“My soul is my antenna, I am the instrument + the guitar is my amplifier.” Ottmar Liebert said this — and it is the most complete statement of his relationship to the guitar available. Not: the guitar is the instrument and the amp is the amplifier. The soul is the antenna. He is the instrument. The guitar is his amplifier. The guitar in this formulation is not the primary creative entity but the means by which the creative entity (him, his soul, his received signal) is projected into the world. This is a specific spiritual and philosophical relationship to the instrument that is entirely consistent with both the music (flamenco’s specific connection to duende — the untranslatable Spanish term for the spirit or force that animates authentic flamenco performance) and his specific biographical trajectory (from Cologne, Germany, through Eurasia in his teens, to Boston, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the cultural convergence of Spanish, Native American, and Anglo cultures produced the specific “nouveau flamenco” he invented). His Guitar History page — published on his own website — is the most complete single-source guitar documentation in this entire guide: a musician who has documented his own instrument history with dates, descriptions, and album credits. Eric Sahlin Blanca Flamenco 1991-2002, every album. Lester DeVoe Negra 2003-2014. Lester DeVoe Blanca 2005, played ever since, heard on Fete and Vision 2020. “My soul is my antenna.”
Ottmar Liebert was born on February 1, 1959, in Cologne, Germany, to a Hungarian mother and a Chinese-German father. He began guitar at age eleven. As a teenager and young adult, he traveled extensively across Europe and Asia — experiences that “profoundly shaped his musical perspective” per the Grokipedia documentation. After living on the East Coast (Boston, Massachusetts), he relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1985-1986, where “his style evolved rapidly into a form of New Age fusion based largely in flamenco rhythms.” He founded Luna Negra (Black Moon) in 1988-1989. His debut album Nouveau Flamenco (1990) — self-produced, featuring the hit track “Barcelona Nights” — became, in the Grokipedia characterization, “the best-selling instrumental guitar album of all time” with double platinum certification in the United States. He has received 38 Gold and Platinum certifications in the US and international certifications in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He has received five Grammy Award nominations, all in the Best New Age Album category. He is sixty-seven years old. He still plays the Lester DeVoe Blanca Flamenco built in 2005. The soul’s antenna receives. The guitar amplifies.
Background: Cologne, Hungarian-Chinese-German Heritage, Eurasian Travels, Boston, Santa Fe 1985, Luna Negra 1988, Nouveau Flamenco 1990 Double Platinum
Liebert’s specific biographical formation — born in Germany to a Hungarian mother and Chinese-German father, raised in a family that spent his childhood traveling Europe and Asia, eventually settling in the American Southwest — is the most specifically cosmopolitan of any guitarist in this guide. The combination of German precision, Hungarian musical passion (Hungary has a profound and specific musical tradition, from Bartók’s ethnomusicological approach through the specific emotional character of Hungarian folk music), and the Chinese-German duality of his father’s background produced a musician who arrived at flamenco not from inside the Spanish tradition but from outside it — which is precisely what allowed him to invent something new from it.
Santa Fe, New Mexico in the mid-1980s is the specific geographic and cultural context that produced nouveau flamenco. Santa Fe is a city where Spanish colonial culture, Native American Pueblo culture, and Anglo American culture have been converging since the 17th century — a place where the Spanish guitar tradition (imported from Spain during the colonial period) has been present for centuries in a form that is both authentically Spanish and specifically Southwestern American. Liebert arrived in 1985-86, encountered this specific cultural convergence, and found in it the specific creative space where his European background, his Eurasian travels, and his musical sensibility could produce something that was not traditionally Spanish flamenco but something new: the “nuevo flamenco” fusion with jazz, world music, and New Age ambient elements that his debut album made commercially accessible to an international audience.
The Nouveau Flamenco (1990) commercial success is the most dramatic commercial achievement in this section of the guide — an independently produced instrumental guitar album (not mainstream pop, not rock, not blues, but specifically flamenco-influenced New Age instrumental guitar music) becoming the best-selling instrumental guitar album of all time. This achievement reflects both the specific quality and accessibility of Liebert’s music and the specific cultural moment of the early 1990s, when the New Age section of record stores was one of the fastest-growing commercial categories and instrumental world music was reaching mainstream audiences in ways that had not previously been possible.
