Into The Music
Rodrigo y Gabriela have announced a new studio album for 2026, their first since 2022’s In Between Thoughts…A New World, alongside a supporting tour that will take them through North America and Europe over the summer and fall. The announcement ends a period of relative quiet for the Mexican acoustic guitar duo, who have been one of the more singular acts in their corner of the music world since breaking through internationally in the mid-2000s.
Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero met in Mexico City in the 1990s as members of a heavy metal band, and the story of how they became a world-touring acoustic guitar duo playing a hybrid of flamenco, Latin rhythms, and rock technique is one of the stranger career trajectories in modern music. They moved to Dublin, busked on Grafton Street, built a following, released an album that charted internationally, and have been working continuously since.
In Between Thoughts featured orchestral arrangements and a more expansive sound than their earlier work. The new album’s details have not been released, but the touring announcement confirms that they are actively working and intend to be on the road in support of new material through the year. For a duo whose live performances are almost always more impressive than their records, the tour announcement is, in some ways, the more important news.
What’s worth noting about Rodrigo y Gabriela is the political geography of their sound , two Mexican artists who developed their technique playing Irish pubs in Dublin, then built an international audience by blending nylon-string tradition with metal riffing. That border-crossing isn’t incidental; it’s the whole text. Their tours have always attracted audiences who don’t usually share a room. New album in 2026 feels well-timed.