A New York Evening With Hermanos Gutiérrez

The GRAMMY Museum is thrilled to welcome Hermanos Gutiérrez to National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY celebrating their latest album, Sonido Cósmico, with a discussion moderated by WNYC’s John Schaefer about their creative process, career, and more, with a special performance to follow. 

Hermanos Gutiérrez is one of the many artists to be featured in the GRAMMY Museum’s New York City program series, which includes bringing a slate of the GRAMMY Museum’s renowned GRAMMY In The Schools Education Programs and Public Programs to the East Coast. “A New York Evening With…” is generously supported by the Dawn and Brian Hoesterey Family Foundation.  

ABOUT HERMANOS GUTIÉRREZ

Onstage, in an old church in Santa Fe during the tour for their last record, El Bueno Y El Malo, the brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez looked at each other, their guitars in their laps, the crowd attentive to their instrumental, braided playing. It was the third song of their set, and they didn’t speak or gesture to one another to acknowledge what was happening. They were both crying. Neither hesitates to recall the moment—it lives vividly between them, a shared memory—but putting words to the emotion they felt remains difficult. It was a special night in a charged environment, this holy place in a desert city in New Mexico. “It felt like we were a medium,” says Estevan, the older of the two men. Alejandro agrees. “Sometimes you get hit by this emotional perception that you are the one playing the music,” he says. A connection with something bigger than this life, in this place, on this planet—it passes through the brothers into their playing and into the audience. In many ways, this ineffable feeling is the heart of Sonido Cósmico, the new Hermanos Gutiérrez album.

The title in English translates to cosmic sound. Music that is not of this earth. Deep, infinite. Without lyrics to spell the way, instrumental music always invites the listener to engage in acts of imagination. Early Hermanos Gutiérrez records conjured feelings of motion and travel; hope in desolate places; a beautiful melancholy in the face of existence. Desert scenes. Baking-hot highways. Sonido Cósmico, Estevan explains, is meant to lift you away from the desert. “It’s not on Earth; we’ve started to fly,” Estevan says.

Sonido Cósmico demanded new levels of confidence and ambition, the seeds of which were planted on El Bueno Y El Malo. That was their first record made with legendary producer and guitarist, Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), at his Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville. On some level, El Bueno Y El Malo was an experiment: what would happen if the brothers, so accustomed to working alone, brought a trusted professional into their world? As the millions of plays attest to, it worked very well. That album expanded their palette without compromising the band’s first principles. Auerbach, who they refer to as their third brother, played on the album—their first time introducing a third guitarist into the mix—and introduced new levels of percussion; organ playing, too. With a firm foundation established—the first test run successful—Sonido Cósmico reaches higher, for the stars.

Sonido Cósmico is that rare album—it’s richer without being esoteric; inquisitive and experimental without going too far afield; and familiar without being a retread. In a beautiful coincidence, this bold, expansive record arrived in the same year that Hermanos Gutiérrez played Coachella for the first time, not to mention their biggest-ever headlining dates including the Ryman and two nights at Brooklyn Steel, and tours with Khruangbin and this fall with Leon Bridges. The desert of Indio, CA provides the ideal setting for the very special cosmic trip the brothers have cooked up. The journey from the desert to the stars, literalized.  

Praise for Sonido Cosmico

“Unhurried, atmospheric, a little melancholy and more than ready for a soundtrack sync.” —New York Times

“A fabulous album…it’s absolutely wonderful gorgeous music.” —Elton John

“The kind of music that can operate as background but on closer inspection reveals the intricacy and sly brilliance at work: even the songs’ leading melodies are often delivered subtly.” —Variety

“The spatial sounds of Sonido Cósmico are meant to lift the listener… into the infinite expanse of their musical universe.” —Billboard

“Instrumental guitarscapes that sound like a psychedelic spaghetti western.” —New York Times T Magazine

“Conjures some imagined borderland, employing spaghetti western charm, lonesome twang, Santo and Johnny-isms, and Ry Cooder-worthy sun mirage electric folk.” —Aquarium Drunkard

“While everything Hermanos Gutiérrez does is effortlessly timeless, this is a standout.” —Remezcla

Check-In: 6:30pm

Show Time: 7:30pm

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