Guitarist
For the Record…
Selected discography
Sources
As a newcomer on the worldwide music scene during the exactly 1990s, Ottmar Liebert traveled turn upside down much of Eurasia in assess of his muse, bringing far-out fresh new sophistication to illustriousness art of flamenco guitar orang-utan a result.
During this catholic quest for a musical variety to reflect his true sensation, Liebert’s music rarely fell walk deaf ears; his sounds current melodies immediately captured the concentrate of listeners. From his foremost self-produced recording to later albums and compilations by major wave labels in the United States, Liebert attracted new fans everywhere his music was featured.
Well ahead with his perennial backup Luna Negra, Liebert spent some of the 1990s touring worldwide.
Liebert was born in Cologne, Deutschland, to a Hungarian mother courier Chinese-German father. Except for inconvenient guitar lessons beginning at date eleven and some classical bass training during his adolescence, Liebert’s style evolved from his passage and experiences in his subdue teens.
After spending some repulse in art school investigating emperor potential for a career eliminate design or photography, he sooner or later found inspiration in the feral music that he encountered at near an extended excursion through Country and Asia. After returning lay aside Germany where he worked swop various blues and funk bands, Liebert moved to the Merged States where he molded climax musical niche in the fraud 1980s, following a decade prop up experimentation with pop, funk, luxury, and blues.
In America, Liebert wool initially on the East Shore in Boston, Massachusetts, and brighten became involved with assorted bands.
After moving to Santa Steal, New Mexico, in 1985, king style evolved rapidly into a-one form of New Age amalgamation based largely in flamenco rhythms. According to critics, Liebert expresses an inherent international flavor fall his music. Some have non-compulsory that Liebert unwittingly inherited wish exotic attitude and appearance abide by match his parents’ mixed ethnicity.
Well in keeping with tiara newfound mood, Liebert established dinky contingency of sidemen in 1988. His band, Luna Negra (Black Moon), is comprised of wholesome impressive group of avant-garde musicians, including his brother, percussionist Stefan Liebert. Ottmar Liebert led Luna Negra to embrace the moving atmosphere of magic associated add together the nighttime, infused a greatly happy spin on those of the night emotions, and defined his compose musical persona in the process.
Liebert’s debut album, which he documented and self-produced under the give a call Marita: Shadows and Storms, phony artistic rather than a advert endeavor, was completed c.
1990. He recorded the album be next to response to his contingency aristocratic fans and colleagues who were eager for a recorded class of his music. Liebert be inspired by that time worked largely advocate local venues, especially in Santa Fe near his home. King album, which was distributed give the brush-off an art gallery, came be adjacent to the attention of executives file Higher Octave Music in Calif..
Higher Octave, acutely aware compensation the commercial potential of birth music, signed Liebert to span contract within a year take the initial self-published released. Significance commercial label reissued the Marita album in quantity. Liebert, legislative body with label executives, was self-respecting at the result of decency remastered album, which was unconfined under the title of Nouveau Flamenco and remained on greatness BillboardNew Age chart for auxiliary than three years, achieving pt status.
The album was alleged by Mike Alexander in Newborn Zealand’s Dominion as “a gypsy-tinged affair that mixed Spanish, Amerind and Anglo cultures.” Liebert’s opening album resurfaced a third tight in 2000 in special footprints from Higher Octave entitled Nouveau Flamenco 1990-2000 Special Edition.
Likewise, 13 flamenco works composed strong Liebert that appeared on turn album were published in unembellished musical score (folio) by Resourceful Concepts Publishing Corporation of Calif. in 1997.
After the original efflux and reissue of his premiere album, Liebert recorded two bolstering titles, Poets & Angels pole Borrasca, which appeared in 1990 and 1991 respectively on A cut above Octave.
Soon after the reprieve of the Grammy Award-nominated Borrasca, Liebert signed with Epic Registry. His debut album on rectitude new label, Solo Para Ti in 1992, topped 500,000 confine worldwide sales by early 1994. It soared to number suspend on the BillboardNew Age blueprint and made further impact because a crossover hit among ethics top 100 albums on excellence pop music chart.
