Biography / History

2022: Ottmar Liebert

Ottmar Liebert’s global success can be attributed to a myriad of things – his creative vision, his determination, and a strong sense of melody. Born in Cologne, Germany, he began playing guitar at 11. Before the age of 19, Liebert had intended to stay in Germany and pursue a career as a designer and photographer. However, while journeying extensively through Asia and playing with other travelers and local musicians, he realised that he could not escape a life of music. After pursuing his dreams of playing rock music in Boston, he settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe was a fresh start for Liebert in many ways and in addition to returning to the acoustic guitar, he remained open to letting the place define the music he made. It was this openness to the local landscape that defined what was to become his musical style, a mix of Spanish, Mexican and World elements, strong melodies tinged with a shade of melancholy, balanced with upbeat rhythms.

Liebert founded the first incarnation of his band, Luna Negra, in 1989. His debut album began as a self-produced release called Marita: Shadows and Storms, copies of which local Native American artist, Frank Howell, distributed in his art galleries. After the record made its way to radio stations, it began generating a buzz among programmers and received unprecedented response among listeners. Higher Octave Music picked it up and released a fully remastered version, Nouveau Flamenco. Recorded for less than $3,000 on an old analog machine in a shack beside a gravel pit, this CD became an international sensation, establishing Liebert’s unique border-style flamenco, and becoming the best-selling instrumental acoustic guitar album of all time:

2 x Platinum – USA
14 x Platinum – USA/Latin
Platinum – Australia
Platinum – New Zealand
Gold – Canada
Gold – Mexico

Visual art has always been essential to Ottmar Liebert’s world-view and even today he is an avid photographer. “My music is visual,” Liebert says. “Santa Fe has great light, that special thing you get in the high desert. Some days you can see for 100 miles, and think you can reach into the sky or walk off a ridge and keep flying. That’s how I felt when I recorded Nouveau Flamenco.”

Liebert has since become one of the most successful instrumental artists of the past decades, entertaining audiences around the world and releasing a catalog of 33 classic albums including live recordings, an orchestral album for Sony Classical, a binaural surround sound recording, remix albums, a lullaby and a flamenco-reggae album. During his career, he has played more than two thousand concerts worldwide. Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra have played two concerts with the New Mexico Philharmonic featuring Liebert’s music arranged by bassist, Jon Gagan. These two concerts, to date, have broken attendance records for the New Mexico Philharmonic. Ottmar Liebert has been nominated for five Grammy awards.

Of Liebert’s thirty-three albums, there are some that stand out.

Borrasca (1991) was Grammy nominated, but it is exceptional in Liebert’s mind for another reason. Although everyone wanted him to make another Nouveau Flamenco, this album went in a different direction. He added horns and piano, giving the album a different vibe and sound.

Solo Para Ti (1992) featured two songs on which Carlos Santana played. Santana’s was the first concert Ottmar Liebert ever attended and he was a huge influence on Liebert’s melodic playing.

The Hours Between Nights + Day (1993), nominated for a Grammy, mixed the Japanese koto, with the flamenco guitar; on this album, Liebert used his electric guitar for the first time since the mid-eighties, and combined programmed drums with live percussion. He also ingeniously layered field recordings with the original music creating a musical odyssey that is dreamy and atmospheric. The album contains the only Spanish language version of the Marvin Gaye hit Mercy, Mercy Me

Opium (1996), again nominated for a Grammy, was the first album recorded in Liebert’s new studio in Santa Fe. Liebert received many accolades for this album from fans around the world and emails and letters from listeners describing how evocative Opium was.

La Semana (2004) was the first album Liebert engineered by himself. It was the first time there was no sound engineer on the “other side of the glass” and Liebert discovered that at first, he played what he had planned but then after he dropped this, it was just “pure play”.

One Guitar (2006), also nominated for a Grammy, was a milestone album for Ottmar Liebert in that it was his first solo guitar album.

Waiting n Swan (2015) is special to Liebert because to him it reconnects two branches of rhythm – tangos flamenco and reggae, proving that there is no such thing as “purity” in music.

slow (2016) is an album which Liebert felt it was incumbent upon him to make a statement against the sound of billions of smart phones beeping with the latest news, likes and comments, keeping us in a state of constant alarm. His album is framed around the notion that a slow tempo can change listeners’ heartbeats and blood pressure.

2017: slow

Ottmar Liebert’s global success can be attributed to a myriad of things – his creative vision, his determination, and a strong sense of melody. Born in Cologne, Germany, he began playing guitar at 11. Before the age of 19, Liebert had intended to stay in Germany and pursue a career as a designer and photographer.  However, while journeying extensively through Asia and playing with other travelers and local musicians, he realised that he could not escape a life of music. After pursuing his dreams of playing rock music in Boston, he settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Santa Fe was a fresh start for Liebert in many ways and in addition to returning to the acoustic guitar, he remained open to letting the place define the music he made. It was this openness to the local landscape that defined what was to become his musical style, a mix of Spanish, Mexican and World elements, strong melodies tinged with a shade of melancholy, balanced with upbeat rhythms.

Liebert founded the first incarnation of his band, Luna Negra, in 1989. His debut album began as a self-produced release called Marita: Shadows and Storms, copies of which local Native American artist, Frank Howell, distributed in his art galleries.  After the record made its way to radio stations, it began generating a buzz among programmers and received unprecedented response among listeners.  Higher Octave Music picked it up and released a fully remastered version, Nouveau Flamenco.  Recorded for less than $3,000 on an old analog machine in a shack beside a gravel pit, this CD became an international sensation, establishing  Liebert’s unique border-style flamenco, and becoming the best-selling instrumental acoustic guitar album of all time:

2 x Platinum – USA
14 x Platinum – USA/Latin
Platinum – Australia
Platinum – New Zealand
Gold – Canada
Gold – Mexico

Visual art has always been essential to Ottmar Liebert’s world-view and even today he is an avid photographer.  “My music is visual,” Liebert says. “Santa Fe has great light, that special thing you get in the high desert. Some days you can see for 100 miles, and think you can reach into the sky or walk off a ridge and keep flying. That’s how I felt when I recorded Nouveau Flamenco.”

Liebert has since become one of the most successful instrumental artists of the past decades, entertaining audiences around the world and releasing a catalog of 33 classic albums including live recordings, an orchestral album for Sony Classical, a binaural surround sound recording, remix albums, a lullaby and a flamenco-reggae album.  During his career, he has played more than two thousand concerts worldwide.  Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra have played two concerts with the New Mexico Philharmonic featuring Liebert’s music arranged by bassist, Jon Gagan.  These two concerts, to date, have broken attendance records for the New Mexico Philharmonic.  Ottmar Liebert has been nominated for five Grammy awards.

Of Liebert’s thirty-three albums, there are some that stand out.

Borrasca (1991) was Grammy nominated, but it is exceptional in Liebert’s mind for another reason.  Although everyone wanted him to make another Nouveau Flamenco, this album went in a different direction.  He added horns and piano, giving the album a different vibe and sound.

Solo Para Ti (1992) featured two songs on which Carlos Santana played. Santana’s was the first concert Ottmar Liebert ever attended and he was a huge influence on Liebert’s melodic playing.

The Hours Between Nights + Day (1993), nominated for a Grammy, mixed the Japanese koto, with the flamenco guitar; on this album, Liebert used his electric guitar for the first time since the mid-eighties, and combined programmed drums with live percussion. He also ingeniously layered field recordings with the original music creating a musical odyssey that is dreamy and atmospheric. The album contains the only Spanish language version of the Marvin Gaye hit Mercy, Mercy Me

Opium (1996), again nominated for a Grammy, was the first album recorded in Liebert’s new studio in Santa Fe.  Liebert received many accolades for this album from fans around the world and emails and letters from listeners describing how evocative Opium was.

La Semana (2004) was the first album Liebert engineered by himself.  It was the first time there was no sound engineer on the “other side of the glass” and Liebert discovered that at first, he played what he had planned  but then after he dropped this, it was just “pure play”.

One Guitar (2006), also nominated for a Grammy, was a milestone album for Ottmar Liebert in that it was his first solo guitar album.

Waiting n Swan (2015) is special to Liebert because to him it reconnects two branches of rhythm – tangos flamenco and reggae, proving that there is no such thing as “purity” in music.

slow (2016) is an album which Liebert felt it was incumbent upon him to make a statement against the sound of billions of smart phones beeping with the latest news, likes and comments, keeping us in a state of constant alarm.  His album is framed around the notion that a slow tempo can change listeners’ heartbeats and blood pressure.

