Transatlantic
The Absolute Universe

Seven years after their last work, the quintessential suite-band returns to the spotlight with intentions that are, as always, pretentious and potentially daunting for the impatient and faint-hearted. This time I'm not sure if we can still call them a suite-band; the discussion is long and complex, requiring a step-by-step approach, but there is no doubt that, one way or another, the band has gone overboard once more. Starting from the very concept: two distinct versions of the same album. This time, Transatlantic laid an impressive amount of material on the table, leading to long discussions about what to keep and what to discard, creating two internal factions, Stolt and Portnoy preferring to keep everything, and Morse and Trewavas favoring selection; in the end, the match was essentially a draw but with both factions satisfied and victorious. They managed it more or less like Tamberi and Barshim in Tokyo 2020, but several months earlier.

And so “The Absolute Universe” was released in an extended version, titled “Forevermore” and lasting 90 minutes, and an abridged version, “The Breath of Life,” which is limited to 64 minutes. Mike Portnoy, however, emphasized that the second version is not merely a shortened version of the first but a substantially different one, with differences in lyrics, titles, vocal parts, and instrumentation.

But let's get to the dilemma that can challenge anyone wishing to become a prog analyst: is it a single, very long track (or two, given the forced break between one CD and the other in the extended version) or a series of pieces connected by a common thread? Something similar was seen in the third work “The Whirlwind,” precisely the album with which this one seems most related. The formula is roughly similar; we also had a series of audio segments flowing without interruptions back then. However, in that instance, the nature of a single composition was emphasized more insistently, from the use of Roman numerals to indicate the individual parts (a very common practice for indicating the movements of suites) to the complete performance of the composition on the related tour and its grouping into a single track in the subsequent live album. To be honest, even here, Roman numerals were used to indicate the tracks, suggesting a single piece of music. In an interview, Pete Trewavas indeed spoke of a suite; on the other hand, Mike Portnoy referred to “songs” when discussing the album's format, and Wikipedia (which aims to be as objective as possible) in this case, unlike “The Whirlwind,” listed the tracklist using Arabic numerals. Furthermore, the individual tracks seem largely to have a life of their own; they seem able to stand alone. If we eliminated the links between previous and subsequent tracks and listened to them individually, we might not even notice they are part of a larger project, finding that their structure fits well on its own. In “The Whirlwind,” this was not the same sensation; not all parts taken individually seemed to have a truly independent structure. Therefore, I tend to think that this “The Absolute Universe” is more of a concept than a suite. Of course, if it became the norm to leave an entire piece in a single audio file, we wouldn't be here overthinking it. Still, I plan to delve deeper into this topic in a future editorial. After all, progressive music is meant to be loved unconditionally, to be analyzed yes, but not necessarily understood or deciphered; in the end, all this is part of the beauty of debate.

Premise: I will focus on the extended version, which I consider the true album and which I have listened to frequently in the early months of the year.

The music of Transatlantic doesn't change a bit, the sounds of old organs, mellotrons, synths, the usual guitars and basses vaguely reminiscent of Yes, in short, the usual classic prog sound canonically produced with modernized production. But this time, the four manage to make it interesting and different from the usual. It's essentially in the form and presentation of the product that Transatlantic manages to renew interest, not so much in substance. If we take the individual tracks, especially those on the first CD, we realize they are almost set on a song format, with verse and chorus alternating smoothly without too many instrumental ups and downs. Many tracks flow seamlessly to the ears of the listener without climbing laborious grids. In practice, Transatlantic seems to reveal they even harbor a pop/rock nature. However, they remember that becoming catchy is not exactly their thing, and so they disguise it by filling the songs with everything that typically fills their compositions: not only is the work of the instruments robust and intense even in the lighter moments, but it's curious to note that in several tracks this apparent song form then dissolves into a not too pronounced instrumental ending (which essentially represents the connecting link to the next track); it's a false song format, a song that presents itself lightly but then often presents the final account. Tracks following this pattern include the funky “Heart Like a Whirlwind” and “The Darkness in the Light,” the fresh and bright “Higher Than the Morning,” the acoustic “Swing High, Swing Low,” the Beatlesque and carefree “Rainbow Sky,” the more rock-oriented “Looking for the Light,” and the slow and expansive “Solitude”; the acoustic and folksy “Lonesome Rebel” really brings simplicity to a minimum, a certain immediacy is also found in the fast-moving “Bully,” where the instrumental passages do not alter the fluidity of the track at all, practically a sort of Emerson, Lake & Palmer in a rockier and more straightforward version.

