Ottmar Liebert

Ottmar Liebert, the guitarist, composer, and producer from Germany, first gained widespread recognition during the 1990s through his Spanish-tinged instrumental recordings aimed at easy-listening audiences. He initially labeled this sound “Nouveau Flamenco.” Born in Cologne, West Germany, he passed much of his childhood accompanying his parents on journeys across Europe and Asia. At eleven he took up the guitar and soon gravitated toward flamenco, yet a rock trajectory first carried him across the Atlantic. After several years performing in Boston’s early-’80s rock clubs, he relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he refined the wordless guitar style that would soon top new-age charts. In 1989 he issued a self-released set titled Marita: Shadows and Storms under the project name Luna Negra; copies were sold through a Native American gallery in Santa Fe. Local radio embraced the recording, prompting Higher Octave Music to reissue it the next year as Nouveau Flamenco under Liebert’s own name. The album achieved instant commercial traction, attaining double-platinum status in the United States and establishing him as a leading new-age figure. Throughout the following decade he moved millions of records and collected Grammy nominations for Borrasca (1991), The Hours Between Night & Day (1993), and Opium (1996). His approach kept evolving, weaving jazz, classical, pop, and Latin threads into a singular blend. After an extended period with Epic Records, he returned to Higher Octave for the 2002 release In the Arms of Love: Lullabies 4 Children & Adults. Winter Rose appeared in 2005, marking his second holiday collection, and was followed in 2006 by the solo-guitar album One Guitar, which earned another Grammy nomination. For 2008’s Up Close he captured the music in binaural surround sound, while that same year The Scent of Light brought yet another Grammy nod. Into the next decade he maintained a steady output with Santa Fe (2011), Dune (2012), and three-oh-five (2014). Also in 2014 the anthology Bare Wood gathered highlights from 2002–2012, and 2015’s Waiting N Swan further explored a fusion of tango, flamenco, and reggae rhythms.