Global guitar sensation and multiple ARIA Award winning icon, John Butler began his recording career after busking instrumentals on his 11-string guitar. With the connection to his instruments and what they can communicate still firmly in place, it’s fitting that the next album from one of Australia’s premier alternative songwriters and storytellers is a return to an instrumental album, aptly titled ‘Still Searching’ and available on November 1.

John said, “These stringed things made from wood, metal and hide are dear friends. They help me communicate things I would never have found words for. They help heal me and allow me to have a dialect in which to converse with the divine. So of course the conversation continues. The title of this album eludes to just that. I’m still exploring. Still wandering and wondering. Still obsessed and ravenous for new tunings, techniques and textures. Still Searching…”

Representing the middle of a cycle, ‘Still Searching’ is the second season in what Butler describes as ‘Four Seasons’.

Collectively the ‘Four Seasons’ are a prolific body of work – four albums that ironically began after a somewhat existential crisis, and have evolved into Butler delving back into his origins in instrumental music to heal during the first season (with the recently released ‘Running River’ ambient album), to begin again (with the ‘Still Searching’ album), to go solo with the third album in 2025 and following that to go full circle with a new band and new album. The process is like a rebirth for Butler.