I'm not sure where I first heard this duo because I tend to find music everywhere. I'll hear a song, maybe Shazam it if I have to, and throw it in the Spotify repository for later. One day, I stumbled upon "Camino De Mi Alma" by Hermanos Gutiérrez in my feed and man, did it just hit a spot. Abstract, soulful, and a steel guitar twang that always punches me in the gut. In fact, I would probably sum up their entire music catalogue in the same way.
Check it out:
I did a little digging around about them, since I didn't know anything and stumbled upon this great article in Ladygunn. They are two-piece band made of two brothers, Alejandro and Stephan Gutiérrez, whose mother is Ecuadorian and father is Swiss.
This is how they describe themselves:
"We are two brothers, Stephan and Alejandro, and we form an instrumental music band that has been active since 2015. Our instrumental setup is rather simple: One classic guitar, one Lap steel guitar, percussion, no vocals.
We have been playing together since our childhood until I moved to Zurich in 2015, says Alejandro. That physical distance made it more difficult to meet on a regular basis. So when Stephan used to come to visit me, he would bring his guitar and we would play together. One day Alejandro had an idea for a song that later became the first track of our debut album, says Stephan. I picked up his idea and elaborated on it. He then added a melody, I added harmony, and piece by piece the songs came together. We used to inspire each other, and song after song, the album “8 Años” came to life. The songs weren’t intended to be for a greater audience. We played for each other. It was a personal musical exchange, an urge almost, to compose music together and catch up on the time we had missed out because we were living apart in different places."
Personally, the idea of living apart in different places resonated with me. The music feels like it transcends a void, or extends out over a vast expanse of land, inducing a feeling of longing. (Is that what they call saudade in Portuguese?) That we all have a connection to somewhere or someplace.
Hermanos Gutiérrez are on tour right now. You can see dates on their agency site.
Irma on May 07, 2022
Simply beautiful