Biography
Liquid Tension Experiment formed in 1997 as an American instrumental prog-rock supergroup assembled by drummer Mike Portnoy while he still belonged to Dream Theater. Their music juxtaposes riff-heavy hard rock and heavy metal with intricate jazz fusion and substantial funk grooves, producing extended, labyrinthine pieces that pivot constantly through dynamics, meters, rhythms, and timbres. The lineup pairs him with King Crimson bassist and Chapman Stick virtuoso Tony Levin alongside Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess and guitarist John Petrucci.
The self-titled debut was tracked in five days and issued by Magna Carta in 1998. Liquid Tension Experiment 2 followed in 1999 and achieved wider acclaim and sales. Outtakes from those sessions surfaced in 2007 as Spontaneous Combustion under the Liquid Trio Experiment name, documenting improvisations captured by Portnoy, Rudess, and Levin. During a 2008 Chicago performance Rudess stepped offstage when his keyboards failed; the remaining trio continued improvising until he returned on guitar. The concert later appeared as the 2009 release When the Keyboard Breaks: Live in Chicago. After a twelve-year hiatus the quartet reconvened in Dream Theater’s studio in late summer 2020, completing LTE3 for an April 2021 release.
Although instrumental prog-rock supergroups later became commonplace, the concept was novel when Magna Carta approached Portnoy in late 1996 about launching an all-star side project. He recruited Levin and Rudess, the latter having turned down an earlier offer to join Dream Theater in 1994. Guitar candidates Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs and Deep Purple, and Jim Matheos of Fates Warning proved unavailable, so Portnoy invited Petrucci despite the shared Dream Theater affiliation. The four entered the studio in 1997 intending to compose, rehearse, and record an album in seven days and finished in five.
Magna Carta released the results in March 1998, presenting the thirteen collectively composed pieces—ranging from two-minute vignettes to the nearly half-hour, five-part suite “Three Minute Warning”—explicitly as a Dream Theater offshoot. Reviews ran the gamut from warm to puzzled, yet prog audiences embraced the record enthusiastically. Returning to the studio late in 1998, the band found the follow-up required two months instead of one week. Petrucci departed midway after learning of his wife’s premature labor; the remaining members kept recording, and several pieces that emerged—“914,” “Chewbacca,” and “Liquid Dreams”—were retained. Issued in spring 1999, the album drew uniformly strong notices on both sides of the Atlantic. A handful of high-profile concerts in the United States and England supported the release, after which no further studio albums appeared for more than two decades even as live activity continued. Three 1999 performances were documented on CD and DVD that year, and the same sessions ultimately persuaded Rudess to join Dream Theater.
Fans pressed for a third album, yet Portnoy repeatedly stated that only occasional tours would occur. A 2007 blog post left the door slightly ajar. That same year Liquid Trio Experiment issued Spontaneous Combustion, drawn from Portnoy’s DAT recordings of the 1998 trio improvisations without Petrucci; reception proved uneven. On the 2008 tour stop in Chicago, keyboard trouble again forced Rudess offstage; his bandmates improvised until he reappeared on guitar, prompting an onstage instrument rotation that placed Petrucci on bass and Levin on Chapman Stick. The performance was released as Liquid Trio Experiment 2 – When the Keyboard Breaks: Live in Chicago.
Portnoy exited Dream Theater in 2010 to focus on Flying Colors, the Neal Morse Band, Transatlantic, Winery Dogs, and Sons of Apollo. Over the ensuing decade the four musicians occasionally appeared together in various live settings but produced no new recordings. In mid-December 2020 they began posting images on social media wearing surgical masks emblazoned with “LTE3.” On December 17 Inside Out officially confirmed the album, which had been recorded secretly the previous August at Dream Theater’s studio. The sessions yielded four fully composed tracks, two duets, one group improvisation, and a meticulously arranged version of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Advance singles “Passage of Time” and “Beating the Odds” appeared online in January and February 2021, respectively, ahead of the mid-April release of LTE3.
The self-titled debut was tracked in five days and issued by Magna Carta in 1998. Liquid Tension Experiment 2 followed in 1999 and achieved wider acclaim and sales. Outtakes from those sessions surfaced in 2007 as Spontaneous Combustion under the Liquid Trio Experiment name, documenting improvisations captured by Portnoy, Rudess, and Levin. During a 2008 Chicago performance Rudess stepped offstage when his keyboards failed; the remaining trio continued improvising until he returned on guitar. The concert later appeared as the 2009 release When the Keyboard Breaks: Live in Chicago. After a twelve-year hiatus the quartet reconvened in Dream Theater’s studio in late summer 2020, completing LTE3 for an April 2021 release.
Although instrumental prog-rock supergroups later became commonplace, the concept was novel when Magna Carta approached Portnoy in late 1996 about launching an all-star side project. He recruited Levin and Rudess, the latter having turned down an earlier offer to join Dream Theater in 1994. Guitar candidates Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, Steve Morse of Dixie Dregs and Deep Purple, and Jim Matheos of Fates Warning proved unavailable, so Portnoy invited Petrucci despite the shared Dream Theater affiliation. The four entered the studio in 1997 intending to compose, rehearse, and record an album in seven days and finished in five.
Magna Carta released the results in March 1998, presenting the thirteen collectively composed pieces—ranging from two-minute vignettes to the nearly half-hour, five-part suite “Three Minute Warning”—explicitly as a Dream Theater offshoot. Reviews ran the gamut from warm to puzzled, yet prog audiences embraced the record enthusiastically. Returning to the studio late in 1998, the band found the follow-up required two months instead of one week. Petrucci departed midway after learning of his wife’s premature labor; the remaining members kept recording, and several pieces that emerged—“914,” “Chewbacca,” and “Liquid Dreams”—were retained. Issued in spring 1999, the album drew uniformly strong notices on both sides of the Atlantic. A handful of high-profile concerts in the United States and England supported the release, after which no further studio albums appeared for more than two decades even as live activity continued. Three 1999 performances were documented on CD and DVD that year, and the same sessions ultimately persuaded Rudess to join Dream Theater.
Fans pressed for a third album, yet Portnoy repeatedly stated that only occasional tours would occur. A 2007 blog post left the door slightly ajar. That same year Liquid Trio Experiment issued Spontaneous Combustion, drawn from Portnoy’s DAT recordings of the 1998 trio improvisations without Petrucci; reception proved uneven. On the 2008 tour stop in Chicago, keyboard trouble again forced Rudess offstage; his bandmates improvised until he reappeared on guitar, prompting an onstage instrument rotation that placed Petrucci on bass and Levin on Chapman Stick. The performance was released as Liquid Trio Experiment 2 – When the Keyboard Breaks: Live in Chicago.
Portnoy exited Dream Theater in 2010 to focus on Flying Colors, the Neal Morse Band, Transatlantic, Winery Dogs, and Sons of Apollo. Over the ensuing decade the four musicians occasionally appeared together in various live settings but produced no new recordings. In mid-December 2020 they began posting images on social media wearing surgical masks emblazoned with “LTE3.” On December 17 Inside Out officially confirmed the album, which had been recorded secretly the previous August at Dream Theater’s studio. The sessions yielded four fully composed tracks, two duets, one group improvisation, and a meticulously arranged version of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Advance singles “Passage of Time” and “Beating the Odds” appeared online in January and February 2021, respectively, ahead of the mid-April release of LTE3.
Albums
Singles
