Hermanos Gutiérrez - Los Ojos Del Cóndor [Indie Exclusive]

For more than a decade, Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez have built a world out of two guitars and a lot of open space. Their records have long conjured the deserts and canyons of the American West, but on Los Ojos Del Cóndor they turn south, tracing their family roots through Ecuador and Peru and up into the high country of the Andes.

Produced once again by Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, this is the duo's third album with him, and the change of scenery is audible from the first notes. Opener "Canto Andino" grows from a simple acoustic figure into a drifting organ line, while the title track gallops along on lap steel. Elsewhere the brothers draw on Argentine milonga and Peruvian and Colombian cumbia, folding those rhythms into the cinematic, gently melancholy instrumental sound that made their name. The title comes from the condor on Ecuador's flag, a bird's-eye view of the landscape the music sets out to capture.

It is a warm, transporting record that rewards playing start to finish, the kind of album that turns a quiet evening at home into a long drive through the mountains.

This indie store exclusive edition is pressed on Solar Flare yellow and red marble vinyl, available only through independent record shops.