The multi-national prog-rock supergroup Transatlantic began in 1999 when Spock’s Beard keyboard player Neal Morse, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, Flower Kings guitarist Roine Stolt, and Marillion bassist Pete Trewavas each felt the desire to have a side project apart from their main gigs. Their debut LP, 2000’s SMPT:e laid out the band’s approach, a combination of 70’s prog-rock and late-period Beatles and a penchant for very long tracks including the album’s 30-minute opening track and its 17-minute closer. 2001’s Bridge Across Forever did even better than its predecessor on the German album charts. In 2002 the band went on hiatus as Portnoy shifted his focus away from secular music, but they reconvened in 2009 to record their third album, The Whirlwind, which consisted of one single 77-minute composition. They toured internationally for the album, and they did so again after 2014’s Kaleidoscope. The latter album became their biggest chart hit to that point, going top 10 in Germany and the Netherlands, and also breaking onto the charts in several European countries as well as Japan. That LP also took home Album of the Year at the third Progressive Music Awards. It would be seven years before another new Transatlantic album, 2021’s The Absolute Universe, appeared.