Omar Rodríguez-López THE CLOUDS HILL TAPES Part I, II & III These recordings of three sessions dating from the years 2018/ 2019 and taken at the Clouds Hill Studio are now being published digitally and as a 3-LP vinyl box set. Part I features eight pieces, and Parts II and III six pieces each, which have been entirely newly arranged, produced by Johann Scheerer, and performed by Omar Rodríguez-López and a range of guest musicians. Only very few songwriters and arrangers have succeeded in leaving their mark on several generations with their compositions and their performances. Omar Rodríguez-López is one of these exceptional artists. Just hearing his name brings a shine to the eyes of aficionados of hard or virtuoso or cosmic music. Listening to his music you can feel it: This is someone who completely abandons himself to his art – and someone with an incredible amount of knowledge about the depth of possibility guitar music can explore. During the 2000s Omar Rodríguez-López released an astonishing variety of solo works. On these recordings the artist used pieces that had accumulated over the years. However, what has so far been missing is a release that brings together the pieces from that era. This wait now has come to an end for here are THE CLOUDS HILL TAPES, Part I – III featuring 20 tracks that present his music in a new light. Omar Rodríguez-López has long considered the Hamburg Clouds Hill studio his creative second home. He has known the producer Johann Scheerer for 15 years and they are close friends as well as creative partners. “Johann is great at what he does. What makes him truly special is his instinct. This helps him find most interesting sounds, make the right decision”, is how Omar Rodríguez-López describes it. Whenever the two meet, a shared creative process ensues immediately. This is just what happened at the end of 2018: Really, Omar Rodríguez-López had come to Hamburg as a visitor at the Clouds Hill Festival, but Johann Scheerer invited him to use free studio capacity for a session in which to re-record outstanding pieces from the previous solo albums. “We got the band together, rehearsed for two days – and then we ran the tapes”, Omar Rodríguez –López recalls. These original tapes can incidentally be seen on the covers of the three albums resulting from the sessions. THE CLOUDS HILL TAPES will be one of the reference works in the musical cosmos of this unique artist.