GRAMMY®-Award-winning guitar virtuosos Rodrigo y Gabriela have announced the upcoming release of METTAVOLUTION LIVE, an all-new double album recorded during last year’s METTAVOLUTION World Tour. The 13-track collection arrives as a 2LP, 2CD, and digital download via Rubyworks/ATO on Friday October 2; pre-orders are available now.
“Hearing this recording is to be able to reconnect with our marvelous fans from our live gigs during 2019,” say Rodrigo y Gabriela, “the year we got to promote our METTAVOLUTION album all over the world. That was the very moment we felt truly complete as artists and musicians.”
METTAVOLUTION LIVE is heralded by today’s premiere of an awe-inspiring, 20-minute-plus live version of Pink Floyd’s epic “Echoes,” audaciously reimagined for two acoustic guitars and streaming now.
LISTEN TO “ECHOES”
PRE-ORDER METTAVOLUTION LIVE
The release of METTAVOLUTION LIVE comes in the wake of a deeply creative period that Rod and Gab are continuing to experience in these pandemic days at home in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. One of the world’s most in-demand live acts, the duo had planned to spend this summer celebrating METTAVOLUTION and their historic GRAMMY® Award triumph with an eagerly awaited world tour. Instead, they performed an extremely popular NPR Tiny Desk (Home) performance in April, and have been releasing their daily Lumbini Sessions with inspired live versions of their favorite metal songs, film themes, jazz tunes, RyG album cuts as well as covers of Motorhead, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Dave Brubeck, Van Morrison, Lil Nas X, Radiohead and more.
WATCH NPR’S TINY DESK (HOME) PERFORMANCE
WATCH THE LUMBINI SESSIONS
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2019 proved a milestone year for Rodrigo y Gabriela, highlighted by the release of their GRAMMY® Award-winning new album, METTAVOLUTION (ATO). The duo’s fifth studio LP and first album in five years, METTAVOLUTION made a spectacular chart debut upon its April 2019 release, entering Billboard’s “Americana/Folk Albums” chart at #1 with first week equivalents in excess of 11,000 – Rodrigo y Gabriela’s second best sales week ever. In addition, the album arrived at #2 on Billboard’s “Rock Albums,” as well as #10 on “Top Album Sales” and #71 on the overall SoundScan/Billboard 200.
Hailed by Pitchfork as “fast, heavy, and relentlessly precise,” METTAVOLUTION ultimately earned Rodrigo y Gabriela their first-ever GRAMMY® nomination and first-ever GRAMMY® win for “Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.” Rodrigo y Gabriela celebrated the album with a truly global 92-city work tour, performing METTAVOLUTION in its entirety each night alongside fan favorites and classic pieces from their beloved original canon. As now captured on METTAVOLUTION LIVE, the shows saw the virtuoso duo operating at the very peak of their powers, the perfect balance of melody and metal, fire and finesse, honed over two decades of musical collaboration.
Indeed, the new album stands out as some of the most powerful music of Rodrigo y Gabriela’s remarkable career, including spectacular live versions of METTAVOLUTION’s crunching “Terracentric” and propulsive title track. The duo’s third official live release, METTAVOLUTION LIVE is further driven by breathtaking performances of such longtime concert favorites as “Diablo Rojo,” “11:11,” and “Tamacun,” offering ample evidence of Rodrigo y Gabriela’s staging virtuosity and dedicated commitment to using music as a positive force for healing and inspiration in trying times.
With career album sales now in excess of 1.5 million worldwide, Rodrigo y Gabriela have undoubtedly established themselves as the planet’s preeminent acoustic guitar duo, earning international acclaim and a fervent fan following with their awe-inspiring mastery of their instruments as well as a truly distinctive approach to melody, energy, and rhythm. Three years in the making, METTAVOLUTION embraces the duo’s passionate interest in Buddhism, the history of human evolution, and the liberation of the potential we have as a species, all expressed through the medium of two acoustic guitars. Conceived and composed in their studio in Ixtapa on the Mexican Pacific Coast, the album’s music - including six white-hot new compositions and an inspired, side-long cover of Pink Floyd’s sprawling “Echoes” – was road-tested around the world on tour in 2017 and 2018 before being recorded in Los Angeles with multiple GRAMMY®-winning producer Dave Sardy (Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, A Perfect Circle, Band of Horses) behind the board.
Along with its popular success and GRAMMY® Award win, METTAVOLUTION also drew a wide range of critical acclaim, with Pitchfork writing, “METTAVOLUTION reassures that for as long as they’re around, Rodrigo y Gabriela will be echoing their influences as only they can.” “For Rodrigo y Gabriela, the meditation is actually in the swirl of notes and rhythmic strums that circle around their music,” wrote NPR. “And if we follow their lead, there is a meditative quality for the listener as well.” “METTAVOLUTION finds the duo locked back in,” wrote Glide, “and where their last record was dedicated to their influences, this time it is all about the visceral primal passion of playing and what originally connected them to music.” “Rodrigo y Gabriela continue to impress with their ability to shift through a variety of Latin, folk and rock styles without ever taking the easy routes,” noted Uncut, while AllMusic’s Thom Jurek applauded “the abundant originality and soul R&G bring to everything they play,” adding, “METTAVOLUTION is the Rodrigo y Gabriela record where all of their gifts are on display and in sync; it sends listeners on a holistic journey of musical discovery and emotional resonance.”
