BEVERLY — If you ask Rodrigo Sanchez, one half of the fleet-fingered Mexican acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, what COVID-19 personally wrought for him, know that it will involve spiritual enlightenment.
Having contracted the coronavirus in the early part of the pandemic, Sanchez’s bout came as he and creative partner Gabriela Quintero were figuring out how to follow up the duo’s prior album, 2019’s “Mettavolution.” The duo’s fifth studio album, it netted them a Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album and was influenced by Sanchez and Quintero’s longtime interest in Buddhism.
Having already been well down a path of spiritual searching, COVID sent Sanchez into an existential crossroads and upended his sense of mortality. It led to his discovery of Advaita Vedanta, a Hindu philosophy rooted in the concept of nondualism.
He shared this game-changing moment with Quintero in the studio they built in the remote Mexican city of Ixtapa in 2008, and it influenced the creative direction they took on their new album, “In Between Thoughts…A New World.”
“While I was sick and recovering, I went back to the studio and talked to Gab about it and she thought I was crazy and started asking me what I was talking about,” Sanchez explained in a recent interview.
“She thought it was nonsense and I said I didn’t know how to explain it, but then I started to share stuff and it became mind-blowing for her. We started working and recording this album. We didn’t know that the world was going to continue, so we were just doing what we do.
“Gab had said recently in some other interviews that we were like musicians on the Titanic. We had to be playing anyway and we kept playing while the ship was sinking,” he elaborated.
“We started recording because we were thinking that while we didn’t know what was going to happen, we had to do something. We were so inspired by this self-realization. It was so liberating. Things are happening and we cannot fight it. This is what’s happening. It’s up to us what we do with it. The album is like a soundtrack if you pay attention to it.”
Recorded in February 2021, “In Between Thoughts” took six months to complete. While RyG’s trademark flamenco-flavored playing and interaction are front and center, Sanchez and Quintero incorporated stylistic nuances into their process, from adding analog synths, Mellotron and other electronic instruments into the mix to connecting with Vienna-based composer Adam Ilyas Kuruc to have him contribute lush string arrangements and powerful percussion – a notable accomplishment during a time of stringent social distancing.
Despite clocking in at just over a half hour, the nine-song collection of songs provides plenty of musical manna. Highlights on “In Between Thoughts” range from “The Eye That Catches the Dream,” which starts off with subtle acoustic guitar intro before veering into a frenetic cavalcade of thumping cadences, to the album-closing title track that features an auditory parry-and-thrust between RyG’s kinetic strumming and the orchestra’s bold string section.
Elsewhere, “Egoland” chugs along to a reverb-soaked cadence reminiscent of a distaff spaghetti western vibe, while “Broken Rage” occasionally gives nods to the duo’s unplugged hard rock roots. Most pleasing for Sanchez was how organic the whole process was.
“It was all a flow where we had no expectations,” he said. “I can only imagine how the record Gab and I had to put out after the Grammy and not dealing with a pandemic. We’d just be wondering what we’d be doing. I’m so happy that we didn’t have to go through that. It was just pure joy and it evolved the way it evolved.
“The names of the songs are pointing to this thing. We were writing a story as we were recording. When we finished the album and its nine songs, it just stayed like that. We were recording as we were writing. The process was so different. And as well we started adding electronics, it wasn’t like we approached this like we were going to do ‘the new album.’ We had no limitations whatsoever. The whole thing changed our lives completely.”
Considering how pleased Sanchez and Quintero are with “In Between Thoughts,” it’s no surprise their live shows will be heavy on the new music.
“We have a full-on, different show because we have these visuals that go with the backing tracks that are connected through time codes for us to play the album fully the way it is,” Sanchez said.
“It’s a totally different experience. We’re doing meet-and-greets after the shows. Gab and I never had this. We’re so happy that the message is getting out and that people are questioning the concept because they recognized something through the music.”