With all the will-they-won't-they news about an impending announcement from Dream Theater regarding the identity of their new drummer, one could be forgiven for losing track of outgoing drummer and founding member, Mike Portnoy. But Portnoy has surfaced at the dawn of the New Year with a major announcement of his own, as he will be joining Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse in a brand new project.

The as-yet-unnamed project will also include multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse (Spock's Beard), vocalist Casey McPherson (Alpha Rev, Endochine), and bassist Dave LaRue, who plays with Steve Morse in the on-again-off-again Dixie Dregs.

Neal Morse spoke about the collaboration:

"We're all excited about the project, but it is a bit of a mystery as to what will come. The vision is to do something a little more song-oriented and not quite so riffy, as one might expect, but still, of course, having the musical elements that people like Steve Morse, Dave LaRue, Mike Portnoy and myself can provide."

As for the timing, Morse says the band hasn't committed to anything resembling a release date:

"We've mapped out about 10 days [in the studio for the project's first session]. We'll see what happens and see how much we can get done. If we can't get the basics down enough for an album then we'll have to continue on later. Everyone's schedules are a bit in flux and they're very busy people, so I don't know how long it will take us to actually finish and release the record." -gipson.com