I will address this message/statement to the guitar players and not only guitar players worldwide who are playing the music that comes through and is associated with the name Estas Tonne.

I recommend reading this because after this statement is released, there will be no tolerance from our side (Estas, ETMusic, One Heart Sound label, our Youtube partners, distributors, and publishing admins) regarding cloning, publishing/renaming, and fragmentally releasing this music under the names of whoever thinks they can do it. Those doing so will be claimed and, in some cases, taken to the courts.

When I picked up a guitar again after a long break, I had no idea what to play. Yes, I had a wonderful guitar teacher when I was a kid who introduced me to the world of a guitar, yet for over 10 years after completing our time together, I was not playing this wonderful instrument.

Once it came back into my life, all I remembered was a classical piece that every kid in the Soviet Union under a music school program was playing; it’s called “Cuban Dance”. I have told this story many times, I also did so when we went to Cuba and released a version of what it became: “Cuban Heart“. There is a lot of information online regarding the author of the original piece, yet from my research and, even more so, experience, I can centrally say that the foundation and the progression of what “Cuban Dance” was and still played by guitar students was primary based on the traditional Latin American songs, intermixed with the progressions that are used in countless music “styles”, from folk to flamenco, from metal music to rock. I have never intended to keep that short piece’s original structure. It gave a spark, and its form and structure naturally changed pretty much right away since I restarted to play the guitar. But this isn’t the point of this statement.

Inspiration is one thing: it is when we are inspired by something or someone yet find our way of self-expression. Self-expression (or artistic expression) is the foundation for life on Earth, bound by the search for love and eventually honouring the love that we are.

Chords and progressions could be the same, interpreted in countless ways. Yet, the melodic parts and energy unique to every creation are subjects we call artistic copywriting in this reality.

Cloning, repeating, and copying are natural processes that many artists use in their path’s beginning stages. Although it’s common for a musician to play cover songs, this isn’t exactly what happened to me.

For most of my life, I’ve lived and still live the lifestyle of a nomad, and at the beginning of my musical path, when I met a violin player in New York, we tried to play some cover songs, yet it wasn’t my thing. I could only feel the music coming from a direct life experience, only playing the material born on the go, daily improvising the variations of what came a day, days before, sliding into the next day. That’s all I knew how to express, and it’s way beyond contemporary guitar playing studied in schools and academies.

During that period, I stopped listening to any music because music became my life. Unless I met a fellow traveller on the way and listened to them playing live, I was only listening to silence or forces of nature while not playing the guitar.

And so, the pieces formed over the years, lots of them. Just before I naturally started to play long sound journeys, which eventually got the name “Internal Flight“, I released some sketch/demo albums online simply because I felt that if I didn’t do it in the ongoing moment, they would change from one form into another. And indeed, they have changed, giving birth to countless other pieces. And yet, there are albums from that era that are still present online.

For 13 years, short pieces appeared only during the sound checks or as lullabies, completing the concerts/sound journeys. Also, while travelling through a beautiful landscape or being on tours, our team and I could stop by and capture a spontaneous moment, sometimes also visually and yet as audio.

Occasionally, I meet an inspired guitar player who clones and copies Estas’s style. I encourage them to keep playing while observing what has been played through them and what clothes they wear. Is it them? Is it still Estas they are cloning? Again, style is one thing; captured and altered songs are different topics.

Some would find their way. Seeing this always brings joy to my heart; it is inspiring when someone genuinely walks their path.

Taking notes and keeping a record of sketches, I can recognise any piece of this music and name its origin when someone else is trying to play it.

I’m living this music; the pieces are like babies, and I can easily recognise what is what, where it was born, where it came from and what new pathways have been created through them.

Some of these guitar players got offended that I commented, while some listened to what I had to say. Some would debate the chord progression scales rather than see themselves. Music is spiritual. We can’t touch it, yet we can feel it. Yet, in this reality of life, it becomes a matter when something gets published or released online. We can even touch a physical CD or vinyl when it’s released or touch a device through which it is streamed.

