Hermanos Gutiérrez, the Ecuadorian-Swiss brothers whose instrumental guitar tracks have become essential listening for festival fans, dropped their new LP Sonido Cósmico (which translates to “cosmic sound”) Friday (June 14). Produced by Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach for his Easy Eye Sound label, the spatial sounds of Sonido Cósmico are meant to lift the listener away from the desert landscapes of the band’s 2022’s breakout album, El Bueno Y El Malo, into the infinite expansive of the musical universe.
Standout tracks on the record include the captivating cumbia and salsa inspired song “Cumbia Lunar” and “Low Sun,” their second single, with a video that provides a glimpse into life inside a late-state parapsychology research center circa 1960, where physicists, neuroscientists and philosophers study and analyze supernatural phenomena such as telepathy, ESP and the paranormal.
Born eight years apart, Estavan Gutiérrez and his younger brother Alejandro Gutiérrez’s music career began when Estavan was 28 and left their home in Switzerland to spend a year with their mom’s family in Ecuador.
“I used to play the guitar in our house all the time and when I left, he missed hearing guitar songs,” Estavan recalls to Billboard. “When I came back, he just could play the guitar. And I was amazed. I asked him how do you do it, and told me he learned guitar by watching YouTube videos.”
“We never wanted to be a band and tour — we just wanted to record our songs for vinyl because we’re vinyl lovers,” Alejandro shares. “For our first LP, Ocho Cincos, we printed, maybe, 200 copies. We thought nobody would buy it. But then we started to sell through word of mouth and we ended up doing a repress.”
Today, Hermanos Gutiérrez’s unique sound, the brothers explain, comes in part from the heavy influence from their maternal grandfather, who introduced them to the music of Julio Jaramillo, an Ecuadorian singer from the 1940s and ’50s, and a guitar teacher who introduced Estevan to Argentinian Malango music.
“That’s first song that I had to learn,” he explains, “and the special finger picking needed that song always stuck with me. I really love the passion that you can feel, along with the nostalgia and the tragic sadness and love of these songs. Sad music is not something negative, it’s something beautiful. It’s honest, and it touches you heart.”
After releasing their second album, El Cama, Hermanos Gutiérrez started playing small gigs around Zurich, releasing five LPs on their own label before linking up with Auerbach and releasing El Bueno Y El Malo in 2022, earning the group an album of the year nomination at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
“Dan is just such a mentor for us with his advice and his experience as a musician,” Alejandro says. “It’s just amazing to see how he works in the studio, and I think he’s really helped us in the last month to level up our sound.”
The band’s next gig is Sunday (June 16), at the Black Deer festival in Kent, U.K., before heading to Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on July 27. From there, they will launch a tour through the Southwest U.S. with stops in Santa Fe, N.M.; Phoenix; and an Aug. 2 show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In August, Hermanos Gutiérrez heads to Europe for a number of headline shows before returning to the states in October to play two weekends of Austin City Limits festival.
Listen to new album Sonido Cósmico and check out the video for “It’s All In Your Mind” below.
