Instrumental music has always invited listeners to explore worlds of the imagination. With guitar-playing duo Hermanos Gutierrez, the canvas is brimming with possibility. Their latest album, “El Bueno Y El Malo,” sounds and shimmers like the music of Ennio Morricone that inspired the title. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, whose label the brothers are signed to, contributes guitar and production, enhancing the record's lush melodic feel. Now, on their third album, “Sonido Cosmico” (which translates to Sound of the Universe in English), the brothers bring their supernatural bond to the fore, transcending to new hypnotic heights.
Esteban and Alejandro Gutierrez, who passed through Switzerland and Ecuador, each own only six string instruments. But their musical chemistry is indescribable. A tender moment between the pair at a live concert in a desert town in New Mexico last year evoked the otherworldly theme of their new album. Three songs in, the pair looked at each other with tears in their eyes as the audience, who had been captivated by their performance, fell silent. The emotional high of that night and their connection to an ineffable place made them feel like mediums, they said in a press release. And with all the emotion pouring out of “Sonido Cosmico,” they certainly captured the essence of this moment to the fullest.
“Low Sun” is perhaps the album's standout track, with its steel guitar melody evoking heat waves flickering among cacti, the sun slowly fading behind desert dust, and an endless highway disappearing into the night sky. “Until We Meet Again” is the album's lone outlier, with its hopeful atmosphere, intertwining riffs, and subtle shifts in delay and reverb that evoke a sense of harmonious connection within the cosmic album.
This aura is epitomized by the album's title track, which carefully adds layers, textures and effects—brooding vibrato, spacey phasers and beautifully delicate string arrangements—to create an almost sci-fi feel in its sonic palette. The accompanying music video is like something straight out of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western handbook, combining slow camera pans and grainy film footage with a gleaming, butterscotch-colored Gretsch guitar and several UFO scenes to create an extraterrestrial atmosphere.
Though pensive throughout, every moment on Sonido Cosmico feels different. Each painting evokes something different than you'd expect. It's hard to find a song on this album you don't like. It's no wonder the pair are touring with Khruangbin this year. Their album flows with the same smoothness that the other pair have mastered. But what's most impressive is the fact that two brothers can create such profound music with just guitars.
If you want to explore space with your desert guitar, look no further.
8/10
Text: Jamie Wilde
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