Whenever Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Roine Stolt and Pete Trewavas get together for Transatlantic, you're quick to use superlatives. This time, however, the prog supergroup has taken it to the extreme once again. Because "The Absolute Universe" is nothing less than the wet dream of every prog fan: a concept album in three different versions
Transatlantic relations are no longer what they used to be, thanks to the Trump administration. In music, however, they still work splendidly. Separate yet united - we bring three of the four prog protagonists to the big eclipsed interview table for you. In our extensive title interview Neal Morse, Roine Stolt and Pete Trewavas talk about the different album versions and the genesis of "The Absolute Universe" as well as about visa problems, the Corona pandemic and good food. Plus: memories of the first sessions over 20 years ago!
In the nineties Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian played together for five years at Dream Theater. Then the band unbooted the keyboarder in favour of Jordan Rudess, who is still in office today. Sherinian founded Planet X, toured with Yngwie Malmsteen and Billy Idol, joined Black Country Communion and had a highly acclaimed solo career. He renewed his musical relationship with Portnoy after he left Dream Theater in the instrumental supergroup PSMS (Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian). Out of the spirit of this formation Sons Of Apollo were finally acquired, as the bandleaders revealed in the conversation.
eclipsed: It all started with PSMS, right?
The Aschaffenburg photographer Jürgen Spachmann uses his camera to get musicians like Steve Hackett, Mike Portnoy, Fish or Beth Hart extremely close to the skin. It's the only way he can get behind her mask, he says.
eclipsed: How did you come to rock photography and especially to the project "bigface", where you get extremely close to musicians with your camera?
Spachmann: BIGFACE is in stark contrast to my daily business, advertising photography. It enables me to work with many musicians, and I am always amazed at the sizes I meet. The starting shot was fired in 2006 with Steve Lukather at a concert in the "Colos-Saal" in Aschaffenburg. Meanwhile I work beside the mobile set also in my own studio directly above the stage of the Liveclub. The project is growing steadily.