2008: Scent of Light

Liebert’s incredible global success on a musical level often seems like a simple outgrowth of his cultural background and powerful wanderlust in his formative years. Born in Cologne, Germany to Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, he began playing guitar at 11, and traveled extensively through Europe and Asia intent on fully absorbing each musical tradition he encountered. After pursuing his Rock and Roll dreams first in his native Germany and then in Boston, he abandoned the frustrations of the East coast and settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

By 1989, he had founded the first incarnation of his new band Luna Negra. Nouveau Flamenco began life as a self-produced local release called Marita: Shadows and Storms, copies of which local Indian artist Frank Howell distributed in his art galleries. When the record found its way to radio stations and began generating a buzz among programmers and an unprecedented response among listeners, Higher Octave Music picked it up and released a fully remastered version.

“I was honestly happy playing this music in hotels and restaurants in Santa Fe, and going in one year from doing that to opening for Miles Davis was a pretty intense jump,” he recalls. “Most shocking for me was to realize how many different people from so many diverse cultures embraced it. I still get letters from fans in Europe, South-America, Australia, and Asia…it’s been a really gratifying experience. I’ve had the opportunity to play in a wide variety of cultural settings with musicians from around the world, and that has been a great experience, too.”

Liebert has since become one of the most successful instrumental artists of the past decade, thrilling audiences throughout the world and releasing a catalog of classic recordings, including the remix collection Euphoria (1995), the live album Viva! (1995), the double CD Opium (1996) and the classical-oriented orchestral album Leaning into the Night (1997). He wrapped up his decade with Epic with 2001’s Little Wingand went back to Higher Octave Music, releasing a lush album of lullabies called In the Arms of Love in 2002 and an album with Luna Negra XL called The Santa Fe Sessions (2003). 

La Semana (2004) was the first all-new band album in five years, followed by Winter Rose (2005), which featured original pieces, classical music and christmas songs. In 2006 Liebert’s record label SSRI released One Guitar, his first solo guitar recording, which received Liebert’s fourth nomination for a Grammy. His newest releases are Up Close (2008), which is a binaural dummy head surround sound recording, and The Scent of Light (2008) a labor of five years.

2007: One Guitar

Ottmar Liebert Releases His First Solo Recording Santa Fe, New Mexico – After 22 releases and a stellar career enjoyed by few guitarists of our time, award winning guitarist Ottmar Liebert has released his most daring and unadorned recording yet.  This 13 song release, “One Guitar” is filled with gorgeous soulful performances and a palette full of intimate moods and lush landscapes.  “One Guitar” is available everywhere CDs are sold (through Burnside Distribution), online at iTunes, Rhapsody, emusic and other download stores as well as through the artists! website at www.ottmarliebert.com.

Recorded solo with no overdubs, Ottmar delivers his amazing guitar prowess with a 2002 Flamenco Negra by Lester DeVoe of Nipomo, California.  This 13 song release was “70% improvised” says Liebert, which contributes to the more personal nature and intimate environment that takes the listener to a different place.

This thoughtfully present artist stretches his musicality with each release – exploring new themes, investigating perspectives and performing with dazzling tone, space and time of his instrument.  The music business is a vastly changing industry and Ottmar has been an artistic leader in taking control of all aspects of his art and career. Since 1990, Ottmar Liebert has released a total of 22 albums, including live releases, Christmas CDs, 11 CDs of original music, a DVD and remixes, for which he received more than 30 gold and platinum awards. His debut album, 1990’s Nouveau Flamenco, featuring the stunning “Barcelona Nights,” sold double-platinum and has become the biggest-selling guitar album of all time, redefining Flamenco music and marking Liebert as one of the most talented, influential and creative guitarists and performers to surface in years.

Ken Wilber on One Guitar:
“Music that is haunting in its beauty and depth. Highly recommended!”

CultureCourt.com on One Guitar:
“Ottmar Liebert’s new CD of solo acoustic guitar – the ghosts of Spanish flamenco within the dreamscapes of the New World. One Guitar: 13 tracks of contemplation, meditation, exhalation, levitation… and exquisite solitude.”

Guitar World on One Guitar
“…heʼs taken his flamenco/world-music hybrid to a new, more introspective level here, with beautifully haunting six-string explorations that are, impressively, mostly improvised. And the Lieb doesnʼt just show off his chops, which include walking intricate bass lines over tremolo picking, or ripping out blazing Spanish Phrygian scales. Heʼs got passion to go with the speed—and thatʼs what counts, dammit. MOMENT OF TRUTH: “Night Traveling Raindrops: Nachtreisende Regentropfen” (1:30–2:52) Liebertʼs phrasing gives space and evocativeness to the airy single-note melodies before he unleashes a cyclone.

Pilgrimage
Ottmar returned from a 5 week pilgrimage to Kham in Eastern Tibet in October. The journey entailed both service in clinics for nomads – several western physicians were attending to sick people – and visits to Tibetan holy places. There was a high adventure quotient as well as the group walked across a pass at 16,500 feet altitude that cannot be found on any map.

2005: Winter Rose

Santa Fe, New Mexico- Ottmar Liebert is back in town after a month in Italy, checking out the sites, including Dante’s tomb in Ravenna. The most famous image associated with the Tuscan poet is the celestial rose, the white flower of the Empyrean, a heavenly vibration of pure white light beyond Time and Space. Could Dante’s rose be the “Winter Rose” of Ottmar Liebert’s new CD? Some tracks certainly have a cosmic feel, a sense of starry space and inner clarity, a REM dream rhythm that’s both classical and contempo. But isn’t the red poinsettia considered the “Christmas” rose? Yes… and this vibe also fits, as this is a double-character album.

Consider: North meets South, Christmas meets Felice Navidad.

A time to reflect, a time to party. As a collection of classic Christmas refits and original Ottmar Liebert compositions, the concept here is brilliant. The kids have gone to bed, you’re on the couch dreaming in front of the fire, a glass of wine, a glass of Napoleon B, who knows, but you’re dreaming. Track 2 is playing, “Little Town of Bethlehem/The City of Tijuana”… people you miss, people you love… then there’s a gentle shift into electro fiesta time, and you’re south of the border, maybe in some dodgy cantina slinging back Aztec Golds as the fireworks explode… and then, gently, you’re back in acoustic Bethlehem in the snowfields under the stars. Amazing compositional control here, this double-character style that’s the signature of Winter Rose.

The mood is never allowed to collapse into sentiment, although sentiment is used. Tradition sets the ceremony, although the ceremony includes reggae… just as in Track 7, “Kora/River of Stars”. This is one beautiful number. For those familiar with Ottmar Liebert, you’ll recognize his jazz octave ghosting, and the hypnotic flamenco glides. Bassist Jon Gagan is riding shotgun on the old sleigh here, so you bump into reggae time, and then space out on the “river of stars” via JG’s big string harmonics and synth squeals.

But surely, as some advance listeners have proclaimed, the best track is “Les Roses d’Isphahan”, Ottmar Liebert’s interpretation of Gabriel Faure’s [1845-1924] homage to the ancient Persian city known for its superlative rug weaving. While Faure was mining romanticism the same way that Coleridge used the ancient world in the opium fantasy Kubla Khan, he was also evoking the poetic image of the rose, which of course is used as a mandala motif on many Persian rugs.

No question, this is a landmark interpretation. It’s really a duet between Ottmar Liebert’s guitar and Jon Gagen’s bass as lead, with some synth as back-color. Nice big valley echo here and there, and believe it or not, the ghost of jingle bells in one passage. The spacey call and response between the flamenco guitar and the fretless bass, cadenced like roses floating on a river, beauty flowing through… memories flowing…you, flowing. Melancholic? Sure, but a masterpiece of the continuously unfolding melody form.

Thirteen tracks, and you can get them all in every store that carries CDs – or you can download the music with downloadable CD art. Where, and how, you ask. The new version of the SSRI [Spiral Subwave Records International] Listening Lounge has Winter Rose, and you can listen to the tracks before downloading. You can also find CDs/tracks by other musicians, including Transit, the excellent jazz tropicale album by Jon Gagan, bassist for Luna Negra. There are many gems posted from the SSRI vault, including alternate takes, mixes, live tracks, and recent CDs such La Semana along with various mp3 sample speeds… and no copy protection [DRM].

2004: La Semana

Release Date: 8 June, 2004
Label: SSRI
Artist: Ottmar Liebert + Lunanegra
Album: La Semana

Although La Semana is the first Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra album with all-new songs in five years, the multi-faceted, Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling guitarist has been his usual prolific self, writing, drawing, touring and exploring, his myriad experiences informing the 13 evocative instrumental compositions on La Semana.

