Guy Buttery — Orchestrations (Guy Buttery Music, 2025)
South African guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Guy Buttery is set to release Orchestrations on February 21, 2025. This project marks the culmination of a 12-year journey into orchestral music, originating from a groundbreaking 2012 collaboration with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, where Buttery debuted three of his compositions arranged for a 52-piece ensemble.
Orchestrations includes 14 cinematic tracks featuring collaborations with prominent artists from ten countries, including Kaki King (New York), Derek Gripper (Cape Town), Julian Sartorius (Berne), Madala Kunene (Durban), and Mudassir Khan (New Delhi). At the album’s core is Buttery’s guitar, encircled by Chris Letcher’s expansive orchestral arrangements, which lend the work a cohesive and immersive quality. The album has undergone numerous iterations; revisited, abandoned, and eventually resurrected.
The opening track, “Two Chords and the Truth,” sets the tone for the album’s experimental, yet accessible nature. Layered instrumentation, including unconventional techniques like threading paper through cello strings, builds effectively. The piece rises and falls with intricate variations, forming a metaphorical mountain range of sound waves.
With Orchestrations, Guy Buttery invites listeners into a vast, intricate world of sound, where western classical meets contemporary acoustic and world music. The album balances soaring highs with profound depths, offering a listening experience that is as innovative as it is emotional.
Widely celebrated in his home country and abroad, Buttery’s career is distinguished by accolades like the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, an honor that broke tradition by recognizing a non-classical musician. Known for his relentless curiosity and boundary-pushing creativity, Buttery has established a global reputation for mixing diverse musical influences and instruments.
Buy Orchestrations.
Author: Tyler Bennet
