Torus Eyes
Torus Eyes is an electronic post-pop project embodied by Gwendolyn Dot & Rho Solomon.
Torus Eyes is an electronic post-pop project founded by Gwendolyn Dot and Rho Solomon. Atmospheric electropop meets darkwave with hypnotic vocals and minimalist beats that could very well be the soundtrack of an imaginary supercity’s urban void. The music Torus Eyes produce is fitting for a modern era, amorphous tunes for shifting times in the 21st century.
Viriditas was born on the night of the Strawberry Full Moon in June of 2020.
Performed all live with no virtual instruments and DAW-less, this EP captures the synchronous qualities Rho and Gwendolyn approach with their creativity. Pushing their equipment and output towards experimental areas within a palette of downtempo, trance and acid inspired electronic music.
Torus Eyes is an electronic post-pop duo exploring the nature of surreality through the language of sound, emotion, and lyric. Bringing surreal imagery to the real, Torus Eyes encourages the listener to relax and imagine the mind is like steam evaporating, dispelling the notion of easily understood ideas with layers of dense material. Torus Eyes consists of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Rho and Gwendolyn. Rho has academic training in music theory and production, and Gwendolyn is a trained classical pianist, self-taught producer and vocalist. Through their exchange, they discovered similarities in aesthetics, composition approach, production, soulful creating, open communication, and overall vision. In their live performance they utilize analog and digital gear to permeate their compositions with energy and virtuosity.
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Cosmic Odyssey – Torus Eyes Blends Space, Mythology for Introspective ‘Pythia’ Debut EP - Interview & Article by The Stratton Setlist
For their debut EP, Torus Eyes enters a new sonic orbit toward another mythological dimension. That dimension blends ethereal synthscapes, intergalactic drumbeats and Greek myths to form “Pythia,” an otherworldly, prophetical release from the Detroit-based electronic music duo of Rho Solomon and Gwendolyn Dot.
Together, Dot and Solomon serve as wise, spiritual EDM leaders throughout their introspective four-track journey filled with intuition, chance and growth. On “Pythia,” they effortlessly move through a spectrum of new sonic boundaries ranging from darkwave to synth and goth pop to Italo disco.
Their musical journey encompasses heady, uplifting lyrical content aimed at evoking a soulful, calm intensity. At first listen, “Pythia,” which drops Friday, results in a space odyssey of the mind filled with endless possibilities and seeks creative inspiration from Enya, I Break Horses and Chairlift.
REMOVE RECORDS Interview with Torus Eyes
What messages or themes are you trying to convey through your music?
Darkness will always change into light if you allow transmutation to occur; transcending from chaos to confidence; divinity is within you; meticulous architectural sound design; poetic and emotional lyrics; moving mind and body and creating depths and heights.
What are some of your influences?
Elemental aesthetics, spiritual and existential philosophies, ontology, nature, labyrinths, yin and yang, healing music, rhythms and scales.
Detroit synth duo Torus Eyes look within for debut EP by Detroit Metro Times
In Greek mythology, it was the Greek priestess Pythia who served as the Oracle to Apollo and overseer to Delphi — a holy sanctuary. In order to channel the word of the god Apollo, a goat must be sacrificed and Pythia would bathe in the Castalian Spring before being lowered into a chamber far beneath the temple, where she would inhale a variety of herbs and leaves. It was then that Pythia would enter a trance where the truth would reveal itself to her and she, in turn, would share Apollo's word with the people.
Although Pythia is said to have served as an oracle during the 8th century, Detroit synthwave duo Torus Eyes (Gwendolyn Dot and Rho Solomon) turned to Pythia for their debut EP, Pythia, set for release at UFO Factory Oct. 17. Self-described as an "homage to a divinity based on intuition and chance," their debut effort is not unlike Pythia's trance, as Torus Eyes hopes to lure personal enlightenment through their brand of soaring, atmospheric electropop.
"I think we both know that what we're saying could affect someone, just as some darker or get more depressing music can really get you down," Solomon says. "We just understand the power of lyrics. So our idea is to not form any negative thoughts in the person, in the audience, or in the listener."
Dot agrees, adding they aren't interested in "talking about very depressive or complain-y things." Instead, she aims to be a vessel of encouragement when making art. "I think that's something else that I want to do with my art is to be a great grounding support for something, someone, some place, however it affects the earth, the world, but in an uplifting, realistic, and spiritually existential sort of way."
She also believes in making music that is a bit jarring. This is where her and Solomon's musical identities overlap.
Dot, a nurse, hails from a small town in southern Illinois and moved to Detroit earlier this year. Solomon, a Downriver native and Detroit resident, serves as a sound engineer at the Fillmore. Both grew up making music, and studying through listening. Both were in choir. Dot has played piano since the age of 7 and found herself manning the marimba in high school band, whereas Solomon cut his teeth in Greece and Europe, where he studied music in middle and high school, learning guitar, and, later, bass and drums. He says returning to the States and picking up where he left off musically was like "relearning a translation of a translation," because of how different music theory is between here and Europe. But, as he says, it taught him that there's "no end to learning," which has been of great benefit to Torus Eyes.
The two first met when Dot performed at Hybrid Moments, where Solomon was in attendance and hands-on in engineering her live sound. Shortly after, Dot revealed that she was working on a record and Solomon expressed interest in helping her mix and master at his studio. Their working relationship budded over emailed samples, demos, and poems, which would become the source material for the four songs on Pythia.
"So, we kind of became each other's collaborators, and then we just faced it and we're like, yeah, like this is working out great. And we both are helping each other with our creations," Solomon says. "I felt she understood my music and what I was going for. And also helped in being kind of critical. Like, 'Maybe that's too simple' or 'Maybe you could develop this more.'"
For Dot, it was a new experience to let someone into her process.
"I had never collaborated musically on my own work with anybody before, so that was a huge learning experience for me," she says. "And then I knew I needed someone who could very consistently help me mix my work. Cause I had more than one track ... and I wasn't sure if [Rho] was going to come through, but I really enjoyed meeting him. We had a great conversation.
"The great thing about working with Rho on mixing is that I would come up and I would be there with him. I was making electronic music as we're doing now and with electronic music, for me to not be there, it would be not done how I wanted it. So for me to be there, he was a great listener, took all of my feedback and listened to me. I've never experienced something like that before."
The experience Pythia takes the listener on is a 22-minute swelling and ethereal soundscape through space and time and calls to mind the sensation of beginning something new and unfamiliar, but comforting all the same. Not quite a dream state, though not fully awake, Torus Eyes accomplishes the equivalent of a pulsing torch amid traveling a dark and uncertain terrain. The opening track, "Mist of Serenity," feels every bit a call to a higher power to reveal itself, and on "Ancestors," Solomon begs repeatedly "Where are you now?" as if to conjure past lives and those who lived them.
"We also have been very interested in reading and practicing Buddhism in a way," Solomon says. "And a lot of these different spiritual traditions just use similar language for a lot of things, and we might want to separate them, but everyone talks about the same thing. All of these projections of these spiritual beings are kind of like manifestations and realities that exist in us. And so I feel like the source material and what we are singing about and the kind of immersive nature is what we're trying to portray. We also really want to do our part in terms of feminine power."
For Torus Eyes, though seasoned in their own right, may be taking it one step at a time (they're bringing Pythia on a mini-tour following their release show), they wouldn't mind manifesting a life where Dot and Solomon could commit to summoning their inner goddesses on the reg. But it'll take time.
"I mean, in my mind it's like only Beyonce can not have a day job," Dot jokes. "So I don't know the threshold, but maybe we'll get there."