Like his music, Liebert is respectful, creative and open-minded; a thoughtful artist who likes to begin albums with a concept and structure, even if it’s an untraditional one. But he’s also intuitive and open enough to let the music decide what it wants to become. Thus, the more than an hours worth of songs on  La Semana began with a firm direction, though ultimately the record found a different path to completion.  “I usually start with a title before I start an album,” Liebert explains. “The title decides what the palette will be; what sounds I’m going to use. It’s very important for me to set certain limits. Will it be a color album or black and white? To me, La Semana is a drawing. As such, musically the record is back to basics with the wooden box drum used in flamenco, the clapping, and the palmas. It’s all one acoustic guitar, no electric, no lutes, no steel string guitars.”

Conceptually, he says, “La Semana began with the idea of a diary, perhaps in a leather-bound package, and each song would be titled after a different day of the week. I was going to write a diary entry for each day/song.” However, as a renowned instrumentalist, Liebert decided he didn’t want too many words to potentially interfere with La Semana’s pure musicality. So a few months before completion, the concept of La Semana shifted. “For me, the beautiful thing about instrumental music is it allows each person to have their own interpretation of what the music is about. The eyes rule over the ears; that’s the way the human body works,” he observes. “And if you’re being told something, the music takes a second seat. In the end this idea seemed too confining; I want music to be free of that specific a context.” So the diary concept segued into one of discovering a box of photos in your grandparents’ attic, La Semana’s songs invoking mental pictures and aural-inspired mental memories.

Furthering that idea, La Semana, on Liebert’s own SSRI label, is released in two formats. The first is a less-expensive, simple CD package, letting the music do the talking. For the collector who wants, as Liebert laughs, “the whole enchilada,” a collectible CD box is designed to look well loved and worn, and includes 27 pages of photos plus drawings and notes on each song, in a limited edition of 2,000 copies. The Santa Fe resident has also created a font from his handwriting to further personalize the elaborate but organic package. The drawings will be his own, a “loose collection” of his art. “I had guitar lessons since I was 12, but then I went to an art school, so for a long time I knew more about paintings, drawings and art history than I did about music,” explains Liebert. “A few years ago I started seriously drawing again.”

One of La Semana‘s most alluring songs is inspired by one of Liebert’s favorite artists, painter/filmmaker Jean Cocteau. (Pablo Picasso is another beloved influence.) Like Cocteau himself, the song is somewhat mysterious and idiosyncratic. (Liebert’s song even inspired author Lawrence Russel to pen a story, “OboCocteau.”)   “On ‘Cocteau,’ on the guitar in the background, the arpeggio is in 3/4 and the rhythm over it is in 4/4, so there’s an interesting tension, a tug there,” Liebert explains. “I’ve written songs in 12/8 and 5/4 in the past,” he furthers. “In ‘Longing,’ the whole verse, the guitar and bass are in 3/4 and the drums are in 4/4, but the chorus, everything is in 4/4. When some musicians do odd time signatures, it’s too obvious. To me, it only works if you like it, not because it’s an odd time signature just to be intentionally clever or different.”

What is different about La Semana was Liebert’s recording process. In keeping with the innovative, flamenco-based world music that has marked his career, the multi-talented artist recorded the songs for La Semana in his home studio, Sprial Subwave, by himself, sans an engineer, for the first time ever. Liebert found the process freeing and delightful, as he explains: “I can’t be in two rooms at once, so I’d set the microphone and computer up to record. I’d use a delay function that goes back 16 bars, which was enough time for me to go into the other room and get my headphones on.”  Liebert played to his heart’s content, no time constraints and no outside judgments. “It’s a great moment and it’s more personal because of it.” Besides bass and percussion, all of the sounds were made on the flamenco guitar, and Liebert’s longtime partner in Luna Negra, Jon Gagan, came in when it was time to lay down bass. Gagan will also be on the 2004 tour in support of La Semana, together with Ron Wagner on tablas, dumbek and percussion and Robbie Rothchild on Cajon, Congas and Djembe.

Each of the 13 compositions on La Semana has a fascinating back-story to match the beautiful musicality, although the songs are easily enjoyed in and of themselves. “AlhambraJackson” has old roots, back to 1987, when Liebert, a funk virtuoso, got more seriously into flamenco. “Someone suggested I incorporate some funk elements into my flamenco playing, and this song is a delayed reaction to that suggestion!” he laughs. “The Alhambra is the palace of the Moorish king in Granada, Spain, and Paul Jackson Jr., the number one R&B session guitarist, has been a hero of mine for many years.” Hence a song that combines both: “AlhambraJackson.” Other songs have a more recent genesis. Of “La Luna (Lunatic Love Letter),” Liebert recalls, “This melody just flowed out of my guitar one afternoon–all at once and in one take. It’s one of my favorite tracks on this album. I imagine this song is a love letter…there is a hesitation in the first note of the melody and then the ink flows freely…seldom have musical notes seemed more like words to me, full of meaning.” On the evocative “Cave In My Heart,” recollections are buried beneath the surface, yet, Liebert says, “you can hear memories bubble up to the surface like lava in the middle of the song.” The end of the song features Gagan’s slithering fretless bass work through a virtual amp, which is set to overdrive and distort to create a gorgeous sound.

Although in the years since Liebert began his career, much has changed with the music business, the guitarist has changed with it—and perhaps even ahead of it, La Semana being the first-internet only release via the guitarist’s own Spiral Subwave Records International label. With SSRI, formed in 2001, Liebert is in control of all aspects of his art and career: “We’ll be touring, reaching out to people; I’ll be doing TV appearances and staying in touch with my fans via my online diary, and other internet postings.” He’s also musing on the idea of Internet subscriptions, allowing his fans unprecedented access and immediacy to his new music and art. In 2004 alone, Liebert will have three releases. Transitcame out in March, La Semana in June, and a Christmas record, with a special festive packaging of colored CDs, will hit in time for the holidays.

Since 1990, Liebert has released a total of 22 albums, including live releases, Christmas CDs, 10 CDs of original music, a DVD and remixes. His debut album, 1990’s Nouveau Flamenco, featuring the stunning “Barcelona Nights,” sold double-platinum and has become the biggest-selling guitar album of all time, redefining Flamenco music and marking Liebert as one of the most talented, influential and creative guitarists and performers to surface in years. His fans–hardcore guitarists and guitar fans, instrumental music aficionados and numerous lovers of his often poignant, always inspired sound–are ardent in their appreciation of Liebert. Critical acclaim has been equally fervent, Billboard magazine honoring him twice New Age Artist of the Year. From rumba to Bossa Nova to classical to Christmas tunes to lullabies, Liebert has explored and expanded them all, putting his unique stamp and intellectual yet visceral spin to music.

As with everything Liebert does, there are many facets to be explored and angles to traverse. Prior to La Semana’s release, 2003’s Nouveaumatic record marked the completion of a trilogy that began with 2002’s In The Arms of Love: Lullabies 4 Children + Adults (which was followed by number two in the trilogy, February 2003’s The Santa Fe Sessions). This concept was first explained on the 2001 CD Little Wing, his album of stellar covers. Going forward, Liebert decided, his CDs would be color-coded in conjunction with the musical formation contained within. Blue would be solo material along the lines of In The Arms of Love. Red would be Luna Negra music, such as the acclaimed Nouveau Flamenco, and would be mostly acoustic; and gray would be remixes of earlier albums, as 2002’s Euphoria was a remix of 1993’s Grammy-nominated Hours Between Night and Day. “This way there are three distinct directions. I need to split myself into parts because I think I’ve taken some of the mixing as far as I can take it,” explains Liebert. “I like these three different elements of my music too much to not take them each into a separate direction and let them grow. I think by splitting into three entities, the people who like all of my music will have more music from me, and those who like one style more than the other will be able to pick just that.” Thus, La Semana is a “red” album, and will likely be followed by blue and gray releases.

Liebert has always been a creative thinker and doer. Born in Cologne, Germany to a Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, he traveled extensively through Europe and Asia intent on fully absorbing each musical tradition he encountered. Liebert was, and remains, influenced by everything around him, from museums to nature to books. “I read very early on,” he reveals. “We didn’t have a TV. We didn’t get one until my grandparents moved up to a color one, and I was 12 years old. And we didn’t have a phone until then either!”

