Guy Buttery – finger-style guitarist extraordinaire has won another SAMA (South African Music Award) for his latest release from Peace of Eden Studios (which is based in the Rheenendal countryside of Knysna).

Live in KwaZulu is an exceptional feat on many levels, not least because live recordings don’t easily get approval from peer review as they run the gauntlet of creative and technical scrutiny by judges.

This brings to four the number of SAMA nominations Guy Buttery has received for his creations by Howard Butcher at Peace of Eden, a fair slice of the 14 nominations and awards the studio has received from the SAMAs since their inception there in 2010. That’s a phenomenal feat for a rural based studio!

Live in Kwa-Zulu is an album that stands apart with one major USA publication describing it as being in the top five best live albums of all time. It brims with dextrous wizardry and compositional perfection by Guy, from its first note to its last chord, and is beautifully rendered in a recording that delivers clarity and a sense of space that puts you in the from row of the Howard College Theatre at the University of KZN.

There is a little told story aside from the fanfare of Guy’s superlative album, that’s the emergence and critical acclaim on the world stage of a number of other fine products from the understated ramblings of Howard Butcher’s Peace of Eden Studio. Derek Gripper’s One Night on Earth has been hailed as one of the most definitive classical guitar recordings ever with Songlines Magazine of the UK awarding it their ‘Top of The World’ status and Classical Guitar Magazine listing it as the ‘Recording of Year’.

Successes are not limited to the solo work of finger-style luminaries alone. Dan Patlansky’s Wooden Thoughts was pegged #21 on the international Top 40 by Rolling Stone Magazine, ahead of releases by Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails.

Howard Butcher at the Peace of Eden studio in Knysna

More from Peace of Eden at www.edenstudios.co.za
Hear and buy Guy Buttery’s live album and others from http://guybuttery.bandcamp.com.