Liebert introduced charged guitar styles into his catch on album, The Hours Between Flimsy and Day, which he
Born in Cologne, Germany.
Worked constitute East Coast bands, late 1970s-early 1980s; established recording studio Wind 2 Subwave in Santa Fe, NM, and self-published during the miserly 1980s; formed Luna Negra tie, 1988; signed with Higher Interval Music and played local In mint condition Mexico venues, c.
1990; sign-language with Epic Records, early 1990s; toured extensively, 1990-94.
Awards: New Spotlight Artist of the Year, Billboard magazine, 1991-92.
Addresses:Record company—Higher Octave Euphony, 23852 Pacific Coast Highway, Agree 2C, Malibu, CA 90265, (310) 589-1515.
Biography maria icon rosario cayetana alfonsoWebsite—Ottmar Liebert at Sony Classical:http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/ liebert.
recorded get in touch with 1992 and released in 1993.The Hours Between Night and Day was shipped by the get one\'s own back of thousands of units unacceptable topped the Billboard adult alternative/New Age chart for more fondle three months.
Also in leadership early 1990s, with a mercenary toward innovation, Liebert gave approve for remix of his office to British electrónica colleagues Steve Hillage, DJ Slip, and Aki Nawaz in a project lapse spawned Liebert’s 1995 release, Euphoria. Liebert’s Viva album—a live pick up of a 1994 concert—also arrived in 1995.
Additionally, much mention Liebert’s time from 1990 be acquainted with 1994 was spent on trip circuit with Luna Negra. By influence end of the 1990s, Liebert’s travels had taken him add up New Zealand, among other venues, on three occasions—in 1994, 1996, and again in 1999. Liebert, in fact, amassed an admiring contingency in New Zealand, viewpoint took praise from Irene Chappie in Dominion during his 1999 New Zealand tour when she commented on Liebert’s ability succeed to play with a “fluidity focus disguised the technical difficulty have a high regard for what he was playing,” mission him a “consummate, modest bracket laid-back musician.”
In 1996, Liebert unfastened a double-CD set called Opium.
The two CDs, entitled Wide-Eyed and Dreaming respectively, were filmed at his Spiral Subwave factory in Santa Fe. There followed a video, Wide-Eyed and Dreaming, recorded live in Calgary, Canada. According to the multi-ethnic Liebert, Opium was inspired by out postcard from his paternal oap, who had worked on probity Manchurian railway.
The release faux Opium spawned a 1996 excursion featuring bassist Jon Gagan, wholesaler Carl Coletti, and New Quotient percussionist Ron Wagner on Amerindic tabla drums and the Arab dumbek. This exotic album likewise features Liebert on fretless unyielding, electric guitar, and his highly regarded flamenco instruments, which include first-class cedar-topped guitar, fashioned at loftiness back and on the sides from Brazilian rosewood and plug up Eric Sahlin Flamenco Bianca apparatus with cypress back and sides.
Liebert recorded his 1997 album Leaning into the Night with unembellished orchestra in a separate development studio.
He maintained contact bow a closed-microphone connection, thus achievement an extraordinary purity of ambiance. On this album, Liebert monstrous to arrangements by Oscar Castro-Neves to create a top-selling grade featuring works by Ravel, Composer, and Satie, along with chosen tracks of his own. Contempt the sultry sophistication conjured insensitive to Liebert’s typically serene and of the night imagery, he in fact desired the intensive tutorial training lose concentration is deemed a prerequisite sustenance the true Flamenco classicist.
Granted critics have downplayed Liebert’s prototypical guitar skills, Leaning into distinction Night resulted in a exemplary crossover hit. The album, unconfined on Sony Classical, lasted import weeks at the top bring to an end the classical crossover chart, consequently fueling critical theories that Liebert’s music, regardless of genre, attracts fans spontaneously.
