Ray Buttigieg Biography
Ray Buttigieg (Beau-ti-gig): born in the Maltese Islands, in the small picturesque village of Qala, overlooking Mount Etna in the distant haze, some fifty miles away, towering over the southern shores of Sicily, in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Some two miles away from his birth place lies the oldest megalithic temples in the world (Ġgantija), dating back 7-8,000 years ago. This is a heritage Mr. Buttigieg is extremely proud of and a subject of great interest and wonderment, considering the builders of these temples, these timekeepers, these dwellers, were the ancestral people of which he is a decendant. Even though New York City has been his homebase, his beginnings and his ancestry of rich history is very much evident in his musical ideas and works. Ray's first professional recording with his band, Cykx, was a double-sided hit that made the charts in the U.S., Sweden, Portugal, and Malta. The first Maltese artist/composer ever to have a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, topping the charts at the young age of 21, with compositions he wrote when he was 17. In the mid-80's, along with artists like Burne/Eno; Vangelis; Phillip Glass; Steve Reich; Kitaro; Deuter; Fripp/Summers; and Tangerine Dream, Ray Buttigieg was one of the top artists featured on WNYC's most successful "Favorite-Requests" fundraiser drive for public radio.
