Barry Cleveland is an American guitarist who is fascinated by Eastern Asiatic (i.e. Turkish and Arabic) music, and his aim is evidently to try and make a synthesis of this and Western musical expressions. It has been tried before (King Crimson's bassist/Warr guitarist Trey Gunn has shown interest in just this blend), and Cleveland is definitely not the worst exponent for this kind of music. "Volcano" is original material from 2003, while "Memory And Imagination" is a collection spanning 15 years of his musical carreer. In spite of this timespan the music consists of much the same elements. It is airy and spontaneous, but he falls into the trap called "monotony". He seldom deviates from the formula, and after a while you get a bit tired of hearing an electric guitar playing a bouzouki-run and a fretless bass emulating a Turkish cello with etheric synths create nice carpets underneath, while all the time various ethnic hand percussion instruments is played. The tracks also lack essential dynamic variations which could grab and keep your attention. In these ski jump times i'd give it 12-13-11.5.

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