The Guitars: Ottmar Liebert’s Complete Guitar History (From His Own Documentation)
Liebert’s Guitar History page on his official website is the most complete single-source guitar biography in this guide — a musician who has documented his own instrument history with specific dates, luthier names, and album credits for each guitar. This documentation is reproduced and contextualized below as the authoritative primary source.
Phase 1: First Guitars and Spanish Connections
Early Guitars and Spanish Guitar Discovery: Liebert began guitar at eleven; his style evolved through his Eurasian travels and his classical guitar training during adolescence. The specific flamenco guitar discovery — and the transition from more conventional Spanish guitar models to the specifically flamenco-voicing instruments he subsequently used — happened through his musical evolution in Santa Fe. The Allmusic biography notes: “Except for early guitar lessons beginning at age eleven and some classical guitar training during his adolescence, Liebert’s style evolved from his travels and experiences in his late teens.” The guitar-related education was formal but brief; the musical style that emerged from those travels and experiences was the product of personal discovery rather than institutional training.
Phase 2: Eric Sahlin Blanca Flamenco (1991-2002, Every Album)
Eric Sahlin Blanca Flamenco Model (Primary Guitar 1992-2002): The Guitar History page documents: “Sometime in 1991 I bought a guitar from Eric Sahlin that was first used on Solo Para Ti. That guitar, a Blanca Flamenco model, shown on the cover of Solo Para Ti, was with me for a long time and can be heard on every album released between 1992 and 2002.” Eric Sahlin is a California luthier specializing in classical and flamenco guitars; his Blanca Flamenco model became Liebert’s primary instrument for an eleven-year period that encompassed the peak of his commercial success — the period during which his recordings achieved the 38 Gold and Platinum certifications and the five Grammy nominations. The album Solo Para Ti (1992) shows the guitar on its cover: the specific visual connection between the instrument and the music is the most complete in his documented career.
The Blanca designation refers to the specific construction of flamenco guitars: “Blanca Flamenco guitars generally have cedar tops and cypress sides and back.” The Blanca guitar’s specific character is defined by the cypress back and sides (lighter, more resonant, with a specific bright, sharp attack) in contrast with the Negra’s rosewood back and sides (warmer, with more harmonic complexity). The Blanca’s brightness and attack speed — its specific percussive, rapid response — is the instrument of traditional flamenco technique, where the specific attack character of golpe (body tapping), rasgueo (strummed chord flourishes), and picado (single-note runs) requires the most immediate, most rapid response from the guitar body. The cedar top (softer, more immediately responsive than spruce) adds to this rapid attack character.
Phase 3: Lester DeVoe Guitars (2003-Present)
Lester DeVoe Negra Flamenco (2003-2014): The Guitar History page: “In 2003 I started using a guitar made by Lester DeVoe and I have played his guitars ever since. I played a Negra model 2003-2014.” Lester DeVoe is a California-based luthier specializing specifically in flamenco guitars — one of the most respected American luthiers in the flamenco tradition. His Negra model (rosewood back and sides, as opposed to the Blanca’s cypress) provided Liebert with a warmer, harmonically richer tonal character for the specific period 2003-2014. “Negra Flamenco guitars utilize rosewood sides and back instead of the cypress” — the rosewood’s specific acoustic properties (denser, heavier, with a slower sound transference that produces a different harmonic profile) give the Negra a warmer, more sustained, more complex harmonic character. Where the Blanca attacks immediately and brightly, the Negra sustains longer and warmly. Liebert’s use of the Negra for eleven years documents a period when the sustaining, harmonically complex character of rosewood suited his musical evolution.
