A sixteen-minute suite about an island destroyed by the four elements, and the album most people mean when they say Earth and Fire.

The short version

Released on Polydor in February 1973 in a gatefold sleeve with a lyric insert, ‘Atlantis’ devotes its entire first side to a suite in seven parts. The concept, as documented, concerns the greedy and corrupt island of the title being destroyed by earthquakes, volcanoes, volcanic gases and flood — earth, fire, air and water. The line-up is unchanged. The album produced ‘Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Tonight’, which reached number three in the Netherlands and charted in Belgium and West Germany.

A concept that names the band

The neatest thing about ‘Atlantis’ is that its four destroying elements include the two in the band’s name, which is either a good joke or a good piece of planning. Two of the record’s tracks carry music credits only, with no lyricist named, which is consistent with their being instrumental interludes though no source states it outright. One common error is worth correcting here: ‘Memories’, the band’s first Dutch number one and by some distance their most famous song, is not on this album. It was a standalone single released the previous year.

The sound

This is concept-built, four-elements symphonic prog, and it is the most orchestral-sounding record the band made. The suite that fills side one moves through prologue, rise, destruction and epilogue with Mellotron carrying the weight and Jerney Kaagman narrating as much as singing; the second side alternates between the hit single, shorter instrumental pieces and a closing ballad. Gerard Koerts’s keyboard palette is at its widest, taking in virginal and flute alongside the usual battery, and Chris Koerts plays with more restraint than on either previous album.

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The songs

The ‘Atlantis’ suite fills the first side at over sixteen minutes in seven named parts and is the band’s major work. ‘Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Tonight’ opens the second side and was a Dutch number three. ‘Fanfare’ is the longest piece on that side at over six minutes. Between them they cover an album that is genuinely two records in one sleeve, a suite and a set of songs, and does not pretend otherwise.

Reception and legacy

Dutch album chart data could not be verified through the accessible sources, and no named critic’s assessment is available. The single is documented at number three in the Netherlands, and the album is consistently named alongside ‘Song of the Marching Children’ as the band’s essential progressive statement. Its concept has kept it in circulation among collectors of seventies symphonic rock well beyond the Netherlands, and it remains the Earth and Fire album most likely to be found in an international collection.

The verdict

This is the safest recommendation in the band’s catalogue. The suite is their best long-form writing, the single is genuinely excellent, and the album balances ambition and accessibility more comfortably than either neighbour. Newcomers can start here without knowing anything about the band and get a complete picture in forty minutes. Listeners who want to hear the group take more risks should go back one album; those who want to hear them stop taking any should go forward two. Of the four symphonic records, this is the one that has travelled furthest outside the Netherlands, and deservedly.

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