Heart still beating ottmar liebert biography

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“Every few years you can go back and discover new things and revisit some older places that haven’t changed at all. 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. 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.

By 1989, he had founded the first incarnation of his new band Luna Negra. 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.

“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.

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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. I still get letters from fans in Europe, South-America, Australia, and Asia...it’s been a really gratifying experience.

There’s always that spark that gets me excited. 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. “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.

By 1989, he had founded the first incarnation of his new band Luna Negra. 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.

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.

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.

Liebert’s newest release is nouveaumatic, which completes the first trilogy recorded and released for his new SSRI record label. 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.

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. (1995), the double CD Opium (1996) and the classical-oriented orchestral album Leaning into the Night (1997).

In that vein Liebert hopes to release a CD to be entitled Nouveaumatic later in 2003.

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