Hermanos Gutiérrez release a love letter to SOUTH America
Hermanos Gutiérrez, the Swiss-Ecuadorian sibling duo of Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez, released "Los Ojos Del Cóndor," their new album, today on Easy Eye Sound. Built on galloping rhythms and liquid lap steel that evoke the sensation of flying high over the Andean landscape, the track is the centerpiece of a record that turns the brothers' cinematic guitar work homeward toward the continent that shaped them. With their new album and its title track, Hermanos Gutiérrez pay tribute to the power, beauty, and wisdom of this majestic bird of the Andes.
"In the traditions of many Indigenous peoples of South America, the condor is regarded as a sacred connection between the earthly world and the world above," the brothers shared. Often revered as a symbol of peace and spirituality, the condor inspires awe throughout the region. Directed by Robert Schober and set against a backdrop of sweeping landscapes, the video follows the brothers on a journey through the mountains, guitars in hand, as they carry and protect a single white egg across the terrain.
Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys at his Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, the 10-track Los Ojos Del Cóndor trades the deserts of the brother’s earlier albums for the rhythms and textures of the Andes. Over a decade and six albums, Estevan and Alejandro have built a distinctive language through their intertwined guitars, blending Latin sounds, surf, western flourishes and melancholia—drawing on their mother's native Ecuador and their great-grandfather's Peruvian heritage alongside Argentinean milonga and Peruvian-Colombian cumbia. A recurring motif—sometimes on guitar, sometimes on organ—surges through the title track and several other songs, intentionally tying the album together.
"Los Ojos Del Cóndor" follows lead single "Canto Andino," the album's stately opener, which eases listeners into the record's world with an acoustic guitar figure before giving way to a drifting organ line, setting the tone for the journey ahead. "That melody you hear in the chorus, that's very happy and then it turns back into the dark, low tones of the slide," said Alejandro. "It's cool because that's actually how the weather works in the Andes. You've got sunshine and then all of a sudden it's so cloudy and looks like it might rain or even snow. 'Canto Andino' is a calling from that landscape that inspired us."
Across the record, the brothers set out to return to the essence of their sound. "I really love Los Ojos Del Cóndor because we try to go back to the roots when we started as just two guitars," said Estevan, "and I played this whole album on the nylon guitar that I got from my dad when I was 8." Alejandro, meanwhile, introduces the charango guitar to the duo's sound.
"This is a love letter to South America," said Alejandro. "What we want to do with this record is to invite people to come on another journey with us, this time through the Andes and to create a curiosity for this culture and for this part of the world."
Los Ojos Del Cóndor reunites the brothers with Dan Auerbach, who also produced 2022's breakout El Bueno Y El Malo and 2024's Sonido Cósmico, both met with critical acclaim. El Bueno Y El Malo landed the brothers a Tiny Desk concert, a nomination for Album of the Year at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards, and a spot on NPR's Top Latin Albums of the year. Sonido Cósmico brought them to Jimmy Kimmel Live! for their national television debut, with the New York Times' T Magazine calling it "instrumental guitarscapes that sound like a psychedelic spaghetti western" and Variety pointing to its "intricacy and sly brilliance."
