Smuggled Sounds: Cynic - the Portal demo 1995

Portal demo In the fall of 1994, after the transformation of Cynic, Paul Masvidal, Jason Gobel and Sean Reinert started a new project named Portal. The band name was Sean's idea and was inspired by a Robert Venosa painting which the band loved, entitled "Portal". The new band's music, however, was far from the technical metal that Cynic fan's had come to know. It was more in the style of Dead Can Dance and My Bloody Valentine meets a jazz fusion group, but still a complex and layered sound without the heavy guitars and fast tempos. Portal was a five piece, consisting of the above three ex-members of Cynic and completed by bassist Chris Kringel, who had toured with Cynic pre-post Focus, and lastly, by singer/keyboardist Aruna Abrams who came from Berkeley College of Music to join the band.
Portal demoed a total of ten songs, which were never officially released. There wasn't any form of packaging or artwork for the demo other than the Venosa painting entitled "Return To Source" (used unofficially), as a black and white CD imprint for promo copies. The ten songs were recorded in two five song sessions, first in late 1994 and early 1995 which ultimately became one big demo under the name Portal.
The common misnomer is that these ten songs were actually two separate demos, the second of which being under the name Aeon Spoke. The demo was, in fact, entirely under the name of Portal. Aeon Spoke was a working title for a moment at the time of the Portal demo, but the band just decided to call it "Portal" for the sake of avoiding any confusion. The year of release for the ten song Portal demo (had it been released) would have been 1995. Portal disbanded in 1996.