Ten years ago, during a break in Dream Theater's touring and recording schedule, Mike Varney of Magna Carta records contacted drummer Mike Portnoy and asked him if he'd front a project. Gather four musicians he wanted to work with and put out a recording of instrumental pieces. The first pick, the bassist was easy - Tony Levin of Peter Gabriel's band, King Crimson, a side-man with Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe, and many other projects. On keyboards, he got Jordan Rudess (before he joined DT). The guitar role was harder to fill. Portnoy wanted either Dimebag from Pantera or Trvero Rabin from Yes; neither one could or would do it. Running out of time because the studio time had already been reserved, he ended up asking DT guitarist John Petrucci. The results - Liquid Tension Experiment, the biggest selling recording in the history of Magna Carta. Indeed, it was such a hit, they managed to get together and do a second recording, which was made more difficult by Petrucci's absence during primary recording because of the birth of his daughter (he would dub the guitar parts a couple weeks after the basic tracks were laid down).
Last year, the four of them did a tenth anniversary mini-tour (gotta find it!) and here's one sample - "Paradigm Shift".
