage years, they truly got me through some shit. In any case Return To Innocence can still pretty reliably move me to tears if I really listen deeply enough