Rodrigo y Gabriela’s 2019 album, Mettavolution (opens in new tab), drew considerable praise worldwide. In fact, the acoustic duo picked up a Grammy award (opens in new tab) the following year for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
Adventurous and experimental, the LP included the use of electric guitar and effects (check out this stunning interpretation of the Pink Floyd epic “Echoes (opens in new tab)”) while reconnecting to their hardscrabble, street-playing roots.
Bristling with energy, Mettavolution harks back to the turn of the millennium, when Rodrigo y Gabriela ditched their old thrasher electrics for acoustic guitars, left Mexico City to busk on the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and eventually became an international sensation.
“It’s always good to reconnect with the essence of what inspired you in the beginning,” percussive rhythm guitar guru Gabriela Quintero told Guitar Player.
Following up 2019’s Mettavolution, Rodrigo y Gabriela’s new album, In Between Thoughts... A New World (opens in new tab), is slated to arrive on Friday, April 21 via ATO Records.
Described as “spontaneously composed,” In Between Thoughts... A New World continues to broaden the guitar virtuosos’ sonic palette with electronic and orchestral elements while aiming to expand the listener’s consciousness.
Recorded at their studio in Ixtapa, Mexico, Rodrigo y Gabriela’s self-produced album is heralded by the lead single, “Descending To Nowhere” – a vibrant track rendered all the more colorful by a psychedelic music video directed by Mexican filmmaker/broadcaster Olallo Rubio.
“The video is based on a specific chapter/segment of a storyline written by Rodrigo y Gabriela where a character has a spiritual journey towards non-dualism,” says Rubio. “So this video is just a small part of a larger story. They always imagined this world in animation, but we thought it’d be conceptually interesting to start in this dark, bleak, live action world and then enter the animated universe in color.
“I called artists Andy Butler (British) and Pogo (Mexican), with whom I worked before on a documentary about Alejandro Jodorowsky (opens in new tab) (the Chilean multi-disciplinary artist) because I knew they’d understand the spiritual/surreal concept we were developing.”
Visit the Rodrigo y Gabriela website (opens in new tab) for more information.