Lester DeVoe Blanca Flamenco (2005, Current Primary Guitar — “In Love Since 2014”): “Since then I have been in love with a Blanca model that was built in 2005 and that I still play today and which can be heard on Fete and vision 2020.” This is the single most important sentence in his Guitar History page: a guitar built in 2005, which he began using as his primary instrument in 2014, which he still plays as of 2020 (the most recent documentation available). Twenty years from construction, ten years as primary instrument, still in love, still heard on recent recordings. The Lester DeVoe Blanca 2005 is one of the most long-standing primary instrument relationships in this guide: not a collector’s item, not a retirement display, but an actively-played, actively-recorded, actively-performed instrument that has been with him through a decade of musical evolution and remains his go-to instrument for recording and performance.
The return from Negra to Blanca in 2014 reflects his own artistic evolution: whatever the warmer, more sustained character of the Negra provided for the 2003-2014 period, the more immediate, brighter, more percussive character of the Blanca was what his music called for in 2014 and has called for ever since. This is the specific guitar-as-artistic-statement that underlies the Guitar History page’s specific documentation.
Specialty and Secondary Guitars
Keith Vizcarra MIDI-Flamenco Guitar (First Used on “Lush,” The Hours Between Night + Day): The Guitar History page documents: “While those were the main guitars I also used a Midi-Flamenco Guitar by Keith Vizcarra, first played on the song ‘Lush’, on The Hours Between Night + Day.” A MIDI flamenco guitar is a flamenco guitar with a MIDI pickup system — converting the guitar’s string vibrations to MIDI data that can trigger synthesizers, sample libraries, or other electronic sounds. In the nouveau flamenco context, where Liebert’s music incorporates electronic elements alongside acoustic flamenco guitar, the MIDI guitar allows the flamenco guitar technique to directly control electronic sound generation without losing the physical performance character of flamenco playing.
Keith Vizcarra Negra Flamenco (Several Albums): “A Negra Flamenco by Keith Vizcarra, used on Leaning Into the Night and several other albums.” Keith Vizcarra is a second luthier whose instruments appear in Liebert’s documented collection — providing both a MIDI option and a conventional Negra Flamenco alternative to his primary Eric Sahlin and Lester DeVoe instruments.
The Blanca vs. Negra Philosophy: The specific oscillation between Blanca (cypress) and Negra (rosewood) through his career — Sahlin Blanca 1991-2002, DeVoe Negra 2003-2014, DeVoe Blanca 2014-present — reflects an ongoing artistic negotiation between the two primary flamenco guitar tonal characters. Neither is objectively better; each is better for specific kinds of music and specific artistic intentions. His return to the Blanca’s brighter, more percussive character since 2014 suggests a musical direction that values attack and brightness over warmth and sustain.
Amplification and Effects
Because Liebert’s Guitar History page focuses on the acoustic instruments and because flamenco guitar is primarily an acoustic art form, the specific amplification and effects used in his performances and recordings are not documented with the same precision as his guitar history. However, the acoustic nature of his primary instrument and the context of his performances (concert halls, recording studios) suggests the standard professional acoustic guitar amplification approach: a high-quality acoustic guitar pickup system (possibly a blended internal mic and transducer, similar to other acoustic guitarists in this guide), a professional acoustic preamp/DI, and PA amplification for live performance. His recordings capture primarily the acoustic guitar’s natural room sound rather than amplified processing.
The “guitar is my amplifier” philosophy — “My soul is my antenna, I am the instrument + the guitar is my amplifier” — suggests an approach to amplification that is philosophically minimalist: whatever is needed to project the guitar’s natural acoustic sound to the audience, without additional electronic processing that would alter the fundamentally acoustic character of the music. The flamenco guitar’s natural acoustic projection (flamenco guitars are built for projection — the cypress back and sides of the Blanca, the specific tap plate golpeador on the top, and the lower action of flamenco instruments all contribute to the immediate, projecting character of flamenco guitar) reduces the amplification requirement in smaller venues.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Ottmar Liebert’s playing style is the most specifically flamenco-influenced in this section of the guide — drawing from the full technical vocabulary of flamenco guitar (rasgueo chord strumming, picado single-note runs, golpe body tapping, alzapúa thumb technique, tremolo) and deploying these techniques within a compositional context that is simultaneously flamenco, jazz, world music, and new age ambient. His music is immediately identifiable as “flamenco-influenced” without being traditionally Spanish flamenco — the Cologne-Eurasian-Santa Fe biography producing a specifically American flamenco that draws from the tradition without being bound by its strictest conventions.
