Liquid Tension Experiment

Liquid Tension Experiment (often abbreviated LTE ) was created under the initiative of Mike Portnoy ( Dream Theater ) in 1997 after Magna Carta label gave him carte blanche for a project of his choice. On keyboards, after having had Jens Johanson ( Stratovarius , Rainbow ) in his shortlist, he finally invited Jordan Rudess, who had declined his entry ticket to DT a few years earlier, leaving room for Derek Sherinian. On bass, Billy Sheehan (Mr Big) is considered by Portnoy but Tony Levin (King Crimson , Peter Gabriel ) is the one who gets the job. As for the guitarist, Portnoy tries to recruit a nice pack of people, including Dimebag Darell (ex Pantera), Jim Matheos (Fate Warning) or Steve Morse (Deep Purple). No one was able to break free, the drummer at the head of the project realized that he had to involve his faithful DT acolyte, John Petrucci, so that the project could start. The quartet suddenly released two albums, in 1998 and 1999. Follow a small handful of concerts on American soil. Jordan Rudess replaces Derek Sherinian in Dream Theater in early 1999, just after LTE2's release. Now that three of the four members are also in Dream Theater, the project is abandoned, considered too similar to their main group. In 2007, LTE exhumed demos without guitar (the band reserved a recording studio to put LTE2 in a box, but John Petrucci's wife gave birth earlier than expected, preventing the guitarist from joining the others. Since the studio was reserved anyway, Portnoy, Levin and Rudess recorded many tracks without guitar, some of which later became foundations for LTE2. This disc, named Spontaneous Combustion, is released under the name Liquid Trio Experiment. As a result, the band announced a reformation in 2008 for only a few concerts to mark the 10th anniversary of LTE . At one of these concerts, Jordan Rudess's synth breaks down (one in four plays a note a higher tone than expected). While keyboardist passes the clearest concert on the phone with the Roland brand, the other three improvise jams. Jordan Rudess will eventually join his fellow guitarists. It was this concert that the band had chosen to record to make a live album, which will be released the following year as When the Keyboard Breaks: Live in Chicago, again as Liquid Trio Experiment. In 2010, Mike Portnoy left Dream Theater, bringing Liquid Tension Experiment to his initial situation: two members in DT, the other two steps. The raison d'être of the group may therefore exist again, but the links between Portnoy and his former companions seem to be diminished. It will take until the end of 2020 for a reformation to be announced. LTE3 was released in spring 2021.
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