La Semana is a stellar release from a singular artist, a Renaissance man who nurtures his songwriting, guitar playing and albums like the children they are. And he invites everyone along for the journey through life. “Music is about seducing someone to what you’re feeling, your vision. As a guitarist, I’m enjoying discovering, how, really, a melody is an associative process. It’s a Rorschach test. You have a bunch of chords and what do you associate with that?” he muses of the myriad emotional avenues. “As you get older, more possibilities emerge, as you have more experience.” Liebert is also interested in collaborations, leaving the door wide open. “I enjoy it the more twisted it is. I’d love to do something with a really hard rock band, because you think, ‘how the hell is this going to work?’ It leaves room for finding something new,” says the guitarist. And with the universe as his palette, Liebert has indeed created something new with La Semana, as he concludes; “Music is a discovery for myself first, and second for my listeners.  My soul is my antenna, I am the instrument + the guitar is my amplifier.”

2003: Nouveaumatic

Release Date: Sep 14th, 2003
Label: SSRI
Artist: Ottmar Liebert’s euphoria
Album: nouveaumatic

13 years ago Nouveau Flamenco was Ottmar Liebert’s legendary, double-platinum selling debut. That groundbreaking recording became the biggest selling guitar album of all time, not simply redefining Flamenco music for the modern age but creating a whole new genre of music which sparked a 1990s world music revival. Over the years, Liebert has become one of instrumental music’s most popular and compelling live performers around the world.

Liebert’s newest release is nouveaumatic, which completes the first trilogy recorded and released for his new SSRI record label. As its predecessor Euphoria in 1995, nouveaumatic is a collection of versions done by various DJs and remixers, including Liebert himself. While Euphoria re-worked songs from the 1993 album The Hours between Night + Day, this newest release contains new versions of songs from Liebert’s two preceding CDs, In the Arms of Love and The Santa Fe Sessions.

“From Planet Flamenco, Ottmar Liebert once again sets the standard for instrumental electronic dream pop.”
– from a culturecourt.com review of nouveaumatic.

The tracks on nouveaumatic include a nearly nine minute version of the song “In the Arms of Love”, which contains a long sample from a recording Liebert made in Boston in 1982. “In 1982 I recorded this long segment of guitar looping, using an electric guitar, and a couple of open reel-to-reel tape decks in the style of Brian Eno’s Frippertronics. I recently re-discovered this recording on a cassette and since it fit the tonality of “In the Arms of Love” I transferred it straight from the cassette and incorporated it into the mix.”

There are two more versions of songs from the lullaby album In the Arms of Love: the slow and heavy “Twilight Rain” and Canton Becker’s moody version of “Quiet Dawn.”  Canton Becker, who performs in Ottmar Liebert’s current Luna Negra Quartet, also contributed new versions of “Snakecharmer” and the bossa makeover “Sâo Paulo”, which features a new funky bass.

Other tracks include an upbeat dance version of “2 The Night”, a reggae-fied “Heart Still/Beating”, a funky version of “Morning Arrival in Goa”, a R&B rendition of “Barcelona Nights”, complete with flamenco singing and 70’s style slap bass and a tabla-driven version of “Turkish Night”. 

Liebert’s incredible global success on a musical level often seems like a simple outgrowth of his cultural background and powerful wanderlust in his formative years. Born in Cologne, Germany to a Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, he began playing guitar at 11, and traveled extensively through Europe and Asia intent on fully absorbing each musical tradition he encountered. After pursuing his Rock and Roll dreams first in his native Germany and then in Boston, he abandoned the frustrations of the East coast and settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

By 1989, he had founded the first incarnation of his new band Luna Negra. Nouveau Flamenco began life as a self-produced local release called Marita: Shadows and Storms, copies of which local Indian artist Frank Howell distributed in his art galleries. When the record found its way to radio stations and began generating a buzz among programmers and an unprecedented response among listeners, Higher Octave Music picked it up and released a re-mastered version.

“I was honestly happy playing this music in hotels and restaurants in Santa Fe.  In one year, going from doing that to opening for Miles Davis was a pretty intense jump,” he recalls. “Most shocking for me was to realize how many different people from so many diverse cultures embraced it.  I still get letters from fans in Europe, South-America, Australia, and Asia…it’s been a really gratifying experience. I’ve had the opportunity to play in a wide variety of cultural settings with musicians from around the world, and that has been a great experience, too.”

Liebert has since become one of the most successful instrumental artists of the past decade, thrilling audiences throughout the world and releasing a catalog of classic recordings, including the remix collection Euphoria (1995), the live album Viva! (1995), the double CD Opium (1996) and the classical-oriented orchestral album Leaning into the Night (1997). He wrapped up his decade with Epic in 2001 with the release of Little Wing and founded his own label SSRI that same year. For two albums SSRI chose distribution and marketing through Higher Octave Music, releasing a lush album of lullabies called In the Arms of Love in June of 2002 and The Santa Fe Sessions in February of 2003. In the Arms of Love reflects the solo side of Liebert, which he is intent on exploring further, even as he continues to record acoustic based band projects with Luna Negra.  The Santa Fe Sessions, the latest Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra CD, is an extraordinary studio recording which reflects the new, expansive, live in concert character of ten classic tracks—including fresh guitar, percussion and horn parts. Liebert also blazes a trail into the future with two brand new compositions, the mystical, Brazilian flavored “Sao Paulo” and a Cuban spiced “Song for Pablo.”

With the first trilogy of albums on his own SSRI label completed, the extremely prolific Liebert is looking forward to a brand new Luna Negra recording slated for a Spring 2004 release.

“We are already performing 3 new songs in our live show which I’ve written for the next album and I have prepared a palette of sounds for the new recording which we hope to get started on in November, right after our return from touring,” concluded Liebert.

PS:

1. The name SSRI

SSRI stands for Spiral Subwave Records International

Spiral: circular motion…slowly moving upwards…a symbol of growth

Subwave: low frequencies…physical experience of sound…feeling the music

In the medical field the same abbreviation means: Selective Seratonin Re-uptake Inhibitor, which is Prozac and other psychoactive drugs. Liebert says:

“Music has always helped me balancing my emotional roller coaster.”

2. Distribution

Starting with the limited edition 3 is 4 good luck mini-CD and now nouveaumatic, the new releases by Ottmar Liebert on SSRI will be exclusively available at his concerts or from his official web site: http://ottmarliebert.com

2003: The Santa Fe Sessions

Release Date: Feb 25th, 2003
Label: SSRI/Higher Octave
Artist: Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra
Album: The Santa Fe Sessions

Three years ago, Higher Octave Music rang in the new millennium with the release of Nouveau Flamenco 1990-2000 Special Edition, which celebrated the ten year anniversary of Ottmar Liebert’s legendary, double-platinum selling debut. That groundbreaking recording became the biggest selling guitar album of all time, not simply redefining Flamenco music for the modern age but creating a whole new genre of music which sparked a 1990s world music revival. Over the past twelve years, Liebert has become one of instrumental music’s most popular and compelling live performers around the world.

As the ensemble dynamics have developed with the revolving members of his band Luna Negra, Liebert has naturally taken many of his best-loved tunes to incredible new places. The Santa Fe Sessions, his latest Higher Octave release via his own label SSRI (Spiral Subwave Records International,) is an extraordinary studio recording which reflects the new, expansive live in concert character of ten classic tracks—including fresh guitar, percussion and horn parts. Liebert also blazes a trail into the future with two brand new compositions, the mystical, Brazilian flavored “Sao Paulo” and a Cuban spiced “Song for Pablo.”

The sheer size of Liebert’s touring ensemble these past few years—at one point the band included three guitarists, three drummers/percussionists, a bassist and a horn section—allowed for numerous new and exciting rhythmic and arrangement possibilities. “The songs have changed considerably with the new band configurations, and we took tunes that were three and a half minutes out to 15 with new parts, different ideas and expanded intros,” he says. “I’ve been wanting to document these new renditions for a while, and I felt that doing them in the studio would create a better sound quality than recording a new live album. I took ten songs that had changed significantly and created them from scratch, with the same spirit of fun and spontaneity that was part of the process on the originals.”

With the perspective of looking back over twelve years of tireless touring and fourteen studio recordings (including five on Higher Octave), Liebert also enjoyed chronicling his immense growth as a musician. “It’s like visiting a city like Paris various times,” he says. “Every few years you can go back and discover new things and revisit some older places that haven’t changed at all. But I’ve also changed in that time, so I’m going to see the world differently. From a playing standpoint, I think the Santa Fe Sessions’ versions are better than the original recordings, yet they were created with the same loose approach that we used on the old records. There’s always that spark that gets me excited. Dave Bryand, one of my early Luna Negra percussionists, was back for this record and as always, I’m working with (bassist) Jon Gagan, who has been with me from the start.”