His tone philosophy is the most philosophically complete in this guide: “My soul is my antenna, I am the instrument + the guitar is my amplifier.” This formulation inverts the conventional musician-instrument relationship (the musician plays the instrument) and posits a different relationship (the musician is the instrument, and the guitar is the mechanism by which the musician’s creative reception is projected outward). It reflects the flamenco tradition’s specific emphasis on duende — the authentic, unmediated emotional expression that distinguishes genuine flamenco from technical display — and applies it to the question of how a musician from outside the flamenco tradition arrives at authentic flamenco playing: not through technical replication but through genuine personal expression using the technical vocabulary of the tradition.
His documented guitar evolution — from the Eric Sahlin Blanca’s bright, percussive attack through the Lester DeVoe Negra’s warmer sustain and back to the Lester DeVoe Blanca’s brightness — is the physical record of his musical evolution: the specific guitar at each period reflects the specific musical direction of the recordings made with it.
How to Sound Like Ottmar Liebert
Guitar: A high-quality flamenco guitar — Blanca (cedar top, cypress back and sides) for the bright, percussive, immediate attack character of his current and early-career approach; Negra (cedar or spruce top, rosewood back and sides) for the warmer, more sustained harmonic complexity. Lester DeVoe is the documented current luthier; other respected flamenco guitar builders include Juan Manzano, Manuel Bellido, and others.
Amplification: Minimal acoustic amplification — high-quality acoustic pickup (blended internal mic and saddle or bridge-plate transducer) with a professional acoustic preamp/DI. The goal: faithful reproduction of the guitar’s acoustic sound, not electronic processing that alters its character.
Acoustic Performance Settings:
| Component | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Guitar character | Blanca (cypress): bright, percussive | Current and early-career primary choice |
| Pickup system | Blended mic + transducer | Faithful acoustic reproduction |
| EQ | Neutral with room correction | The guitar’s natural frequency response is the tone |
| Reverb | Natural room or minimal added | Flamenco guitar’s natural projection in a good room |
Technique: Rasgueo (the specific multi-finger strumming technique of flamenco, where individual fingers strike the strings in rapid sequence for the characteristic flamenco “strum cascade”), picado (single-note runs with alternating index and middle fingers of the picking hand), tremolo (rapid alternating notes on a single string producing a sustained melodic line), golpe (tapping the guitar top with the ring finger or nail for percussion), and alzapúa (upstroke technique using the thumb). The DADGAD, altered tunings, and modern fingerstyle techniques of the preceding guitarists do not apply here: Liebert’s language is flamenco, and the techniques are specifically flamenco techniques applied to his personal melodic and harmonic vision.
Influence & Legacy
Ottmar Liebert’s influence on nouveau flamenco and New Age instrumental guitar music is foundational — he invented the genre (or at minimum defined its commercial form) with Nouveau Flamenco (1990). The specific combination of traditional flamenco technique with accessible, ambient, non-traditional compositional approaches (jazz harmonies, world music elements, new age texture) that he developed in Santa Fe became the template for the entire nouveau flamenco genre that subsequent artists including Jesse Cook (Series 2 #198) developed from. His 38 Gold and Platinum certifications and double-platinum debut document the commercial impact of what he created.
His connection to Jesse Cook (Series 2 #198) as the parallel figure in the nouveau flamenco tradition reflects the specific community of guitarists who work in the fusion of flamenco technique with accessible world music aesthetics. His connection to the Spanish flamenco masters — Vicente Amigo (Series 2 #142) and Tomatito (Series 2 #143), documented earlier in this guide — reflects the shared flamenco tradition from which his nouveau flamenco approach diverges and draws simultaneously.
