THE ABSOLUTE UNIVERSE - THE ULTIMATE EDITION

Transatlantic

•

Symphonic Prog

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Transatlantic The Absolute Universe - The Ultimate Edition album cover

4.49 | 35 ratings | 2 reviews | 74% 5 stars

Essential: a masterpiece of
progressive rock music

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Boxset/Compilation, released in 2021

Songs / Tracks Listing

- The Absolute Universe: Forevermore (extended version):

CD 1 (47:12)
1. Overture (8:11)
2. Heart Like a Whirlwind (5:11)
3. Higher Than the Morning (5:29)
4. The Darkness in the Light (5:43)
5. Swing High, Swing Low (3:48)
6. Bully (2:11)
7. Rainbow Sky (3:19)
8. Looking for the Light (3:59)
9. The World We Used to Know (9:21)

CD 2 (43:02)
10. The Sun Comes Up Today (5:38)
11. Love Made a Way (prelude) (1:25)
12. Owl Howl (7:05)
13. Solitude (5:41)
14. Belong (2:49)
15. Lonesome Rebel (2:53)
16. Looking for the Light (reprise) (5:12)
17. The Greatest Story Never Ends (4:17)
18. Love Made a Way (8:02)

Total Time 90:14

- The Absolute Universe: The Breath of Life (abridged version):

1. Overture (5:53)
2. Reaching for the Sky (5:40)
3. Higher Than the Morning (4:32)
4. The Darkness in the Light (5:43)
5. Take Now My Soul (3:31)
6. Looking for the Light (4:04)
7. Love Made a Way (prelude) (2:13)
8. Owl Howl (5:26)
9. Solitude (4:24)
10. Belong (2:22)
11. Can You Feel It (3:17)
12. Looking for the Light (reprise) (4:57)
13. The Greatest Story Never Ends (2:57)
14. Love Made a Way (9:02)

Total Time 64:01

- Blu-ray version (5.1 surround mix):

1. Overture (9:19)
2. Reaching for the Sky (5:40)
3. Higher Than the Morning (5:30)
4. The Darkness in the Light (5:43)
5. Take Now My Soul (3:48)
6. Bully (2:12)
7. Rainbow Sky (3:19)
8. Looking for the Light (4:00)
9. The World We Used to Know (9:10)
10. The Sun Comes Up Today (5:43)
11. Love Made a Way (prelude) (2:12)
12. Owl Howl (7:06)
13. Solitude (5:41)
14. Belong (2:51)
15. Lonesome Rebel (2:54)
16. Can You Feel It (3:17)
17. Looking for the Light (reprise) (5:13)
18. The Greatest Story Never Ends (4:53)
19. Love Made a Way (9:09)

Total Time 97:41

- Blu-ray bonus feature:

20. The Making of "The Absolute Universe" documentary (62:27)

Line-up / Musicians

- Neal Morse / vocals, piano, Hammond organ, Minimoog, Mellotron, acoustic guitar, charango
- Roine Stolt / vocals, electric & acoustic 6- & 12-string guitars, ukulele, keyboards, percussion
- Pete Trewavas / vocals, bass
- Mike Portnoy / vocals, drums & percussion

With:
- Josee Weigand / violin, viola
- Gideon Klein / cello, viola, string bass

Releases information

Mike Portnoy says: "We've got two versions of this album. There's a two CD presentation (Forevermore), which is 90 minutes long, and a single one (The Breath of Life) which is 60 minutes long. The single CD is NOT an edited version of the double CD. They're new recordings. What we have done are different approaches to the songs for this! We wrote fresh lyrics and have different people singing on the single CD version tracks as compared to those on the double CD. We revamped the songs to make the two versions different."

The Absolute Universe - The Ultimate Edition collects both versions together as a limited deluxe clear 5LP + 3CD + blu-ray box-set, featuring expanded 16 page LP-booklet, 5.1 surround sound mix with visuals, making-of documentary, 60x60cm poster - contained within a lift-off box finished with silver foil.

Label: InsideOut
February 5, 2021

Thanks to projeKct for the addition
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TRANSATLANTIC The Absolute Universe - The Ultimate Edition ratings distribution

4.49
(35 ratings)

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(74%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(11%)
Good, but non-essential (9%)
Collectors/fans only (0%)
Poor. Only for completionists (6%)

TRANSATLANTIC The Absolute Universe - The Ultimate Edition reviews

Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by rdtprog
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Heavy, RPI, Symph, JR/F Canterbury Teams

The supergroup is back with another album, this time a pleasant and uplifting 90 minutes journey into the absolute universe of symphonic prog rock. The music is based mostly on a good dose of Neal Morse and Flower Kings with some Beatlesesque, Yes, a bit of jazz, and a rip-off of the song ''Starless'' of King Crimson. This album is made to listen in one take like a big epic with some recurrent themes. My favorite parts are the dark parts that show a slightly different style from the Transatlantic style of the past. There is nothing more to add about the professionalism of those musicians and the overall quality of the production. The bass playing of Pete at the end of the album is breathtaking. It's no surprise to hear at the end on a Neal Morse project a nod to the multi-part vocals of Gentle Giant. This is a very enjoyable ride crossing the Atlantic reunifying the British, the US, and the Swedish. This review is taken from the Blu-Ray Edition which adds to the excitement of it all...

Review by DangHeck
PROG REVIEWER

What can I say here? I am just so excited for a new Transatlantic release. And of course, I had to listen to Forevermore, the extended version. Right from the get-go, we get that satisfyingly epic sound fans will know and love. Mike Portnoy sounds incredible as expected. Coming off of listening to some of my favorite Flower Kings tracks, I was hungry for more and I was all smiles seeing this finally reached "up next" on my queue of albums for the day.

I'm hard-pressed to not be impressed by these tracks, even when, compositionally, the songs are just okay. I mean, just exemplary musicianship; how could it not be? That all to say, as with the track "Swing High, Swing Low", the clearly Morse-penned neo-gospel Worship song, I even turned to enjoying tracks that I otherwise didn't really like. And as an album (see how the aforementioned track runs into the next, "Bully"), again, right from the start, as others have noted, it is clear that this is one purposeful piece, linked together by not-so-disparate parts. Big surprise there haha.

Excellent vocals and vocal harmonies, too, just as we know them to bring to the table. How could these parts not have been a blast for them to put together? From one review to the next, I go from jaded to excited (not that anyone asked). Random Aside Time: There is a guitar part at the end of "Higher Than the Morning" that I could have sworn was a David Gilmour line.

At the intro to "Looking for the Light" (following the excellent Beatlesesque Psych-soaked Power-Pop-turned-Symphonic-masterpiece, "Rainbow Sky") my jaw literally dropped haha. And is that Mike on lead vox? It's a great, beefy track. Fortunately here, by the middle of the first disc, we have plenty of interest and diversity, while still feeling like one whole piece of music. This carries on to the very end. Just like when I first heard The Whirlwind, all I can say is, "Impressive."

Far as I'm concerned, "Owl Howl" is the best track on the album. Give me as much of that Roine Stolt DARK ENERGY as humanly possible. A not-quite-close second for me was clearly "Looking for the Light (Reprise)"; quite the very-mini epic. Other personal standout tracks include "Rainbow Sky", "The Sun Comes Up Today", and "The Greatest Story Never Ends."

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