Album Review: Cam Butler (Ron S Peno and the Superstitions) collates pieces from previous compositions in shimmering new collection ‘Strings Music’.

Cam Butler is a seasoned and experienced multi instrumentalist and producer who is also the co-writer of songs with the late and legendary Ron S Peno (Died Pretty) in the fabulous Ron S Peno and the Superstitions which he co-founded. Their album ‘Do The Understanding’ was one of my albums of the year last year. In addition, Butler is also a rather brilliant composer and he has just released a shimmering collection of material gathered over his career in ‘Strings Music’.

Released in the wake of his collaborator’s tragic passing, this instrumental collection somehow takes on elegiac air, filled with weeping strings and eloquent guitars that paint across a vast canvas – sometime with a folkloric, cinematic tilt (‘Thunderstorm’s A’Comin’) and sometimes restful and somber (‘Desolation’ and ‘Lonely World’). The final track ‘In A Lifetime’ assumes a great meaning after Peno’s death: it becomes a vast weeping elegy that is bold and resilient, celebratory yet mourning at the same time.

Butler says of the collection:

‘Strings Music’ is a retrospective album for which I have selected eight of my most compelling compositions. These compositions have been taken from previous albums of mine, released between 2003 and 2012, and have been given a new life, with re-recordings, revised arrangements and re-mastering. I have composed one new piece, ‘All Our Lives’, especially for this album.

All the tracks on ‘Strings Music’ reflect the distinctive compositional and recording approach that I have been working on for many years; combining modern, classical string sections with expressive, reverb-laden electric guitar. The result is a harmonically rich blend of sound that is exciting and emotionally captivating. ‘Strings Music’ can been seen as an introduction to my music as an Australian composer, and also as a collection of works that are a comprehensive representation of myself as an artist and musician.

There is a quietude to many of the tracks – ambient and elegant pieces that forge guitars and strings in a close intimate embrace such as ‘I Was Lost’, and then tracks like ‘Today Troubles Seem Far Away’ are epic and cinematic with an euphoric, anthemic sweep, pulse quickening and vibrant. Drama and theatricality appear in ‘I Surrender’ – a sound track to a long lost swinging sixties heist caper starring David Niven.

This is a fascinating collection of moods that perfectly capture Butler’s composition talents: eloquent and stately at times, brash and zesty at other points, sometimes both elements combining within the same track but above all moving and emotional.

Butler is a master musician.

Butler & His Orchestra will be launching ‘Strings Music’ at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday October 6.