Hologramatron is a 21st Century protest record with songs featuring biting, sometimes brutal, commentary on the state of the Western world. It’s a musical response to contemporary social, political, and even spiritual realities. The disc draws inspiration from a musical continuum spanning art rock, psychedelia, metal, ambient, world music, trance, and funk. The cast of players joining Cleveland comprises some of the most respected musicians of the avant-rock scene, including bass innovator Michael Manring; drummer Celso Alberti (Steve Winwood); pedal-steel iconoclast Robert Powell (Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne), vocalists Amy X Neuburg, Deborah Holland (Stanley Clarke, Stewart Copeland), and Harry Manx. Other renowned contributors include Turkish electro-acoustic guitarist Erdem Helvacioglu, percussionists Gino Robair and Rick Walker, and cymbalom master Michael Masley, a.k.a. the infamous “Artist General.” Cleveland wrote all of the songs on Hologramatron, with the exception of two covers — Malvina Reynolds’ anti-nuclear proliferation anthem “What Have They Done to the Rain” and Joe Meek’s iconic “Telstar.” Bonus tracks include remixes by Evan Schiller (“Lake of Fire”) and Forrest Fang (“Abandoned Mines”), as well as an alternate mix of “You’ll Just Have to See It to Believe.” Grammy Award-winning engineer John Cuniberti mastered the album. Cleveland is all about sound — from his guitar playing to his compositions to his production — and it’s the deeply layered, highly nuanced, cutting-edge sonics that unify his wildly diverse material. Cleveland’s earlier work was more ambient and impressionistic (Mythos, released on Larry Fast’s Audion label, received rave reviews in Option, Jazziz, and Stereo Review) and his last recording explored instrumental world fusion (Volcano garnered accolades in All About Jazz, Abstract Logix, Innerviews, and Progression) — but Hologramatron pushes multiple musical envelopes simultaneously. In addition to playing acoustic and electric 6- and 12-string guitars on Hologramatron, Cleveland utilized a prototype of the revolutionary Moog Guitar and both acoustic and electric GuitarViols — hybrid bowed instruments tuned like a guitar — along with myriad effects processors and alternative playing devices such as a Chinese erhu bow, Masley Bowhammers, and the Ebow. Barry Cleveland is also the author of Creative Music Production: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques. EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS OF PREVIOUS ALBUMS: "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 is that Cleveland sees the guitar more as a means to an end rather than the end itself." — JOHN KELMAN, ALL ABOUT JAZZ "Barry Cleveland’s highly imaginative and resplendent guitar playing incorporates elements from a panoply of sources—including, but certainly not limited to progressive rock, psychedelic effects, 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." — ROBERT KAYE, ABSTRACT LOGIX "Much of Cleveland's work doesn't sound like the work of your conventional guitarist at all, but rather a far-reaching compositional visionary who uses whatever instruments and processes necessary to achieve his ends." — PETER THELEN, EXPOSÉ "Barry Cleveland's third album 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 “Sometimes spacey, oftentimes jazzy, Cleveland’s fascinating take on ethnic-flavored progressive jazz brims with an Afro-Haitian multirhythmic undercurrent that is nothing short of infectious, beguiling, and ultimately seductive. The multi-dimensionality of this album is impressive. Not only is there a lot going on most of the time, the music also has room to breathe.” — JOHN COLLINGE, PROGRESSION I recently received a copy of Barry Cleveland's Hologramatron, new on Moonjune Records. I listened to it five times yesterday, and serial listening is rare for me. While it is not overtly avant, I think it is a great release." "Pick of the Week" -Mike Borellas, Avant Music News "Frankly, this year I have not heard a better album." -Sal Pichireddu, Babyblaue-Seiten "Hologramatron is a cry in the wilderness for some sort of sanity. Most progressive rock lives in a whip-smart meritocracy of sound escaping from reality as though it were so drunk on the intrinsic value of the muse, the politics of Earth need not apply. It's the great escape for lonely boys with headsets staring at their computer screens. It's high art, pure sound, virtuosity on parade, and a glimpse of something asymmetrical, out of reach, and sparkling with naïve joy in it's imaginings. The world of adults with children going to their wage-slave jobs to diminishing returns and increasing demands, wars and rumors of war, poverty, drudgery, Acts of God, and deprivation get a gloss as Elephant Talk from dupes of the Great Deceiver. There's precious little folk warmth or sustained punk rage in prog rock's purist same, new thing. It seems the more complex and powerful the voice, the greater is the lack of conviction. That's where Hologramatron runs in from the back of the theater to throw an anvil at the vid-screen! Barry Cleveland has assembled a host of enigmatic iconoclasts from the far reaches of innovative song to scream "The truth is crying!" in every phase and shift, tooth and timbre, beat and discipline, hill, dale, and diner. The unmistakable creative power of new, inclusive, loving math has taken a stand against deniers of John Locke's Natural Law. This Hologramatron is art rock with passionate intensity, like a rude new beast with Robert Fripp's body and the roaring head of Phil Ochs slouching towards Bethlehem to be born. This album screams and cries in the lonely suburbs of Babylon for a more tactile social network. This album yells "Theater!" in a crowded fire." -Billy Sheppard, Billy's Bunker
Track 1 Lake of Fire Track 2 Money Speaks Track 3 You'll Just Have to See It to Believe Track 4 Stars of Sayulita Track 5 Warning Track 6 What Have They Done to the Rain Track 7 Abandoned Mines Track 8 Suicide Train Track 9 Telstar Track 10 Dateless Oblivion & Divine Repose