Transatlantic (band)

Transatlantic is a multinational progressive rock supergroup consisting of Neal Morse (ex-Spock's Beard), Roine Stolt (Kaipa, The Flower Kings), Pete Trewavas (Marillion, Edison's Children) and Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater). They formed in 1999 as a side project to their full-time bands, but disbanded in 2002.[1] They then reunited in 2009. Typical of the genre, the band's songs are often very long and regularly exceed 15-20 minutes in length.

Transatlantic
Transatlantic live in Stuttgart in 2010: Roine Stolt, Daniel Gildenlöw, Pete Trewavas, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy.
Background information
Origin	United States, United Kingdom, Sweden
Genres	Progressive rock, progressive metal
Years active	1999-2002, 2009-present
Labels	InsideOut Music (Europe), Metal Blade/Radiant Records (USA)
Website	www.transatlanticweb.com
Members	Neal Morse Mike Portnoy Roine Stolt Pete Trewavas

Despite not being an official member and not appearing on the studio albums, Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation) has traditionally joined the band during live shows. However, due to illness, Ted Leonard (Spock's Beard, Enchant, Thought Chamber) stood in for him during the 2014 tour.

Biography

Formation

Originally intending to include Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos, Morse and Portnoy tapped The Flower Kings guitarist/vocalist Roine Stolt when Matheos was unable to participate. The band completed their lineup by adding bassist and progressive rock veteran Pete Trewavas from the group Marillion and Edison's Children.[1]

The name of the group was originally planned to be "Second Nature," but was changed to Transatlantic at the suggestion of the cover artist Per Nordin.

SMPT:e and Bridge Across Forever (2000-2002)

Their first album, 2000's SMPT:e (a play on words, as both a combination of the members' last initials, as well as a common machine time protocol used in high end recording studios) received strong critical reviews, including "some of the best progressive rock music ever written" (Robert Taylor in Allmusic).

A subsequent tour of the United States led to a double live CD, Transatlantic Live in America, and a video of the same name. The band showed their musical heritage on the live CD, presenting covers of The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever", as well as a medley of Genesis' epic "Watcher of the Skies" and "Firth of Fifth".

Though SMPT:e contained the 31-minute opus "All of the Above", the band's second studio album, 2001's Bridge Across Forever, found the band flexing their muscles further in the long form for which progressive rock is known. The CD contained just four tracks, the 26-minute "Duel With the Devil", the 14-minute "Suite Charlotte Pike", and the 26-minute "Stranger in Your Soul" making up the bulk of the disc, with the title track coming in at a relatively scant five minutes. The limited edition also contains a cover of Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". In November 2001 the band toured Europe. As an added bonus for progressive metal fans, Daniel Gildenlöw of the band Pain of Salvation sat in throughout the tour as a "fifth member" of the band, playing keyboards, guitars, percussion, and vocals.

Hiatus (2002-2009)

Morse left his regular band Spock's Beard in October 2002, stating "God wants me to do something else," which meant leaving the mainstream prog scene to launch a new career as a Christian musician. This move also included ending his activities for Transatlantic. Portnoy reacted: "This spells the end of Transatlantic as I wouldn't possibly consider continuing it without him."[2] A live DVD of the band's then-last tour was released in late 2003, featuring all aforementioned epics with "Suite Charlotte Pike" mixed with the Abbey Road medley by the Beatles.

In the years to follow Morse continued to collaborate with Portnoy both in the studio and on stage. Morse' concerts frequently included one or more Transatlantic songs. A three-quarter reunion took place on August 23, 2008, when Stolt and Portnoy joined Morse at the Three Rivers Prog Fest in Pittsburgh for "We All Need Some Light" and "Stranger In Your Soul."

Reunion and The Whirlwind (2009-2013)

On April 16, 2009, it was officially announced that the band had reunited and begun work on a third studio album.[3][4] The album was released in October 2009 and consisted of a single 77-minute title-track The Whirlwind. A special edition of the album was also released, including a second disc with four additional original tracks and four cover tracks. Additionally, a deluxe edition was released, which included a DVD documenting the making of the album.[5] The album reached No. 21 on the U.S. Billboard Heatseekers chart.[6]

The band toured North America and Europe in April–May 2010 in support of The Whirlwind. Dubbed the Whirld Tour, the band was again joined by Daniel Gildenlöw on stage.[7] End 2012 Morse compiled a CD called A Proggy Christmas performed by The Prog World Orchestra. The Prog World Orchestra has different well known progressive rock names as members on each track. One of the ten songs on this album is "Silent Night/We All Need Some Light" and on this instrumental track The Prog World Orchestra is composed of the four members of Transatlantic.

In February 2013, the new Neal Morse band (with Mike Portnoy) and The Flower Kings started a European tour together which was followed by a gig in Los Angeles in May. Each band performed a set with their own songs and the encore set featured Transatlantic songs performed by Morse, Portnoy and Stolt supported by members of the two bands with special guests Jonas Reingold and Randy George alternating on bass.[8][9] The encore ends with eleven musicians on the stage.

On March 10, 2013, Pete Trewavas announced at the Marillion Weekend Convention in Port Zélande, the Netherlands, that he would be going to Nashville in the Summer to record new material with Transatlantic. Neal Morse confirmed this to DPRP.[10]

Kaleidoscope (2014-present)

On May 30, 2013, Mike Portnoy announced that they had finished writing a new Transatlantic album. It features five songs (two epics and three "normal length" ones) plus 8 covers for the bonus disc.[11] The album was released in January 2014.[12] A world tour of the United States and Europe followed, including a special performance on the "Progressive Nation at Sea" cruise created by Mike Portnoy. The band played two shows, with the first featuring the entire "Kaleidoscope" album and the second including guest performances by famous progressive rock artists such as Jon Anderson of Yes. On Sept 11, 2014, Kaleidoscope won 'Album of the Year' at the third annual Progressive Music Awards.