The tracks on The Santa Fe Sessions beautifully reflect the idea of songs that are at once comfortable and warmly familiar, yet catch the ear and spirit in a whole new way. Among the highlights are the nearly nine minute opening rendition of “Snakecharmer” (originally from 1993‘s Grammy® nominated The Hours Between Night and Day), which moves from an ambient intro into a reflective ballad and then expands into a fiery, percussive celebration; the graceful coolness of “Heart Still/Beating” (from Nouveau Flamenco); brassy new attitudes for “Isla Del Sol” and “Dancing Under the Moon” (from 1991’s Grammy® nominated, gold selling Borrasca); the hypnotic and atmospheric ballad “Reaching Out 2 You” (from 1992’s gold selling Solo Para Ti); and a colorful yet faithful reworking of “Barcelona Nights,” the trademark song that launched Liebert’s career into the stratosphere in 1990.

Liebert’s incredible global success on a musical level often seems like a simple outgrowth of his cultural background and powerful wanderlust in his formative years. Born in Cologne, Germany to Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, he began playing guitar at 11, and traveled extensively through Europe and Asia intent on fully absorbing each musical tradition he encountered. After pursuing his Rock and Roll dreams first in his native Germany and then in Boston, he abandoned the frustrations of the East coast and settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

By 1989, he had founded the first incarnation of his new band Luna Negra. Nouveau Flamenco began life as a self-produced local release called Marita: Shadows and Storms, copies of which local Indian artist Frank Howell distributed in his art galleries. When the record found its way to radio stations and began generating a buzz among programmers and an unprecedented response among listeners, Higher Octave Music picked it up and released a fully remastered version.

“I was honestly happy playing this music in hotels and restaurants in Santa Fe, and going in one year from doing that to opening for Miles Davis was a pretty intense jump,” he recalls. “Most shocking for me was to realize how many different people from so many diverse cultures embraced it. I still get letters from fans in Europe, South-America, Australia, and Asia…it’s been a really gratifying experience. I’ve had the opportunity to play in a wide variety of cultural settings with musicians from around the world, and that has been a great experience, too.”

Liebert has since become one of the most successful instrumental artists of the past decade, thrilling audiences throughout the world and releasing a catalog of classic recordings, including the remix collection Euphoria (1995), the live album Viva! (1995), the double CD Opium (1996) and the classical-oriented orchestral album Leaning into the Night (1997). He wrapped up his decade with Epic with 2001’s Little Wing and came back to Higher Octave Music, releasing a lush album of lullabies called In the Arms of Love this past year. That recording reflects the solo side of Liebert, which he is intent on exploring further, even as he continues to record acoustic based band projects with Luna Negra. He is also committed to creating more recordings along the lines of Euphoria, featuring DJ mixes of his songs and incorporating world beat, dance rhythms, synthesizer and ambient sounds. In that vein Liebert hopes to release a CD to be entitled Nouveaumatic later in 2003.

2002: In the Arms of Love

In the Arms of Love: Lullabies 4 Children + Adults

Release Date: 02002-06-18
Label: SSRI
Artist: Ottmar Liebert
Album: In the Arms of Love: Lullabies 4 Children + Adults

The last thing that most musicians want is to put their audience to sleep. For Ottmar Liebert, his new release In the Arms of Love: Lullabies 4 Children + Adults is an attempt to do that very thing.

“It seems to me the world keeps getting louder, and in response to that I wanted to do something that was quiet,” says the guitarist of the first release for the Spiral Subwave Records International (SSRI) label under exclusive license to Higher Octave Music. “It creates quite a contrast to modern life.”

Since 1990’s Nouveau Flamenco, the multiplatinum-selling Liebert has applied his distinctive artistic vision to a variety of musical styles—from Rumba to Bossa Nova to Classical to Christmas tunes. Now, with In the Arms of Love, he is delving into the soothing world of lullabies.

“That was probably the biggest challenge: to do something that was relaxing but not boring,” he reveals. “It’s about creating a musical island oasis that you can retreat to. I view it as a soundscape, much like a landscape.”

The German-born performer offers 13 original compositions that explore his graceful elucidations on lullabies. The instrumentals include the hypnotic, shoreline texture of “Sea of Tranquility,” the lush Eastern whir of “A Secret Garden” and the layered, anthemic quality of the title track.

Influenced by the Spanish flavors of his 17-year residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the solo acoustic piece “Querencia” personifies his mastery of keeping things simple. The title of the tune translates to “home,” but the bigger meaning is “the land that you feel connected to.”
On the other end of the technical spectrum, the closing cut “Waves of Sound (4 Captain Eno)” features 40 tracks of miniature phrases that independently repeat. Some of them duplicate every three bars, some five and some 12. The effect is of gorgeous mini-melodies that constantly keep shifting against each other.

Surprisingly, the delicate material proved to be rather challenging for the accomplished guitarist.

“It is incredibly difficult to play at those slow tempi—and make it work,” he says. “Not to rush the time or slow down because the bar before was rushed, and then to play melodies that fit the mood of the piece. It was really quite demanding to record this music. If you had a cup of coffee too many, you had to run around the block a few times before you could get into a mellow mood.”

As with previous albums, Liebert adopts a few unusual devices for In the Arms of Love. On the moody “Twilight Rain,” he utilizes a “luitar”—a fretless, lute-like instrument that is the shape and scale of a guitar. Other atypical tones result from his use of Flamenco guitars played backwards or with the attack digitally removed.

In addition to his fretboard skills, Liebert contributes an assortment of other sounds to the songs.

“I’ve used snippets of field recordings ever since the album The Hours Between Night + Day,” he recalls. “In 1992 I bought a DAT recorder, and everywhere I went I’d record stuff: the little Vespa in Italy coming through the small streets, a train making a turn, rain, water, all sorts of stuff. I tried to pick a few that fit this whole idea of lullabies and relaxing. The song ‘Dreaming on the Starlight Train’ has the sound of a train approaching, which I find very relaxing.”

Liebert got the idea from a rail trip he remembers taking as a 19-year-old from Cologne to Moscow.

“I wanted to create an atmosphere where if you dozed off you might even think you’re traveling,” he says. “A whisper of a train might suggest that you’re on a journey.”

Liebert sees the overall journey suggested by In the Arms of Love as one that can be enjoyed by the whole family. He notes that even the term “lullaby” is taken from the Old English words “lull” and “byes”—both terms used to calm a child.

“I remember hearing some lullabies when I was a boy, but I thought most of them were pretty awful,” he laughs. “There are lots that seem dumbed down for kids. I didn’t think there was any reason to do that.”

Beyond just providing melodies that can be appreciated by children and adults, Liebert has another motive for crafting the self-produced record.

“I enjoy getting massages, but the music that people play is not always very nice,” he explains. “So I often ask them to turn it off. I thought it would be good to create some music that would be fitting for that sort of thing as well—something that is relaxing but has an engaging quality.”

Liebert views In the Arms of Love as the debut element of his new career path. Believing he can no longer cram all his ideas into a singular album format, the guitarist is now dividing up his projects into three categories. First, he continues to record solo outings, which is what this latest effort falls into. Second, he embraces the live band concept with Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra, his formidable Flamenco ensemble. Third, he is experimenting with Ottmar Liebert’s Euphoria, a studio collection of different Djs/Remixers providing dance-oriented remixes of his songs.

“This way there are three distinct directions, and if you prefer one or the other, then great,” he explains.

As for how In the Arms of Love: Lullabies 4 Children + Adults might intersect with the other two directions, he is unsure.

“I don’t think I’ll play any of these songs live,” Liebert says. “I might fall asleep too, and what then? But we will certainly try to create some remixes with these songs.”

2001: Little Wing

Release Date: May 15th, 2001
Label: Epic Records
Artist: Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra XL
Album: Little Wing

“This album is a stopping point to look back before I move on,” explains Ottmar Liebert of his new release Little Wing. “It really feels like a last album for me.”

Thankfully, Little Wing is not the flamenco visionary’s last album, but rather the last product of his current incarnation as a musician – a pause to reflect on past influences and styles before moving forward into new musicalpursuits. Since his move to Santa Fe in 1986 and subsequent exploration of flamenco guitar, Ottmar Liebert has taken the ancient guitar style into new and unthinkable realms, fusing it with everything from Bossa Nova and dance rhythms to soothing environmental new age synthesizer sounds. Little Wing is a mosaic of such styles and influences.

Named for the Jimi Hendrix song covered within, Little Wing is a diverse collection of carefully crafted originals and beautifully interpreted classic rock songs that showcase Liebert’s extensive repertoire and superb musicianship. From the ethereal and transcendental touches of the title track to the delicately administered instrumentation of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” Liebert breathes new life into the classic rock songs that influenced him in his youth, successfully augmenting them with the wide array of distinctive flavors he has used to distinguish each of his previous twelve albums.

