Barry Cleveland's guitar playing combines psychedelic, ambient, progressive, funk, and various "world" music influences with unusual sounds created using unorthodox playing techniques and electronic processing.
Volcano is an explosive mixture of African and Afro-Haitian rhythms and progressive, jazz, ambient, and world music elements, featuring Michael Manring (bass), Michael Pluznick (percussion), Norbert Stachel (winds/reeds/EWI), Michael Masley (cymbalom/original instruments), and other extraordinary artists.
"There's little doubt that Cleveland has a full command of his instrument, both as a player and a shaper of sound, utilizing all manner of processing to create sounds that are at times distinctly un-guitarlike. ... But what is most revealing about his approach, as evidenced by Volcano, is that Cleveland sees the guitar more as a means to an end rather than the end itself. ... (Cleveland's music) isnt fusion per se, but it has some fusion elements, in particular some of Cleveland's guitar tones; it isn't exactly progressive, yet some of the complexities and thematic development might make it so; it isn't specifically world music, although the multi-rhythmic approach, melodies, and some textures certainly would place it within that definition; and it isn't jazz by any stretch of the imagination, yet collective improvisation plays a large part. ... In the end, it's an appealingly multilayered aural experience that continues to reveal new things with every listen."
John Kelman, All About Jazz
"Barry Cleveland's third album as a leader finds the renowned guitarist and composer exploring the nuances of rhythm. Drawing from a varied palette of traditions, timbres and tonalities, Volcano bridges the impressionist leanings of his previous releases with a more audacious, kinetic approach. Listeners will appreciate the disc's pulsing rhythms, inter-weaving melodies, and layers of evocative atmospheres."
Anil Prasad, innerviews.org
"Barry Cleveland's highly imaginative and resplendent guitar playing incorporates elements from a panoply of sources including, but certainly not limited to psychedelic special f/x, progressive rock, ambient and new age soundscapes, world, jazz, funk and other (re)sources. Like Jimmy Page, for instance, he sometimes bows his electric guitar. To that, add Cleveland's keen command of digital and analog recording studio devices and techniques. All told, you've a pretty talented cat on your hands. ... Volcano is an imaginative, somewhat heady album, yet with plenty of deep-rooted rhythms to keep the whole thing from exploding into the upper thermosphere. Cleveland's sonic cyclorama is a real treat. To quote Oliver Twist, 'Please, Sir, may I have some more?'"
Robert Kaye, Abstract Logix
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