Liquid Tension Experiment

Liquid Tension Experiment (LTE) is an American instrumental progressive metal supergroup founded by Mike Portnoy in 1997. The band initially released two albums, between 1998 and 1999. An extension of their second regular album, with the absence of John Petrucci, was released in 2007 under the name "Liquid Trio Experiment".Active up until 1999, when Jordan Rudess formally joined Dream Theater, the band reunited in 2008 for a series of live shows. A live album with the absence of Jordan Rudess (mostly) was released in 2009 under the name "Liquid Trio Experiment 2", as were three live albums and two videos featuring the complete band. They regrouped once again in 2020 to record a third studio album featuring all band members, which was released on April 16, 2021.Liquid Tension Experiment was formed by Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy after Magna Carta gave him the green light for "whatever he wanted to do". Portnoy first invited keyboardist Jordan Rudess and progressive rock icon Tony Levin (bass, Chapman Stick) of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel's band to join him. Portnoy also had bassist Billy Sheehan and keyboardist Jens Johansson on his shortlist.In his second instructional video "Liquid Drum Theater", Portnoy said that his first choice for the guitar was Dimebag Darrell, but he was unable to join because of conflicting schedules. Two other primary choices, Steve Morse (formerly of Dixie Dregs and Kansas, at that time of Deep Purple) and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) were also unavailable. Portnoy then turned to fellow Dream Theater member John Petrucci to fill the position (despite initially wanting to keep the project completely separate from Dream Theater). The combo was formed as a side project to Dream Theater in 1997. Both Mike and John confirmed on the 5 Years in a Livetime DVD commentary that Rudess was asked to join Dream Theater largely because of the success of Liquid Tension Experiment, and the chemistry of the three working together. Rudess had previously declined to join Dream Theater in 1994 and instead became a member of the Dixie Dregs, known for complex, "Southern fusion" instrumental music.Liquid Tension Experiment released two albums, Liquid Tension Experiment (1998) and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999), on Magna Carta Records. They also played a few live shows in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and London. Mike Portnoy had stated in numerous interviews (and on his web site FAQ) that there would not be a third LTE album, as three of the four band members were also part of Dream Theater and the material would be too similar. In 2007, however, he said that a third release is possible, but that his problems with the Magna Carta label are more of an obstacle than getting the band members together to record.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.