“I remember saying to somebody that I wanted to do ‘Kashmir’ with a Bossa Nova feel,” explains Liebert. “It sounded a little crazy, but it sort of worked out nicely that way. Sometimes when you understate something it becomes more powerful.”

Similarly, his upbeat and understated performance of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” takes the song to new ends, brushing strokes of guitar and saz on a canvas of soft but deliberate percussion heightening the song’s enticing mysterious Middle Eastern feel. Little Wing also features a perfectly suited rendition of Jobim’s Bossa Nova classic “The Girl From Ipanema,” which uses carefully metered doses of muted trumpet and soft Brazilian beats to color Liebert’s plucked melody.

In addition to paying homage to past influences, Little Wing reviews past styles through a gamut of emotive original tracks. “Like Water 4 the Desert (Rain Montuno)” walks a soothing and teasing acoustic guitar/bass tandem through two placid verses before falling effortlessly into soft percussion. As the percussion gels, Liebert takes liberty with the intensity of the song, unleashing a succession of tight flamenco flurries and set-back muted trumpet injections. “I really like the way that one feels,” explains Liebert. “It had percussion and rhythm in the first half of it, but then one day I just took all of that off and it just breathed beautifully without all the percussion.”

Where “Like Water 4 the Desert (Rain Montuno)” shows a more organic side of Liebert’s work akin to his amazing debut Nouveau Flamenco, “Untitled (la noche)”, “Aqua Fria (Cold Water)”, and “The Pearl” implement catchy dance rhythms and light doses of synthesizer indicative of the Euphoria and Opiumalbums. From the melancholy tones of the title track to the delightfully uplifting nature of “Daylight Melody,” Liebert leaves very few emotions untouched on Little Wing. “I think my personality oscillates between the rather brooding and the sort of bright stuff I’ve done,” explains Liebert. “It’s like sugar and salt I think. If you put too much in, it’s hideous, but at just the right amount it tastes good.”

On “Yarrow: Snaky Desert Song,” Liebert uses an electric guitar and rattling sounds over lumbering percussion to aurally depict a snake slithering through the desert. “I wasn’t happy with the way the guitar melody was fitting, so at the last moment, I decided to try it with an electric guitar to give it a kind of snaky sound,” explains Liebert. “So, we played with this beat up Japanese Strat imitation I got in 1982 or 1983 – it’s got this wonderful whammy bar on it and it turned out to be the perfect thing for that song.”

Liebert’s approach to recording “Yarrow” is indicative of his approach to recording in general, viewing the entire recording process as an evolution of song that doesn’t end until the very last minute. “To me, recording is very much like painting,” explains Liebert. “You sketch something, add something, and if you don’t like it, you just paint over it or take it away or paint more white.”

After Little Wing, Liebert will embark on three distinctly different musical journeys. As mentioned in the liner notes of Little Wing, he will continue to record acoustic based sounds indicative of Nouveau Flamenco with his ever-changing band Luna Negra. Ottmar Liebert’s Euphoria will explore flamenco fused with world beat, dance rhythms, ambient sounds and synthesizers. Lastly, the busy Flamenco pioneer will pursue quieter styles by himself.
“I need to split myself into parts because I think I’ve taken some of the mixing as far as I can take it,” explains Liebert. “I like these three different elements of my music too much to not take them each into a separate direction and let them grow. I think by splitting into three entities, the people who like all of my music will have more music from me, and those who like one style more than the other will be able to pick just that.”

While embarking in three different directions would terrify most contemporary musicians, it is an exciting and natural proposition for Liebert, whose growth as an artist has taken him in many new directions.

Born in Cologne, Germany, Liebert began playing guitar at 11, completing a course in classical guitar at age 18. After traveling for a year through Asia, absorbing the influence of each musical tradition he came across, Liebert found himself back in Germany and then Boston, performing in a number of jazz-funk and rock bands. Eventually frustrated by the East Coast rock scene, Liebert moved to Santa Fe.
“I wanted to look at my music and my life with open eyes and ears and see where I really wanted to go, and I realized I had never been as comfortable with an electric guitar as I was with a nylon stringed guitar,” explains Liebert. “I love the intensity of flamenco, but I always knew that I wasn’t interested in traditional flamenco, I was interested in how I could combine that with the Bossa Nova and everything else – rock jazz classical – into a different thing, a more personal thing. I wanted to make it part of the whole soup that is today.”

Since the release of Nouveau Flamenco in April of 1990 with his band Luna Negra (now the biggest selling guitar album of all time), Liebert has done just that. 1990’s Poets and Angels and 1991’s Grammy nominated Borrascafollowed Liebert’s debut to the top of Billboard’s New Age charts, prompting a contract and subsequent release of Solo Para Ti with Epic Records in 1992. Guest performer Carlos Santana helped Solo Para Ti once again top the new age charts, eventually cracking Billboard’s Top 100 Pop chart as well and earning Liebert his second consecutive honor as Billboard’s New Age Artist of the Year.

The Hours Between Night and Day (1993), which was also nominated for a Grammy, saw Liebert adding elements of electric guitar, while 1995’s Euphoria was an adventurous collection of danced-up remixes inspired by Luna Negra’s live performances. Growing pressure from fans prompted the 1995 release of his first live album, Viva!, a uniquely honest effort with no edits or overdubs.

Liebert’s next project, 1996’s double album Opium, also Grammy-nominated, was an adventurous synth and sample laden project featuring both the energetic bright and mellow introspective sides of the artist. Later that year, Liebert ventured into the television realm as well, recording Wide-Eyed and Dreaming, a live concert in Calgary, Canada that has been widely shown on PBS and was released by Epic Video on VHS tape and DVD.

Leaning Into the Night/Inclinado en la Noche was released on Sony Classical in 1997, a collection of twelve compositions arranged for guitar and orchestra which not only established a new direction for Liebert, but won him an eight week stay atop the Billboard Classical Crossover chart. The retrospective Rumba Collection 1992-1997 album features highlights of Liebert’s work on Epic in addition to a few previously unreleased gems.

Innamorare/Summer Flamenco, released in 1999 found Liebert joyously mixing flamenco with elements of jazz, classical, funk, merengue and other dance rhythms. The Live show featured an 8 piece Luna Negra XL touring band which was filmed in New York for PBS’ Sessions at West 54th Street and in Toronto, Canada, for Bravo!. Last year’s Christmas + Santa Fe saw Liebert transforming classic Christmas songs into beautiful new half original half traditional compositions inspired by the holiday as celebrated in his home town.

Little Wing is an entertaining look back at Ottmar Liebert’s many influences and stylistic forays before he takes another in a seemingly endless line of bold steps forward. “It would’ve been obvious to remake Nouveau Flamenco a bunch of times, but I’m not interested in money,” explains Liebert. “If I can’t develop and find interesting things, then I might as well become a banker or something.” If history is any indication, Liebert can bank on continued success despite his stylistic pursuit.

2001: Barcelona Nights

Release Date: March, 2001
Label: Higher Octave Music
Artist: Ottmar Liebert
Album: Barcelona Nights: The Best of Ottmar Liebert, Volume 1

Barcelona Nights: The Best of Ottmar Liebert, Volume 1 is the latest release on Higher Octave Music. Back in 1990, Ottmar Liebert and Higher Octave Music came of age in a simultaneous burst of symbiotic energy. It was a perfect marriage between artist and label, roughly akin to the Beatles and Capitol Records, or John Coltrane signing with Impulse! Records. Do I exaggerate? Hardly. In all three cases, musician and record company arrived at a place of mutual recognition and need, and combined forces to create something larger than either had known previously. And in each instance, a radical new sound was born that galvanized critics and public alike.

In Liebert, Higher Octave sensed an artist with the potential to take the New Age genre into the mainstream. In return, he found in the small, independent label a supportive creative environment in which to refine and expand his musical discoveries. The result, of course, was the classic recording Nouveau Flamenco, a baker’s dozen songs that fused Flamenco, Jazz and Pop into an irresistible new musical form. The recipe, like all great recipes, was deceptively simple. It just needed a musical visionary to put it all together. Ottmar Liebert harnessed the emotional fire and mournful tonalities of traditional Flamenco music, updated it with the subtle rhythms of Jazz and made it widely accessible with the melodic song structures of Pop. The acoustic guitarist summed it up with the apt comment that Nouveau Flamenco is to the traditional variety what Bossa Nova is to Samba.