However, this alleged compositional lightness is essentially found in the first CD. In the second, after removing two episodes, the more prog and daring soul emerges with greater strength through more adventurous tracks like “Owl Howl,” “Looking for the Light (Reprise),” and “The Greatest Story Never Ends,” where rhythmic and instrumental variety takes full power, or in the final slow and symphonic “Love Made a Way”; but even the first CD has purely prog tracks like the Overture or “The World We Used to Know.”

In the end, it makes one think that perceived lightness and concession to pop is not really credible, it's probably unintentional, and the band ended up there unconsciously and accidentally, perhaps as a consequence of the division into several tracks of the work done, but from what I notice around, only I have recognized it, probably it's my fanciful interpretation (I'm specialized in fanciful interpretations, they belong to my style), I believe that if everything had been presented as a single track, I would never have noticed it.

In any case, using an oxymoron, Transatlantic managed to “exceed with lightness,” they pushed beyond with duration, but every moment is very lean.

Another feature is the almost complete interchangeability of vocalists, if already in “Kaleidoscope” Neal Morse had lost his role as the lead vocalist, now the swaps are more frequent, usually between him and Roine Stolt, but there are also some parts more entrusted to Pete Trewavas. The Marillion bassist has an elegant and vintage voice, surprising that they only realized it now.

Regarding the abridged version, I will briefly touch on it. It lasts 64 minutes and presents 14 tracks instead of 18, some tracks have been omitted, and others undergo cuts. But that's not all, often the lyrics and even the titles are different, as are the singers who interpret them. “Heart Like a Whirlwind” becomes “Reaching for the Sky,” “Swing High, Swing Low” becomes “Take Now My Soul”; instrumental reinterpretations are not excluded, for example, “The Greatest Story Never Ends” gets radically altered in the second part. The removed tracks are “Bully,” “Rainbow Sky,” “The World We Used to Know,” “The Sun Comes Up Today,” and “Lonesome Rebel,” whereas there is one exclusive missing from the extended version, “Can You Feel It.” It's undoubtedly a curious experiment, but it doesn’t actually hit the mark. In the end, one does not have the sensation of truly facing a different and radically changed version of the album as Portnoy would have us believe; excluding the lyrics, from a strictly instrumental point of view (the increasingly important aspect), no significant change is noticed, the sensation is simply that of a reduced version of the album and nothing more, more or less like the Marillion did with “Marbles” (also released as a single CD with four tracks omitted) or the IQ with “The Road of Bones” (presenting the second disc as an alleged “bonus” and releasing a single version as well), it's a commercial version, discount style, for those who can't be bothered to listen, but can they really be called true prog fans...? It's a bit like going to Esselunga and picking the 80 g tuna cans instead of 120 because you’re afraid those few extra grams will sit uncomfortably in your stomach. Personally, I leave this version to the faint-hearted and collectors; in any case, I think, as much as I might appreciate the experiment, they could have spared it.

In reality, there is also a third version, an ultimate version 5.1 mix in Blu-ray lasting 96 minutes that mixes parts from one version and the other, but this is also a collector's item and can easily be spared.

Nothing takes away from the greatness of Transatlantic, who remain the reference point for updated classic prog, managing to be pompous yet at the same time smooth (where for example the Flower Kings become heavy over time), and although staying completely true to their style, they find a way to amaze.