Absolute Universe: The Breath of Life

After six years away, Transatlantic's Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Roine Stolt, and Pete Trewavas met in Sweden for four days in 2019. They cut enough material to fill two albums. Plans to complete and tour the set in 2020 were scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Morse desired a single-disc release, but his bandmates disagreed. Portnoy posed an unprecedented solution: releasing two musically distinct versions of the same album simultaneously. Stolt shepherded the unabridged double disc -- subtitled "Forevermore" -- to completion. Morse edited the single "The Breath of Life" disc, but went much further. He rearranged and reorchestrated songs using different singers, penned some new lyrics, and added an exclusive track. Both versions of the record unfold as single, sprawling compositions divided into multifaceted chapters (à la 2009's Whirlwind). The album's themes meditate on the crises facing humanity at this historical juncture. Transatlantic respond creatively with accounts of, and exhortations to, inner personal transformation as the redress for existential change.
The five-note motif in "Overture" recurs throughout; Morse edited it from eight minutes to four, and its end result is less ponderous. "Reaching for the Sky" is the longer volume's "Heart Like a Whirlwind" retitled and rearranged to accent Morse, Trewavas, and Portnoy on alternating lead vocals. The melody and lyric exude abundant, seemingly paradoxical joy amid catastrophe. They're framed by a biting Chris Squire-esque bass line, swirling Mellotrons, and piano glissandos. "Higher Than the Morning," a set highlight, offers four-part harmonies that recall Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young inside a sweeping jazzy bounce while warning against selfishness. Stolt fronts the band on "The Darkness in the Light." Its infectious hook underscores a poignant lyric framed by glorious vocal harmonies. "Take Now My Soul" is a retitled and radically rearranged version of "Swing High, Swing Low" wherein ambient space around the vocal production adds a hefty emphasis to the lyric. The first incarnation of set closer "Love Made a Way" appears here as an acoustically driven interlude before the knotty, angular, metallic prog of "Owl Howl." (If there is a live staple here, this is it.) "Can You Feel It" is unique to "Breath of Life." A soaring spiritual rocker, its bleeding pipe organs and zigzagging synths sweep across guitars, a charging bass line, and Portnoy's syncopated fills. "Looking for the Light" is reprised as a pathway foreshadowing the labyrinthine roar of "The Greatest Story Never Ends." Complete with choral vocals, layered pipe organs, and martial drumming, it crescendos into the finale, "Love Made a Way." Introduced by Morse's piano and vocals, the recurrent lyric "my heart is like a whirlwind" is delivered with conviction, and buoyed by his bandmates' crystalline harmonies. The tune filters all the warnings, advice, affirmation, and resolve with grace and aplomb before the atmospheric outro carries it into silence. Morse's (re)arrangements and editing offer another dimension to Transatlantic's sophisticated writing and production, underscoring the pregnant senses of compassionate empathy and openness on The Absolute Universe as a gateway to possibility. It matters not which of these volumes you prefer; separately or combined, they account for Transatlantic's masterpiece. ~ Thom Jurek