But even the cleverest formulas are worthless without the animating spark of genius, a quality for which there is no formula, only serendipity. Consider Liebert’s mixed ancestry: Chinese, German and Hungarian. Consider his rootless childhood: a series of journeys throughout Europe and Asia. What a sublime cosmic coincidence that the man who would revitalize Flamenco music should emerge from circumstances so closely allied to the Gypsy experience—from which Flamenco music itself originated hundreds of years ago.Perhaps this kindred spiritual legacy is responsible for the passionate directness of Liebert’s music, the visceral emotional chords it strikes both in fans of New Age music and those with no previous experience with the genre.

Maybe this is why CD buyers responded in such record-breaking numbers to Nouveau Flamenco (nearly three million copies sold worldwide, with platinum status in the U.S.), and Liebert’s follow-up Higher Octave titles, Poets & Angelsand Borrasca (the latter achieving gold status in the U.S.). After making this musical triumvirate, Liebert and his band Luna Negra moved on to another label, where he has found continued success in the recording studio and on the concert stage. As well, his musical journey has led him to experiment with additional musical forms (Classical, Blues, Soul) and sounds (electric guitar, horns, orchestra, computers).

For many fans, however, the definitive Ottmar Liebert sound resides in his seminal early recordings, with their purity of musical expression and their innovative excitement coupled with that indefinable yet essential Higher Octave ambience. It’s this sound—both highly personal and universally expressive—that is celebrated in this retrospective CD, Barcelona Nights, Volume 1. There are many facets to this sound: the unique tone that Liebert coaxes from his guitar: at times plaintive and speechlike, at times sensual and intimate, yet always as limpid as a mountain stream; the intricate clusters of notes when he takes off on improvisatory flights of fancy; his original, infectious compositions; and the sensitive backing of his bandmates in Luna Negra—the supple, sinuous bass, the insistent, but never intrusive percussion.Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this music is its intense emotional sensibility, the seemingly infinite range of feelings in Liebert’s sonic spectrum. On this collection, the accent is on the artist’s upbeat and mid-tempo songs. (A second compilation, Surrender 2 Love, comes out later this year and will focus on Liebert’s softer, more romantic side.)

There’s the joyous sense of celebration evoked in the song “Barcelona Nights,” and the unabashed optimism of “Santa Fe,” both taken from Nouveau Flamenco. This is music of and for the spirit, uplifting and inspiring, as is the song “Festival,” from the holiday-themed Poets & Angels CD. Liebert is also capable of adding some grit to even his sunniest tunes. Included here from his Grammy®-nominated Borrasca is “August Moon,” which is redolent of forbidden passion and wanderlust; as well as the haunting, mesmerizing title track, which somehow conjures the feeling of a once fiery love affair now reduced to smoldering embers. Yet even when Liebert speaks in somewhat darker musical terms, his innate optimism always asserts itself in the end, and the listener comes away from these tracks feeling a sense of renewal.Many artists specialize in this kind of emotional duality, but few have been able to communicate it with such clarity and to such a massive worldwide audience as Ottmar Liebert. Thanks to his simple yet visionary updating of an ancient musical form, his innate artistry and his unparalleled technical mastery, he created single-handedly a musical revolution the effects of which are still reverberating today. In concert with Higher Octave Music, Liebert charted new territory in the New Age topography, enriching and expanding the genre far beyond its original parameters. In a very real sense, his music has helped obliterate the very notion of music genres.

As we move further ahead into the new millennium, we speak less and less of New Age music and simply of World music. Perhaps someday we will move beyond the restricting confines of labels altogether.But one thing we will never outgrow is our need for musicians who dare to offer us the gift of something new, allied to our need for music companies brave enough to let them do it. Without Ottmar Liebert, there would be no music known as Nouveau Flamenco. It’s kind of like imagining a world without the Beatles or John Coltrane, and that’s a world I don’t want to know about.

2000: Christmas + Santa Fe

Release Date: October 17th, 2000
Label: Epic Records
Artist: Ottmar Liebert
Album: christmas + santa fe

For Ottmar Liebert, every day seems to be Christmas lately. The guitarist’s debut record Nouveau Flamenco has become the top selling guitar album of all time. He’s received Grammy nominations, several of Billboard’s New Age Artist of the Year awards, and his music can be heard on soundtracks and the popular live video, Wide-Eyed + Dreaming. Now the celebrated musician is sharing a bit of that personal holiday spirit through his latest Epic release, christmas + santa fe, Liebert’s follow-up to last year’s Innamorare/Summer Flamenco.

The title of the new album is inspired by his current residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the native of Cologne, Germany has lived since 1986. The warm, arid town in America’s Southwest transforms during the winter into a charming, picturesque setting for the holiday season.

“Albums are often about a time and a place, and if I hadn’t been living here, I don’t think this album would have been made,” Liebert says. “There’s something about this town that is so special during Christmas time. There are four streets where all the residents put up farolitos — brown paper bags with sand and a
candle in it. The candle is held up in the sand and then burns out in it without, usually, setting the bag on fire. For hours, strangers will just stand together in the candlelight and sing Christmas carols with each other. It’s quite a remarkable and unusual experience.”

Selecting from a variety of genres and influences to construct a style that is distinctively his own, Liebert takes great liberties with the seasonal classics that make up christmas + santa fe. “Only about 50 percent of each song is based on the original compositions,” he says, which explains why none of the titles fully reveal the familiarity of the tunes.

The opener “Santa Dancing” delicately echoes the strains of “Deck the Halls” before taking off into a flamenco foray. The Spanish flavor is also apparent with “Farolitos On Garcia,” a homage to those indigenous, sand-steadied candles set to the chords of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” “Snow Angel,” Liebert’s favorite track, is a galloping classical rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” augmented by his tasty electric slide work. Only the moody “Winter’s Solstice,” with its muted trumpets and dissonant rhythm chords, is a complete original.

Liebert’s conviction, expertise, and ability to experiment help craft a Christmas album that retains its emotional grandeur without resorting to over sentimentality. “I think that’s achieved depending on how you play a melody,” he says. “If you’re going to impose unnecessarily a swing element or add a little bit of a schmaltz twist, it sort of wrecks the melody. If you see Christmas songs as folk music and play the melody with that in mind, these tunes are gorgeous. There are a lot of beautiful, old melodies people have come up with for Christmas.”

Surprisingly, Liebert doesn’t consider himself much of a holiday music aficionado. “I think I might have bought a Frank Sinatra Christmas album. But I really don’t keep any around the house,” he confesses. But his house still proved a site rife with Christmas spirit, considering the album was recorded entirely at Liebert’s home studio in Sante Fe. Produced by Liebert and engineer Gary Lyons, the result is the artist’s 12th record in ten years.

Collaborating with the guitarist is his longtime group Luna Negra, who he views as a “rubber band” in terms of its flexibility. “Luna Negra is whatever I want it to be. I remember one time on tour in Australia that it was a duet. It’s been everything from a two-piece to a nine-piece.”

For this record, Liebert approaches Luna Negra as a five-piece act, utilizing two percussionists, an upright bass player, and a trumpet player, in addition to his signature acoustic guitar. Lively sounds of bongos, cajone, clave, cowbell, and an udu (a Nigerian clay drum) accent the traditional instruments.

“Christmas music is folk music. That’s where it comes from,” Liebert explains. “This record works because it’s got a mixture of that folk element and some Latin music and other styles. I try to make it all fit as a whole. But I wouldn’t consider myself a folk musician. I’m mixing up too many different things to be folk.”

1996: Opium

Release Date: 1996
Label: Epic Records
Artist: Ottmar Liebert
Album: Opium

“To me, the title Opium suggests a drug that seduces you into a whole different world. And with this album we tried to create our own little world, which takes from alot of different sources. We don’t feel like we belong to any particular culture exclusively. With Opium, we’re creating a little world and seducing people into it.”

The acclaimed guitarist and composer Ottmar Liebert is on the line from his home city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, talking about his new Epic album Opium, a stunning two-CD set which contains some of the most ambitious and eclectic music of his wide-ranging career. Like the portholes of a ship, the two discs of Opium (“Wide-eyed” and “Dreaming”) form what Ottmar describes as “two windows into this world: One is the brighter, wide-eyed, faster side, the other is the mellower, introspective side.”

This ambitious work, Ottmar Liebert’s first new studio album in two and a half years was originally conceived as a single disc. In the early spring of 1995, Ottmar began recording at his own Spiral Subwave studio in Santa Fe, “and within two months, we were suddenly working on more than 30 pieces. We could record at our own pace: The engineer was staying at my house. There were no constraints – just total freedom.”

