Cellardoor (Solyaris Music CDR05)

Pre-release draft mix MP3s:

1. Have You Ever Seen a Portal, 18:37 (*)

2. There Will Be So Much , 10:56 (*)

3. Every Living Creature on Earth, 14:02 (*)

4. I Promise that One Day Everything , 10:48 (*)

5. I Can Breathe a Sigh of Relief , 16:07 (*)

Cellardoor is an outstanding ambient work. It's very relaxing and is perfect background music when reading or during the commute to/from work. I was impressed with the music's simple qualities, and incredible depth. Those qualities and slow flow of the music make it one of my favorites in my ambient collection. I'd be very interested in hearing your  guitar music combined with other instruments. I think adding more sounds or layers could yield some great results.

Cellardoor is an achingly beautiful suite of ambient guitar drones that glistens with emotion and intelligence. Simultaneously engaging and meditative, Cellardoor is an astonishing and miraculous masterpiece from the highly talented and original guitarist Giorgio Robino."

Being a fan of the guitar I'm well familiar with the creative potential of delay effects, having waxed ears on the early music of Pink Floyd and Fripp & Eno in my teens. In the computer age, however, the combo of guitar and delay has reached into whole new realms which ambient composers like Robert Rich have been exploring for some time now. And so we come to the enveloping music of Italian composer aka Giorgio Robino aka Solyaris. On first listen I'd swear that Cellar Door was drones from organ and synth with tinkling guitar overlays. But no, its all from electric guitar and a 6-string lap steel guitar treated with delay effects in a myriad of ways.

Over five long, beatless tracks this music floats, morphs, glistens and glitters. Its simultaneously right up there in the stratosphere and submerged womb-like beneath the surface of a calm, warm ocean. Even the most identifiable guitar sounds - plucked and rippling strings and the liquid slide of the pedal steel - are themselves multi-layered. They gently but constantly change in emphasis, giving the music enough variety to tickle your brain while the single-chord drones surge and sigh almost imperceptibly around them. This music virtually glows with a soft, alien light. It's fitting that the artist's pseudonym is Solyaris because the music bears an unmistakable resemblance to Cliff Martinez's luminous score for Steven Soderbergh's brilliant sci-fi film Solaris (2002). Not a completely original work, then, but disarming and very beautiful nonetheless. Rating: 4/5

I like the way you let ideas happen in time and seemingly self-generate. The sound quality (not unimportant) is very excellent. When I listen to your music, sometimes I feel calm, and other times not so calm, but it always brings me to a deep place, and I think that this is the only true compliment one can ever give to music. Not a superficial work by any means.  I like your CD quite a bit and "profound" is a big compliment in English. 

I really thank you for sending me your music, where I find moments of high intensity and beauty.

Un abrazo muy fuerte de un amigo guitarrista

Suso Saiz

Dear Giorgio . . . .light . . .trance . . .beyond. Your two cd's ["Cellardoor" and"Mellow Stasis"] arrived and I have listened to them both at least twice...mostly at evening time...I think "Mantram" when Ilisten to your channeling/compositions....listening to them allows myfeeling to glow inside an eternal presence full of timeless luminosity and majestic creation....I am in wonderment.. at what has inspired you intothis direction and delivery...the music suggests a devotional awareness of the timelessness of consciousness......very serene.....also your music has inspired me to draw on my own inner sense of the deeply eternal…and toe explore channeling/composing MANTRAM music...I feel it is good especially for those listeners who are opening inward towards our common source... I appreciate obvious dedication to making music of high inspirational impact... Luminously

Laraaji

Amazing soundscapes. By picking up from where "Western Detunes" and "Mellow Stasis" left off, "Cellardoor" continues to explore the guitar flavored ambience of Solyaris. Giorgio Robino conjures impressive soundscapes using guitars and delays. His technique results in a beautiful and bright wall of constant guitar drone. The tracks start with tones which join into a big flow of sound which in the end dissolves at the river delta. At times it may seem a little like the dissonant rumble of a waterfall but you get comfortable with it it's actually quite a harmonic, soft and warm journey like a gentle flow of water which seems to have inspired Robino.

Just finished listening through Cellardoor, and I have to agree with the high praise this music has earned. Giorgio coaxes many beautiful sounds from his guitar and weaves them together into a drifting opus that feels like ice sliding over ice.

When I first received the CD, I found it difficult to reach the right frame of mind to give the work my best attention. It was not a fault of the CD, really, because the work is a solid one in both its production values and in its melodic and harmonic setting. Rather, I personally found it hard to concentrate on the shimmering washes of processed guitar sound and interplay of various chromatic melody settings which characterize Giorgio's work. I would play the first track or two, but then realize I was not in that subtle, quiet space in which a Solyaris work is best enjoyed.

Last night I reached that listener's space--less a "mystic place" than a quiet moment during a flight west for business. I fired up the CD player, put in "Cellar Door", and found it a consistent delight.

Phrases like "light ambient" are by their nature tossaway, because the genre has evolved so much that they no longer really convey very much about the work. Yet I think it's useful to say that Solyaris' work is not a dark or difficult sound, but instead features wave upon wave of light melodic interplay, a kind of "shimmering ambient".

