Estéfano Gutiérrez Larco, known as Estéfano Larko, was born in Quito, Ecuador, on 2001. He began his musical path by being a self-taught flutist from age 14, playing Celtic Rock and Classical repertoire. Eventually finding out about the legendary bass performances of Stuart Hamm, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten and many more, leading him to dive deep into this instrument and the many genres that it supports.

 

In 2019, Estéfano discovers Jaco Pastorius. The sound of the fretless bass was mind blowing, which inspiring him to take out the frets of his own bass, and never looking back from that day on. Just at the right time that same year, he moved to florida, where he would meet a dear friend who showed him Turkish music. Artists like Laço Tayfa, Erkan Oğur and Necdet Yaşar changed his voice and style forever, slowly introducing him to the rest of music in Asia.

 

During the pandemic, Estéfano independently produced his first album: “Experience (2020, Bandcamp Exclusive)”, an instrumental, conceptual work dedicated to the stories and people that shaped his life until then. In the midsts of this production, a friend suggested: “you should make a song about the monkey soup” a dish that is a taboo and a meme in many places in Latin America. This song was the first single he published, alongside a home-made music video. “Sopa de Makako”, this “joke” song would become quite popular among his friends in Ecuador. Later on, Estéfano re-invented it and took it to a much higher musical, and visual level, now carrying a deeper message about society and corruption.

 

Around 2021, Estéfano went back to Quito, where he finished the production of his next album: “tl (2021, Bandcamp Exclusive)”. This is his first work with a strong Turkish influence, featuring an instrument that he learned to play during these years, the Oud. Quickly followed the production of “Al soñar te ví bailando y yo mi corazón te volví a sentir (2021)”, an orchestral fusion work dedicated to a lover at the time, and a milestone of his one-man independent projects. Estéfano gave several concerts between Quito and Miami during these years, alongside producing the sound track for “Stash (2023)”, an independent ecuadorian film.

In 2023, he received a Full-Tuition Scholarship Award from Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he mainly studied, organized and participated in Andean and Asian fusion projects. In his second year, he released his first live album “El Disque Chukllu (2024)”; and co-lead the jazz fusion group Yahuar Kedi, which performed at the Ecuador Jazz Festival 2024; as well as being a recurrent guest artist in the 2024 South American Tour of the Peruvian saxofonist Diego Herrera. Afterwise, he released his second single “El Mañaná”, featuring the Greek singer and composer María Delaporta. He has been moving back and forth between Boston and Ecuador, performing with the Ensamble del Viento Ecuador in the International Flute Festival 2025 and the pre-eliminary auditions for the Quito Fest 2025. His upcoming album “Kadensias Serranas (2026)”, is a wrap up of his time at Berklee, expressing the insights and growth on Ecuadorian-Andean identity and its relation to Asian music.