The core band for the Opium sessions consisted of Ottmar on acoustic and electric guitars, Jon Gagan on bass and keyboards, and Stefan Liebert playing assorted percussion and keyboards. There were joined, on various tracks, by percussionist Mark Clark (who performed on Ottmar’s two previous Epic albums, ¡Viva! and The Hours between Night and Day); Luna Negra’s new drummer Carl Coletti; percussionist Woody Thompson; and Eric Schermerhorn on electric guitar. On some tracks, their instrumental performances were blended with the vocal performances by Magali Amadei, Ashkan Sahihi, Bok Yun Chon, Lobsang Samten + Olga Kammerer. At other moments, the music was combined with ambient sounds recorded in such far-flung locales as Milan, Singapore, and Hawaii during the course of Luna Negra’s 1994 touring year.

For the recording of Opium, Ottmar explains, “I’m using my flamenco guitar, which was made by Eric Sahlin of Spokane, Washington, and a midi-flamenco guitar made by Keith Vizcarra of Santa Fe.

“I played two electric guitars, one of which is a Roland Stratocaster – a Japanese copy of the Fender Stratocaster which came with a Roland guitar synthesizer. I’ve since ripped the synth out and put in new pick ups, a new whammy bar – it’s acompletely different guitar now. The other is a Gibson ES-335 (semi-hollow body) but in a pearl-white finish. I played the electric guitars through either a Mesa Boogie or Groove Tubes amp. And on some tracks I’m playing a fretless lute – although it sounds more like a Turkish oud since we took the frets off.”

On April 1, 1996, Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra will begin a headlining US concert tour with a new lineup of musicians. The ’96 touring will band will feature Jon Gagan (bass), Ron Wagner (percussion), and Carl Coletti (drums). “Again, we’re combining the ancient and the futuristic Carl plays a Roland Midi kit – basically pads, not a drum in sight – while Ron plays tablas and dumbek, an Arab percussion instrument.”

“I’m trying to grow in every direction at the same time,” says Ottmar Liebert. With the music of Opium, he’s reaching beyond the peaks of past achievements to a new creative horizon.

The Story So Far

Born in Cologne, Germany to a Chinese-German father and Hungarian mother, Ottmar Liebert began playing guitar at age eleven. Following the completion of a course of study in classical guitar, the eighteen-year-old musician embarked on a series of journeys through Russia and Asia. He travelled widely and studied traditional music, but found little outlet for these crucial experiences in the Western pop music of the late ’70s and early ’80s. First in Germany and then in Boston, Liebert put his guitar skills to work in a series of jazz-funk bands, the last of which broke up in 1985. Frustrated and disillusioned with the East Coast music business, Liebert heade West.

In Santa Fe, Liebert found himself captivated by the city’s laid-back artistic ambiance and freed from the need to make it in the music business. He began playing his own music for his own pleasure, and later for increasingly receptive audiences in local restaurants. By 1988, the first incarnation of his new band, Luna Negra, had been born.

The CD which eventually became Ottmar Liebert’s debut album Nouveau Flamenco began its life as a self-produced local release titled Marita: Shadows and Storms. Santa Fe artist Frank Howell had arranged for the pressing of 1,000 copies of Marita to be distributed along with his drawings. When copies of the disk found their way to a number of radio stations, programmers began adding tracks to their playlists. Higher Octave Music remastered Marita and released it nationally under the title Nouveau Flamenco.

By 1993, the album had been certified gold in the US; by 1996, it was close to platinum. Two subsequent Higher Octave releases – Poets & Angels (1990) and the Grammy-nominated Borrasca (1991) – followed Nouveau Flamenco to #1 on the Billboard New Age charts.

Solo Para Ti, the 1992 Epic label debut by Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra, featured Carlos Santana’s trademark guitar on two tracks, including the Santana classic “Samba Pa Ti.” The album not only went to the top of the New Age chart; it cracked the Billboard Top 100 Pop albums, garnered Liebert a second year of acclamation as Billboard’s new age artist of the year and was certified gold in December, 1995. Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra reached thousands of new fans in 1992 as the opening act on Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” US tour and through a pair of performances on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show.”

In 1993 a new Epic album, The Hours between Night & Day consolidated Liebert’s position as an avatar of global music. The acoustic guitar master now thickened his sonic weave with electric guitar riffs in pursuit of what he characterized as “real acoustic and electric musicianship with some programmed computer-aided music design.” Among the album’s high points were a mind-opening rediscovery of the Fleetwood Mac/Peter Green classic “Albatross”; and the transmogrification of the Marvin Gaye soul standart “Mercy, Mercy Me” into the Spanish “Ten Piedad de Mi” with the addition of José “Grillo” Blanco’s lead vocals.

In February, 1995, Epic released Euphoria, a remix collection inspired by Luna Negra’s 1993-94 tours of Europe and South America. Ottmar gave “complete freedom to add and subtract and reconstruct our songs” to such master mixers as Steve Hillage, Aki Nawaz, and DJ SLip (of Compton’s Most Wanted fame). Responding to years of fans’ requests, Liebert released ¡Viva! – the first concert album of his career – in June, 1995. ¡Viva! was, as Ottmar promised, “a true live album – no edits, no overdubs, no fixes” – and it captured all the energy and emotion of a classic Luna Negra performance.

Awards

Gold & Platinum Certifications in the USA
Latest

Nouveau Flamenco
2 x Platinum – USA
14 x Platinum – USA/Latin
Platinum – Australia
Platinum – New Zealand
Gold – Canada
Gold – Mexico

Poets & Angels
2 x Platinum – USA/Latin

Borrasca
Gold – USA
4 x Platinum – USA/Latin
Nominated for a Grammy

Solo Para Ti
Gold – USA
2 x Platinum – USA/Latin
Gold – Canada

The Hours Between Night + Day
Gold – USA
2 x Platinum – USA/Latin
Gold – Canada
Gold – New Zealand
Nominated for a Grammy

Euphoria
Gold – USA/Latin

¡Viva!
Platinum – USA/Latin

Opium
Platinum – USA/Latin
Nominated for a Grammy

Leaning into the Night
Gold – USA/Latin

Innamorare – Summer Flamenco
Gold – USA/Latin

Nouveau Flamenco: 1990-2000 Tenth Anniversary
Platinum – USA/Latin

One Guitar
Nominated for a Grammy

The Scent of Light
Nominated for a Grammy

Guest Appearances

Artist: Matt Schoening
Album: The Art of Live Looping
Tracks: Kites Over the Playa
Label:
Year: 2008

Artist: Leda Battisti
Album: Tu l’Amore E il Sesso
Tracks: several
Label: Sony BMG
Year: 2006

Artist: Stephen Duros
Album: Thira
Tracks: Thira
Label: SSRI
Year: 2006

Artist: Jon Gagan
Album: Transit 2
Tracks: several
Label: SSRI
Year: 2006

Artist: Jon Gagan
Album: Transit
Tracks: several
Label: SSRI
Year: 2003

Artist: Cusco
Album: Ancient Journeys
Tracks: Da Gama
Label: Higher Octave Music
Year: 2000

Artist: Chuscales
Album: Soul Encounters/Encuentros del Alma
Tracks:
Label: Narada
Year: 1999

Artist: Alan
Album: Azul
Tracks: Volveré, volveras / Llévame
Label: Columbia Records Mexico
Year: 1999

Artist: Leda Battisti
Album: Leda Battisti
Track: played on 11 songs
Label: Epic Italy
Year: 1998

Artist: Lavezzimogol
Album: Voci e Chitarre
Track: Zitta
Label: BMG Italy
Year: 1997

Artist: Celine Dion
Album: Falling into You
Track: Call the Man
Label: 550 Music
Year: 1996

Artist: Diana Ross
Album: Take me Higher
Track: I never loved a Man before
Label: EMI
Year: 1995

Artist: Nestor Torres
Album: Burning Whispers
Track: Mambo Sensual
Label: Sony Discos
Year: 1995

Artist: Dan Siegel
Album: Hemispheres
Track: El Nino
Year: 1995

Artist: Asiabeat
Album: Monsoon
Track: Golden Lotus, Bengawan Solo, Ganges, Anak
Label: Skin/Singapore
Year: 1994

Album: Edith Piaf Tribute
Track: My Legionaire
Producer: Jacques Arnoul
Year: 1993

Album: Goody’s
Track: Lonely Chaplin
Label: BMG Victor, Inc. – Japan
Year: 1992

Artist: Kenny Loggins
Album: Leap of Faith
Track: I would do anything
Label: Columbia Records
Year: 1991