Those who like their ambient to feature rich, lush, melodic drones, but who disdain hackneyed, new-age phrasings and melodies, will find much of interest in "Cellar Door".

I don't think that the CD rewards those who resist the patient and open-minded calm that Solyaris' work achieves. It's an incremental work, building slowly its experiments in processed melody and surprisingly pleasing atonalities. But it's a good listen for those who like their ambient majestic and yet not maudlin.

I'm glad I gave "Cellar Door" the careful attention it deserves, and recommend it on its own terms, for what it achieves.

I'd like to thank Giorgio for sending me both Cellardoor and Mellow Stasis. I would recommend any of his albums. My favorite songs seem to change each time I listen. I've also very like "Water's light" on his Western Detunes album. It reminds me of Ambient 3: Day of Radiance with Laraaji

Listening: Solyaris

With a break from composing and recording comes more time to listen. Among the more fascinating packages to come my way of late is one from Italy containing CD-Rs by composer-recordist Giorgio Robino, who releases his work under the name Solyaris (a tribute to great visionary film maker Andrei Tarkovsky). I've been listening for a few days now to MELLOW STASIS (REDUCED EDITION) and CELLARDOOR. On these recordings, Robino uses the ringing, crystalline tones of lap steel and standard guitars as the starting point for long, emotionally evocative electronically-processed compositions (in particular, Robino utilizes long echos, delays, and looping) that manifest a highly-developed sense of tonality and resonant spaciousness.

The music of Solyaris is engaging and engulfing, with a slow-motion drift; its subtle underlying structure might suggest the majesty of massive wind-swept sands or the infinite shimmer of stars at night. On the surface of these works one might at first detect an undeniable sonic debt to ambient pioneers like Robert Rich and Steve Roach. But to my ears, Robino's work sounds wilder; more free and open to surprise than that of his musical forebears. I've really enjoyed falling into these adventurous and panoramic fields of sound.

Cellar Door is a wonderful CD.  The steel balances as well as accentuates the dynamics within each track.  The steel was more prevalent on this CD as you used the harmonics to grab emotions - fear, anticipation, apprehension, and excitement only then to sooth the listener with the soft mood tones.  It is an aerobic workout for the ears.  Great job!

Wow, this is very beautiful music! We will definitely play this on Drone Zone.

Solyaris is the ambient heir to David Gilmour's “The Narrow Way”

Solyaris (Giorgio Robino) has another winner on his hands with his upcoming release “Cellardoor”. I've recently been doing the "Secret Music" show with Scott Raymond, and we got a couple of inquiring phone calls after we played a track (even after I gave out the Web site where it can eventually be purchased).

I'm not sure how far he is from his final mix, but Giorgio's work, like any fine artist continues to evolve. I thought “Western Detunes” was perfect music to wake up to-bright, cheery, with a lot of single note runs and looping. “Mellow Stasis”, as I said elsewhere, was neither "mellow" or "static,": harmonically, it may have even been stronger then the first release because of some of the beautiful chord clusters, and I found (especially) the longer pieces to be beautifully intense. On “Cellardoor”, Giorgio's love for the drone-influenced works of Stars Of The Lid and Windy & Carl are more evident, but that is not what this work is about. Cellardoor is, in fact, a "concept album," but since I haven’t yet seen the "source" of Cellardoor , maybe Giorgio should explain the main influence behind the CD, where the track names come from, and what the CD is based upon. It's very interesting stuff, but obviously the music stands on ts own quite well also..

I am listening to "Every Living Creature on Earth" as I type this. “Cellardoor” is going to be another great release! You say your works are mostly inspired by the sea, but I don't get that myself. I picture a much more open place. In particular, the sky. I can see listening to this as I floated along the air currents in a sailplane or hot air balloon. A feeling of being detached from the Earth. I guess it all is in the imagination of the listener, but I detect a more "airy" feeling than the more muffled sounds of being underwater. But, that's just me. I am definitely enjoying it!

“Cellar door” meaning:

This work is an explicit tribute to movie “Donnie Darko” ( www.donniedarko.com ). I loved this movie so much for his spiritual meanings. Every track name is a sentence pronounced in the movie (and a sort of reference to the related scene).

Some notes on guitar processing techniques:

I performed using a 6 strings lap-steel guitar and standard electric guitar, echoed with delays; despite the resulting sound, sometime very similar to an organ, I didn’t used any electric organ or synthesizer; the sound is produced only treating guitars in real-time.

Tributes to musicians I love:

“Have You ever Seen A Portal” is my modest tribute to music of my friend Alio Die ( www.aliodie.com ) especially in relation to “ Password for Entheogenic Experience”, whereas “I Can Breathe a Sigh Of Relief” is my modest tribute to Robert Rich music ( www.robertrich.com ).

Listening tips & tricks:

Even if my music is freely downloadable on MP3 format, compressed at standard 128K; any compressed audio format is not the correct way to enjoy my music; indeed I suggest listening my music in CD format, whit you better HI-FI equipment, and good headphones. Last but not least, my music have to be listened not at low volume! But at a just high volume for enjoy all spectrums of frequency details.  

Thanks and dedications:

I thank my friend Harry Dibrell for his help on the “transoceanic box odyssey”

Giorgio Robino, 20 February 2006