"Western Detunes" impressed me immediately as guitar music I had been yearning to hear for years and suddenly here it was.  So simple in its seeming complexity, it speaks to me as music untouched by human hands, a music that just "is."  Quite simply, Giorgio's work here sounds written "in the stars," as if it describes some strange, mysterious and beautiful extra-terrestrial sea.  There is a restrained psychedelic intensity to these pieces, much like the feelings evoked by Robert Rich's pioneering lapsteel soundscapes.  The mood of the album is neither melancholy nor dark, but definitely mysterious and surreal.

Man this is a great album!!!  Definitely one of the best of 2005, and in my opinion one of the best ambient guitar albums ever. Really fine work, a perfect album I would not change one note...

Giorgio Robino's CD, "Western Detunes" (Solyaris Music) is in a category unto itself...other-pitch entrainment, Windham Hill on LSD, a sort of Utopian rubber band.  The rubber band metaphor refers to the stretching or elongating tones.  The pitch bending does not follow stylistic conventions that one would hear in Asian or Arabic or blues music, but it has a style of its own that feels natural and uncontrived. The tonality and rhythmic sensibility create a pleasing emotional ambiance, relaxing yet not predictable.

You asked what utopian rubber band meant-- for me a utopian sound is a sound that feels perfect --an ideal state--since we don't live in an ideal state (unless I guess we're enlightened), there is a feeling of fantasizing about how we would like to be living and feeling.  The rubber band of course refers to the glissandos.

The debut album of Giorgio Robino recording under the moniker Solyaris is Western Detunes, a meditative journey created on treated lap steel and electric guitars and utilizing "symphonic hyper-overdubbing". Unfortunately for me as a reviewer it falls into the category of intriguing but hard to describe music. The closest, but fairly tenuous, points of comparison are sonically to the opening track of Pure by Boddy/Reuter, and stylistically to Jeff Pearce's To The Shores of Heaven.

Over the course of eight tracks ranging between three and half to over fourteen minutes we are taken to a world of half light, of half glimpsed or imagined sights and thoughts - a twilight world between humans and angels. The steely pointed tones of the guitars blend, weave, and interleave in different combinations on each of the tracks, conveying a feeling of mysteries that are only partially revealed.

The first track "Night's Waltzloop" is a gentle introduction to the album's magical touch. Sliding guitar "wah" sounds echo away like fading desires only to be replaced by others; and strummed metallic notes create a sense of rhythm. Further into the album the second longest track "Abracadabra" keeps up the usual mid-tempo pace, here notes bounce between the speakers while others are plucked and ripple off into the distance. The most "normally" ambient piece is arguably "American Stagnation" on which gently bulging drones are accompanied by ghostly caressing "wahs" varying in pitch and intensity.

It was the longest track "Floating on the Sea Surface" that made me think of To The Shores of Heaven. On this nearly fifteen minute long track all the usual elements we've encountered so far on Western Detunes are there. The main difference is that some of the refrains become more insistent and stretched out, it’s like looking out across a sea that is becoming choppy yet is surprisingly not scarey.

I can definitely state that Western Detunes is a unique ambient album. I'm impressed with how Giorgio has created hypnotic and spine tingling sounds that take one's mind to other realms. My only criticism is that it can become overwhelming after a while, and that repeated listens are needed to differentiate the tracks.

We are very impressed with your CD.  Your production clarity and depth are really awesome, with the fluidity of the sounds totally seeming untouched by human beings.

I have heard all the tracks of “western detunes”. Really it has far more imaginative expression than a composed music, very unusual for Indian common ear. The ambience you have created reminds me 70's few movie tracks from India. Also no 1, 2 and 3 track has kind of Indian empathy. The guitar sounds great in all the tracks. For my own taste some of the bass tracks in no 4 and no 5 are very soothing. I like this album and recommend it for peace and expression of nature.

"Western Detunes" is a work of careful selection with a focus on calm and meditative atmospheres over showmanship or extended ambient atmospherics. It is the work of a very meticulous artist who leads with his heart. Solyaris hears what warms him without thinking and offers the listener only those sounds. This disc can thus be thought of as a selfless--indeed, spiritual-- collection of sonic offerings.

