Hidden Spaces Presents Madala Kunene x Guy Buttery x Gontse Makhene

ABOUT

As fate would have it, Madala Kunene and Guy Buttery met in 2006 on a film set. Despite there being 36 years difference between Kunene and Buttery, sparks flew right away. Madala and Guy have collaborated a few times over the years but a recent artist residency and subsequent concert at the Nirox Foundation in 2022 has taken this collaboration to new heights.

Madala Kunene, commonly referred to as the “King of the Zulu Guitar”, has no interest in genre specifications and prescriptions. His idiosyncratic brand of blues operates in an opaque space where cool jazz, maskandi, mbaqanga, and a myriad of East Coast blues intersect. Madala is a genre unto himself. 

“Guy Buttery is something of a National treasure”, says South Africa’s leading newspaper. As an internationally recognised musician, this multi-instrumentalist enjoys invitations to play sell-out performances all over the globe. The USA, UK, Australia, France, Brazil, India and Italy have all welcomed him back year after year. Guy’s distinct unification of South African guitar music is the musical advocate for everything positive and beautiful about the place he calls home.

Together Madala and Guy have unearthed new musical landscapes taking cyclical Zulu guitar patterns to the East and back again in a psychedelic layering of textures, deeply rooted in KwaZulu-Natal. Expect high dynamics, deep grooves, delicate African inflections and mind-bending string playing of an entirely new order.

DIRECTIONS