Orchestrations
Guy Buttery
Guy Buttery Music
★★★★
South African-born Guy Buttery is a multi-instrumentalist and composer. While his principal instrument is guitar, he also plays mandolin, sitar and thumb piano. The genesis of his recently released album Orchestrations can be attributed to two earlier events.
The first is his curiosity about Hindustani music, which took him to India as a 21-year-old, and a three-month holiday of self-described ‘misadventure’ during which he engaged with the music. The second was his performance in 2012 with the KwaZulu–Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, playing three of his original compositions, an experience that revealed to Buttery the additional compositional opportunities offered by orchestration.
Those events triggered the start of 12 years of perseverance orchestrating a number of his other works and ultimately producing this recording. Orchestrations is the result of Buttery’s global collaborations with 17 musicians and film composer and arranger Chris Letcher. South Africa’s Gqeberha String Quartet together with Buttery’s acoustic guitar form a musical core augmented by the playing of Indian flautist Harshit Shankar, sarangi player Mudassir Khan, several percussionists and four additional guitarists. This is gorgeous orchestral music of superb harmonies and contrasting textures. Brazilian and, not surprisingly, Indian influences are often present.
Reviewed by Robert Vale