Like the timeless works of his peers Windy and Carl, Solyaris wants the listener to hear collectively without a focus on any specific track. This music can be listened to in its entirety; Solyaris has intended this music to be a gift that keeps on giving. And give it does. "Western Detunes" is a collection of gentle and soothing aural blankets to repeatedly wrap oneself in. Highly recommended.

Western Detunes is a musical journey through a mythical landscape.

As I travel across the Texas high plains, the music becomes a soundtrack for the journey; the music is the field, I am the object.  The music is the space through which I travel.

 As I reach American Stagnation, I wonder where Giorgio Robino finds his inspiration, so far away in Italy.  The piece reaches its changes slowly, like the desert, where details are sparse. I supply my own interpretation, like an impressionist painting, and can only wonder.... 

This is the function of 'ambient' music.  Sr. Robino has taken this direction with a handful of steel guitar players, who paint with strings on a three dimensional canvas of sound.  Your thoughts become lost in the painting as you travel; you are the center of the soundscape. The destination becomes inconsequential; the journey is the thing.

I look forward to the continuation of Robino's work.  Western Detunes holds great promise of things to come.

Absolutely enjoyed listening to the album.  The transparent plucking of the  guitar strings and bowing effects in relation to the decaying delays works mesmerizing but in the end it lingers on too much as it remains in the same time format.  Minor criticism for a very enjoyable album and I truly wonder how you would proceed with using the guitar in relation to looping.  A fascinating study I'm so attached to me...

I like your mp3.  You are entering a realm of changing emotions in a subconscious place. This music will help people listen on the inside. That is where the children heard the lyrics of the Pied Piper.

I just had the pleasure of hearing "Western Detunes" last night, and again this morning. This is beautiful, beautiful stuff! I love your CD! So spacious and yearning, as though you had captured every emotion of the beautiful and infinite sky.

Interesting what your music does with TIME. It's a subtle gentle sound which fills the room. I love such music at night, maybe in free nature at lower volume. Anyway: Good work and away from usual drone-ambient.

Really, “Western Detunes” is an utterly beautiful CD! I like your approach to music and your sense of creativity. I like how your steel guitar fits in with the other sounds in the songs, I think your tone is wonderful, and what you play has so much warmth and heart. It is a beautiful work of music that I will listen to again and again.

“Western Detunes” came today! This is a great CD!

I now understand why folks compare it to Pink Floyd – Awesome stuff!

Your music reminds me of the first rays of sunlight.  It is the perfect music to start one's day.  The mix of guitar sounds noted by Jeff Pearce is indeed splendid: Great job, and please make sure to email me when your next CD is released.  You can put me down for a copy right away!  “Western Detunes” is easily one of the top five CDs of 2005... Now I wonder what our friend Jeff Pearce is up to! Thanks for some wonderful, innovative music!

Mystic Radio is pleased to feature the unique and transcendental music of Solyaris. Our listeners around the world are in for a special treat that will both inspire and relax, as they tune in to his new album, “Western Detunes”.

I listened to the MP3's on your web page.  I enjoyed your freedom of movement in theory, and they are exactly as represented by your comments on the album. From what I could hear of the steel guitar, most were single string movements, and ascending melodies. Slow microtonal movements. I would like to hear more choral movement in both ascending and descending direction, without as much looping. The single string movement should come up a bit above the orchestral blending.

I’ve converted and downloaded several of Giorgio’s “Western Detunes” tracks into rotation on SteelRadio.com Listen Steel Radio now (www.scottysmusic.com/playlist.htm).  I’m sure our many thousands of listeners around the world will enjoy the soothing sounds of the “Western Detunes” style.  Since the lap steel is where it all started, Giorgio’s 21st century sound could be the sounds of things to come.

A well produced CD; I look forward to hearing more.

I enjoyed "Western Detunes"!  What I immediately appreciated was your use of higher pitched notes.  Most people in the ambient realm tend to avoid those notes, preferring to stay in the areas that immediately sound "deep and murky".  Your use of these notes (specifically on the slide guitar) adds a bit of sunlight to your music. Also enjoyable was your blending of the various guitars you used. Everything in your mix sounded just right to my ears.

Solyaris music sound very pleasant and relaxing.  It is exactly the kind of music that I like to unwind to on the way home from a tough day at the office