The Universal Migrator parts I and II is the 2-CD re-release of what were originally released as two single albums: The Dream Sequencer and Flight of the Migrator.
The Dream Sequencer
On Universal Migrator part I: The Dream Sequencer Arjen picks up the story of The Final Experiment and the year 2084. Over a hundred years have passed since the last world war destroyed all life on earth. This war was exactly what the main character Ayreon had already predicted in the 6th century (see the first Ayreon CD The Final Experiment).
As this final war was taking place, a number of Mars colonists witnessed the destruction on Earth from afar. For several years they managed to keep themselves alive with the supplies they had brought with them from Earth. But eventually the supplies ran out and the colonists were doomed to die. The main character in the story is the last surviving human being, a child of the first Mars colonists. He has never been on Earth.
During the initial period of Mars colonization, finding entertainment was somewhat of a problem. So clever technicians designed the Dream Sequencer, a machine that allowed the Colonists to travel back to their own youth by means of hypnoses, but also to their lives before; their pre-incarnations so to speak.
It is in this machine that the last Colonist relives his youth on Mars, and scenes from previous lives: his death as a woman on Earth during the war of 2084, the first moon landing of 1969, and his life as the standard bearer in the famous 17th century painting of Rembrandt: The Nightwatch. He stood on the shores of England as Queen Elisabeth I, watching the English fleet sail out to stop the Spanish Armada, and as a Mayan girl he witnessed sacred ceremonies in Tikal. As the story unfolds, we discover that the Colonist once was the minstrel Ayreon and that, in another even earlier incarnation, he was present during the construction of Stonehenge. His soul’s first incarnation was the first human being on Earth.
Flight of the Migrator
The Universal Migrator Part II continues the story of the last man alive on Mars as he decides to venture further back in time. He wants to go all the way back to the time just before the universe was created, a time when there was nothing but chaos. The Colonist witnesses the big bang and the creation of the first soul: The Universal Migrator. This soul divides itself into various new souls that each go in search of planets to inhabit. This is how they bring life to various planets and start different civilizations.
In the Dream Sequencer program the Colonist follows the soul that is headed for Earth. On his long journey through space, he passes astronomical phenomena such as quasars, pulsars, supernovas, black holes, and wormholes. He finally enters the solar system, but the Dream Sequencer program begins to overload. The Colonist should never have ventured that far back in time. The Dream Sequencer tried desperately to wake the Colonist from his deep state of hypnoses, but it is too late; the Colonist dies in the machine. Then the Migrator speaks to him without words: “Eternity lies before you. You are the new Migrator!”
Release info
2000 Transmission
2004 Re-released by InsideOut Music
2004 Hellion (Brazil), Nems (Argentina)
Artwork
Jef Bertels (cover)
Jacques Marcoux (booklet)
Part 1: The Dream Sequencer
Vocalists
Arjen Lucassen
Damian Wilson
Edward Reekers
Floor Jansen
Jacqueline Govaert
Johan Edlund
Lana Lane
Mark McCrite
Mouse
Neal Morse
Instrumentalists
Arjen Lucassen
Clive Nolan
Rob Snijders
Track List
- The Dream Sequencer
- My House on Mars
- 2084
- One Small Step
- The Shooting Company of Captain Frans B. Cocq
- Dragon on the Sea
- Temple of the Cat
- Carried by the Wind
- And the Druids Turned to Stone
- The First Man on Earth
- The Dream Sequencer (Reprise)
Part 2: Flight of the Migrator
Vocalists
Andi Deris
Bruce Dickinson
Damian Wilson
Fabio Lione
Ian Parry
Lana Lane
Ralf Scheepers
Robert Soeterboek
Russell Allen
Timo Kotipelto
Instrumentalists
Arjen Lucassen
Clive Nolan
Ed Warby
Gary Wehrkamp
Keiko Kumagai
Michael Romeo
Oscar Holleman
Rene Merkelbach
Track List
- Chaos
- Dawn of A Million Souls
- Journey on the Waves of Time
- To the Quasar
- The Taurus Pulsar
- Quasar 3C273
- Into the Black Hole
- The Eye of the Universe
- Halo of Darkness
- The Final Door
- Through the Wormhole
- Out of the White Hole
- M31
- Planet Y
- The Search Continues
- To the Solar System
- Planet of Blue
- System Alert
- The New Migrator
- Metamorphosis
- Sleeper Awake