Maybe it’s the professional historian in me, but I love dates, and I love anniversaries.

This year is the fifteenth anniversary of Transatlantic’s first album, the rather stunning and never aging SMPTe.

I’d not heard of the project until one of my students handed me a copy of the CD in the fall of 2000, about six months or so after its release.  I knew Morse (I’d been one of the first–if not the first–persons in Bloomington, Indiana, to purchase THE LIGHT from Spock’s Beard), I knew Trewavas (having been a Marillion fan since BRAVE), and I knew Mike Portnoy, having purchased every Dream Theater release since 1992’s IMAGES AND WORDS.  Roine Stolt?  Didn’t have a clue at that point, though I’d heard of The Flower Kings.

My first reaction upon seeing the CD cover was one of elation.  This looked like a very modernized Yes cover.  And, of course…