Album Review: Rodrigo y Gabriela, In Between Thoughts... A New World

Rodrigo y Gabriela have come a long way since cutting their musical teeth busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street around the turn of the millennium; their last album, 2019’s Mettavolution, took home a Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

The follow-up is Rodrigo y Gabriela like you’ve never heard them before, however, thanks to the addition of electronic elements, as well as bombastic orchestration courtesy of Vienna-based composer Adam Ilyas Kuruc and the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra.

Thus, the opening ‘True Nature’ sounds like Metallica covering a Sergio Leone soundtrack, a charge which could also be laid at the funky ‘Egoland’, complete with ‘wah-wah’ stylings. The headrush of lush orchestration on ‘Seeking Unreality’, meanwhile, creates enough drama for a HBO mini-series in just three minutes and 13 seconds.

‘Broken Rage’ is a thrilling mix of spiralling guitars, strings and percussive rhythms, while other highlights include the bright ‘n’ breezy funk of ‘The Eye That Catches The Dream’ and the hypnotic lead single ‘Descending To Nowhere’.

Apparently all nine tracks were inspired by the duo’s study of Hindu philosophy, Advaita Vedanta, and emerged fully formed from a “transformative period of spiritual awakening and a subsequent burst of unfettered creativity”, according to Rodrigo. Wherever it came from, it works.

8/10