The sibling instrumental duo will release their new album Los Ojos del Cóndor via Easy Eye Sound in September
In a world of trending TikTok dances and short attention spans, the existence of a duo like HermanosGutiérrezis almost radical. Their instrumental-only sound is complex but infinitely listenable, with live shows that command a trance-like focus as they take the stage together, looping and creating every beat.
On their new album, Los Ojos del Cóndor, due Sept. 25, the Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers of Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez take their sound from desert landscapes to the mountains and coasts of Peru, the home of their great-grandfather. The video for the first single, “Canto Andino,” is a gorgeously shot journey to the Andes, where the brothers reconnected with their ancestry and crafted the music to evoke the oscillating weather of the region, as the melody drifts in and out in intensity.
Produced by Dan Auerbach at Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, Los Ojos del Cóndor marks the third time the duo has collaborated with the Black Keys’ singer-guitarist. While Estevan played the entirety of the album on the nylon guitar he was gifted by his father as a child, Alejandro brought in the charango guitar, an instrument native to South America to conjure sounds like Argentinean Milonga, Cumbia, and more. The layered rhythms and space created are themselves lyrical: Their music never feels absent of a voice, even without a singer.
“We never had the feeling we needed a singer because it was always the intention of let the guitar sing — the melodies — to create the feeling that touches your heart and soul,” Estevan told Rolling Stone in 2022.
Los Ojos del Cóndor will be released in September on Easy Eye Sound, the label home of their last two albums, El Bueno y el Malo and Sonido Cósmico.