5 (2019-2020)

Transatlantic is recording its fifth album for an expected 2020 release.[13]

Members

• Neal Morse - keyboard, vocals, guitar
• Mike Portnoy - drums, vocals
• Roine Stolt - guitar, vocals
• Pete Trewavas - bass guitar, vocals

Touring and guests members

• Daniel Gildenlöw - guitar, vocals, keyboards (2001 & 2010 tours, 2017 show)
• Ted Leonard - guitar, vocals, keyboards (2014 tour, 2017 show)
• Bill Hubauer - guitar, vocals, keyboards (2017 show)[14]

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions
		GER [15]	FRA [16]	NLD [17]	SWE [18]	SWI [19]	AUT [20]	FIN [21]	JPN [22]	UK [23][24]
SMPT:e	Released: March 21, 2000 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD, LP, digital download[25]	66	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Bridge Across Forever	Released: October 9, 2001 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD, LP, digital download[26]	56	98	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
The Whirlwind	Released: October 27, 2009 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD, CD+DVD, LP, digital download[27]	45	134	40	59	—	—	—	—	118
Kaleidoscope	Released: February 4, 2014 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD, CD+DVD, LP, digital download[28]	6	77	6	55	13	52	22	134	52
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Live albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions
		GER [15]	FRA [16]
Live in America	Released: March 12, 2001 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD, digital download[29]	—	—
Live in Europe	Released: November 4, 2003 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD	—	—
Whirld Tour 2010: Live in London	Released: October 26, 2010 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD	52	196
More Never Is Enough: Live In Manchester & Tilburg 2010	Released: October 25, 2011 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD	—	—
KaLIVEoscope	Released: October 27, 2014 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: CD+DVD	45	—
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Other albums

Title	Album details
Transatlantic Demos by Neal Morse	Released: April 2, 2003 Label: Radiant Formats: CD
SMPT:e - The Roine Stolt Mixes	Released: 2003 Label: Metal Blade Formats: CD

Video albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions
		SWE [30]	SWI [31]
Live in America	Released: 2001 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: VHS, DVD	—	—
Building the Bridge	Released: 2002 Label: Radiant Records Formats: VHS, DVD	—	—
Live in Europe	Released: November 25, 2003 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: DVD	—	—
The Official Bootleg DVD	Released: 2008 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: DVD	—	—
Whirld Tour 2010: Live in London	Released: October 25, 2010 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: DVD	13	7
More Never Is Enough: Live in Tilburg 2010	Released: October 24, 2011 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: DVD	—	—
KaLIVEoscope	Released: October 27, 2014 Label: Radiant/Metal Blade, Inside Out Music Formats: BD, CD+DVD+BD	5	—
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

References

1. "Neal Morse Interview". Guitarhoo!. Guitarhoo.com. December 24, 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
2. "Transatlantic - The Official Site". transatlanticweb.com.
3. "Transatlantic Reunite for New Studio Album!". Mike Portnoy's forum. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
4. "Transatlantic Flies Again!!!". The Flower Kings official website. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
5. "TRANSATLANTIC'S THE WHIRLWIND - Coming in October!". Transatlantic - The Official Site. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
6. Charts, AllMusic
7. "TRANSATLANTIC - WHIRLD TOUR 2010!!! (now with DANIEL GILDENLOW)". Mike Portnoy. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2013-02-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-02-12. Retrieved 2013-02-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. "And Neal Morse says…". dprp.net.
11. "Mike Portnoy - The TA4 Sessions went splendidly fantastic!... - Facebook". facebook.com.
12. Mike Portnoy - interview @Linea Rock. YouTube. 24 September 2013.
13. https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/progressive-rock-supergroup-transatlantic-reunites-to-record-fifth-album/
14. "Transatlantic Setlist at Cruise to the Edge 2017". Setlist.fm. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
15. "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche - musicline.de". musicline.de.
16. Hung, Steffen. "lescharts.com - Les charts français". Lescharts.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
17. Hung, Steffen. "Dutch Charts - dutchcharts.nl". Dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
18. "Swedish Charts Portal". Swedishcharts.co. Retrieved 25 March 2020m.
19. Hung, Steffen. "Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade und Music Community". Hitparade.ch. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
20. Hung, Steffen. "Das österreichische Hitparaden- und Musik-Portal". Austriancharts.at. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-03-14. Retrieved 2014-08-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
22. "トランスアトランティックのアルバム売上ランキング". ORICON STYLE.
23. "Chart statistics" (TXT). Zobbel.de. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
24. "Chart statistics" (TXT). Zobbel.de. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
25. "SMPT:e". iTunes.
26. "Bridge Across Forever". iTunes.
27. "The Whirlwind". iTunes.
28. "Kaleidoscope (Kaleidoscope)". iTunes.
29. "Live In America". iTunes.
30. "Sverigetopplistan - Sveriges Officiella Topplista". Sverigetopplistan.se.
31. Hung, Steffen. "Schweizer Hitparade - Musik-DVD Top 10 21.11.2010 - hitparade.ch". Hitparade.ch. Retrieved 19 April 2018.

External links

• Transatlantic official site
• Encyclopaedia Metallum page
• An interview with Pete Trewavas on the Whirlwind (November 2009)