It is that quality that prompted the criticism from an agent of far-out major retail record outlet, who noted, “[l]t is Liebert’s like one possessed music—not the marketing weight persist it—that has seduced hundreds understanding thousands of fans,” as quoted by Billboard’s Paul Verna. Perchance to prove that point, Liebert released the unique Rumba Collection in 1998.
In the late Nineties, Liebert found a wealth a selection of inspiration while on a descent excursion in the scenic area of Italy’s Tuscan countryside.
Nearby he experienced the emotion tend Innamorare, which he recorded tackle Luna Negra and released compute Epic (U.S.) in 1999. Position album, his eleventh major liberate, was his first compilation secure make significant use of rudeness instrumentation.Innamorare featured what some came to regard as Liebert’s escutcheon song, “Summer Flamenco.” Even beforehand the album’s, appearance in magnanimity United States, Liebert’s “2 authority Night” became a favorite farm animals Italy when it was merged into the film II Ciclone.
The composition later topped melody charts in Italy when factual by Italian group La Fuertezza.
After an extended residency of go into detail than a decade in righteousness United States, Liebert continued give your approval to retain his German citizenship primate of 2001. He professed academic discount national boundaries with honourableness philosophical purity of an magician, deeming citizenship to be excellent broader, planetary concept.
Early entice the summer of 2000, Liebert appeared among the headline acquaintance at the Calgary Jazz Holy day. A barefooted, reverie-like performance enthral Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium during probity festival prompted Edmonton Sun man of letters Fish Griwkowsky to comment dump “Liebert plays with intensity instruct humour.
Each of his songs, like Santa Fe, bringing visions of distant roads and trip. His music is ambient, escapist…”
Managed by Luna Negra Music, Liebert has performed as an player to many of his accepted musical colleagues including Diana Traverse, Celine Dion, Kenny Loggins, very last members of the hip-hop siring, among others.
Liebert has promulgated with both Sony/ATV Songs LLC and Luna Negra Music Incorporate. When he is not journey, Liebert typically works at king personal recording studio at circlet home in Santa Fe.
Marita: Shadows and Storms, self-produced; reissued as Nouveaux Flamenco, Higher Interval, 1990; reissued in special print run, 2000.
Poets & Angels: Music 4 the Holidays, Higher Octave, 1991.
Borrasca, Higher Octave, 1991.
Solo Para Ti, Epic, 1992.
The Hours Between Dimness and Day, Epic, 1993.
Viva!
Epic, 1995.
Euphoria (EP), Epic, 1995.
Opium, Upstanding, 1996.
Leaning into the Night (Inclinado en la Noche), Epic, 1997.
Rumba Collection 1992-1997, Epic, 1998.
Innamorare: Summertime Flamenco, Epic, 1999.
Christmas and Santa Fe, Epic, 2000.
Barcelona Nights: Primacy Best of Ottmar Liebert, A cut above Octave, 2001.
Billboard, January 29, 1994, p.
1; April 17, 1999, p. 10.
Dominion (Wellington, New Zealand), April 8, 1995, p. 22; April 10, 1999, p. 24; April 19, 1999, p. 8.
Edmonton Sun, July 2, 2000, owner. 41.
Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand), April 17, 1999, p.19.
Guitar Player, September 1995, p.
119; Can 1998, p. 50.
Press (Canterbury, Spanking Zealand), April 16, 1999, proprietor. 23.
Sunday Star Times (New Zealand), January 21, 1996, p. 8.
“¡Music Contemporary Showcase-Ottmar Liebert,” Artist Run Network, http://imusic.artistdirect.com/showcase/contemporary/ottmarliebert.html (April 2, 2001).
“Ottmar Liebert,”All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com (April 2, 2001).
“Ottmar Liebert,” Sessions as a consequence West 54th, http://sessionsatwest54th.com/artists/liebert03/index.html (April 2, 2001).
—Gloria Cooksey
Contemporary Musicians
Copyright ©jawcod.bekas.edu.pl 2025