Internal Links:
- Jesse Cook, the parallel figure in the nouveau flamenco tradition who developed from the genre Liebert defined at #198
- Antoine Dufour, a fellow acoustic guitarist who draws from the guitar-as-soul tradition in a different cultural context at #195
- Vicente Amigo, representing the authentic Spanish flamenco tradition from which Liebert’s nouveau flamenco draws at #142
- Andy McKee, a fellow acoustic guitar artist whose compositional approach similarly transcends genre conventions at #196
Frequently Asked Questions: Ottmar Liebert Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Ottmar Liebert play?
Liebert’s documented guitar history from his own Guitar History page: Eric Sahlin Blanca Flamenco (1991-2002, every album from Solo Para Ti through the early 2000s); Lester DeVoe Negra Flamenco (2003-2014); Lester DeVoe Blanca Flamenco built in 2005 (current primary since 2014, “still in love,” heard on Fete and Vision 2020). Additional specialty guitars: Keith Vizcarra MIDI-Flamenco Guitar (for “Lush” and electronic applications) and Keith Vizcarra Negra Flamenco (used on Leaning Into the Night and other albums).
What is the difference between a Blanca and Negra flamenco guitar?
Per Liebert’s own Guitar History page: “Blanca Flamenco guitars generally have cedar tops and cypress sides and back. Negra Flamenco guitars utilize rosewood sides and back instead of the cypress.” The Blanca’s cypress back and sides produce a brighter, more percussive, more immediately responsive sound — the traditional flamenco guitar character, suited to the rapid attack techniques of flamenco (rasgueo, picado, golpe). The Negra’s rosewood back and sides produce a warmer, more sustained, harmonically richer sound — suitable for the more melodic, harmonically complex dimension of nouveau flamenco. Liebert has played both through his career, returning to the Blanca since 2014.
Who is Lester DeVoe?
Lester DeVoe is a California-based luthier specializing in flamenco guitars and one of the most respected American flamenco guitar builders. Liebert began using DeVoe’s guitars in 2003 and has played them exclusively since: a Negra model 2003-2014 and a Blanca model built in 2005 that has been his primary instrument since 2014. His relationship with DeVoe is the longest-standing single luthier relationship in his documented career.
What is nouveau flamenco?
Nouveau flamenco (also “nuevo flamenco”) is a genre that combines traditional Spanish flamenco guitar technique with elements of world music, jazz, new age, and pop. Liebert is credited with defining the genre’s commercial form through his debut album Nouveau Flamenco (1990), which became the best-selling instrumental guitar album of all time with double platinum certification in the United States. His specific contribution was making flamenco guitar accessible to international audiences by combining its technical vocabulary with accessible, ambient, non-traditional compositional approaches.
What is Ottmar Liebert’s commercial achievement?
Liebert has received 38 Gold and Platinum certifications in the United States, as well as certifications in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. His debut album Nouveau Flamenco (1990) is characterized as the best-selling instrumental guitar album of all time, certified double platinum in the US. He has received five Grammy Award nominations, all in the Best New Age Album category. After 22+ releases, he remains one of the most commercially successful instrumental guitarists in American music history.
What is the significance of Santa Fe in Liebert’s career?
After relocating from Germany through Boston to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1985-86, “his style evolved rapidly into a form of New Age fusion based largely in flamenco rhythms.” Santa Fe is a city where Spanish colonial culture (including the Spanish guitar tradition), Native American Pueblo culture, and Anglo American culture converge — a specific cultural geography that provided the creative environment for nouveau flamenco to develop. Liebert founded Luna Negra in Santa Fe in 1988-89 and recorded Nouveau Flamenco there in 1989-90.
What does Liebert mean by “my soul is my antenna, I am the instrument + the guitar is my amplifier”?
This formulation inverts the conventional musician-instrument relationship. Rather than: “I play the guitar,” Liebert proposes: “I am the instrument — the creative receiving entity — and the guitar is the mechanism that amplifies and projects what I receive.” The soul receives (as an antenna receives a signal); the human body and musical faculty process and embody that reception (as an instrument embodies its physical properties); the guitar projects and amplifies the result (as an amplifier projects a signal). It reflects flamenco’s specific tradition of duende — the authentic, unmediated emotional spirit that animates genuine flamenco performance — applied to the question of how a non-Spanish musician achieves authentic flamenco expression.
