Label : Inside Out
Release : 1-2-2021
Transatlantic has never been a band that has shied away from a challenge. So it should come as no surprise that for their fifth album 'The Absolute Universe', Neal Morse, Roine Stolt, Pete Trewavas and Mike Portnoy are really out to do something unusual. “We actually came up with something unprecedented,” says Portnoy proudly. “We have two versions of this album. There is a presentation of two CDs ('Forevermore'), which is 90 minutes long, and a single one ('The Breath Of Life') - which is 60 minutes.
The single CD is NOT an edited version of the double CD. They are new recordings. What we've done for this is different approaches to the numbers! We wrote new lyrics and had different people sing on the songs on the single CD version compared to the ones on the double CD. We revamped the songs to make the two versions different.” For this record, the band has also returned to the concept album format: “What we have is essentially one giant composition, broken down into chapters. The storyline is about the struggles that everyone faces in today's society,” says Portnoy. "We didn't start out thinking this would be conceptual," Stolt admits. “The way things work with us is that we have a lot of ideas, and they develop spontaneously when we meet. Everything happens in the moment.” For Trewavas 'The Absolute Universe' is an important project. "I think it's up there with the very best albums we've made."