In 2017, when we held the only guitar camp that had happened so far, I emphasised the importance of feeling one’s path, heart, and soul’s calling. Some did listen and, indeed, could figure that out. Some didn’t.

Over the years, some have started to recapture their variations of the pieces that came initially through me, renaming them, shortening them, expanding them, and publishing under their names, thinking that it’s okay to do so. Again, cloning, repeating, playing and recording them with the correct registration, presentation, and respect is one thing. Changing the pace and the frequencies, fragmenting, renaming, and placing your name under these pieces is not. It’s that simple.

If everyone did so in this reality, we would never know what a piece by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, “Queen,” “Beatles,” “Led Zeppelin,” Carlos Santana, and so on is. There is a reason and beauty for our uniqueness and individuality. Yet, simultaneously, we already live in a world of clones, bots, and AI, which are inevitably present here. Nowadays, everyone has a “music studio” and a screen to transmit it into the world at hand.

Over the years, we have had multiple cases: a major Bollywood movie called “PK” included the original recording of “The Song of the Golden Dragon” in the film, initially performed, filmed and recorded at the Landshut Street Festival 2011. There were also stories when artists signed with major labels such as Universal Music France, Casa-Empire, US, and another label from Spain; they took fragments of the published songs, reworked them, and released them online under their names. How did I know about it? Through the audience. People started to write, expressing joy that this music got some “airplay”. But it wasn’t an exact or fair situation. Some we could resolve, some we didn’t, simply because of the funds, time, and energy we would have to invest in dealing with such companies.

Not less important, “Tunecore,” the company we worked with until recently as publishing admin, did nearly nothing to protect the copywrite. Above all, “Believe Music,” the company that owns “Tunecore,” allowed multiple times to publish many songs under a fake profile of Estas Tonne without proper investigation or a refund.

Also, over the years, I’ve seen hundreds of guitar players and other instrumentalists playing “Estas Music” on pretty much every continent of the world and publishing it online, from South America to Asia, Europe, Russia, Ukraine and even Africa. It is wonderful that these pieces inspire many to connect to their essence, this music and express themselves.

One thing is to play it. Another is to wear clothes that aren’t yours and present yourself as if they belong to you.

Those doing it with respect to the authors and, first of all, to the essence of music (and I mean anyone who is playing cover songs by any author, not just by Estas Tonne) deserve respect for daring, doing, and being something beautiful because music is healing, music is a wonder, and music is a proper medicine. And some can’t figure out what to do yet. Some artists (or any human) lack material for self-expression, yet fundamentally seek attention or want to make a living. These are other types of artists who substitute the original source of any creation, replacing its original energy with theirs. Knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally. One can always ask, at least try to, or investigate how to publish cover songs online. It takes some minutes to do so.

Playing, performing, and recording covers can also be beautiful. They have their place in this world, yet they are an alternation of sorts. You know those moments when you get into an elevator or a restaurant and hear a well-known song played and recorded in a new way?

Indeed, it’s beautiful, too, but it’s not the original, raw piece. It could also be an art form or a substitution.

And so, I make this statement, to be clear, that I, Estas Tonne, the caretaker of this sound, these songs and essence, our team, our partners, and those taking care of the releases of this music online, will have no tolerance towards those that are substituting without the respect this sound, songs, pieces, symphonies or whatever form it might eventually take.

I did encourage, and I always will encourage, any artist to explore, feel, and play this music, yet once I or our partners see a substitution, theft, or false presentation of it, or even more so, aggression towards the originality and comment about that, we will take action.

We don’t have time to police everyone; it’s neither my nor our team’s goal or vision, but as soon as we stumble across such cases, we will act according to human laws, copywriter laws, and the law of authenticity.

Blessings and thanks for reading,
Estas Tonne
March 2025