Arli Liberman (; born 1986) is an Israeli born New Zealand composer, guitarist and music producer. He plays in many genres and is especially known for his vibrant, immersive live performances and musical experiences for feature and television scores. His production process is uninhibited and collaborative, often working with directors during script development through to the early stages of post-production prior to final score itself.

Career

Arli began guitar at 13 years old and at 16 began working as a session guitarist with a variety of recording artists in Israel at which time he was discovered and then mentored by gold and platinum selling English record producer and bassist Mark Smulian. From the 2005 to 2009 Arli was a key member of the Whiteflag Project – one of the Middle East's first

world The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

fusion

cross-over Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Music Albums * ''Cross Over'' (album), a 1987 album by Dan Peek, or the title song * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'', an album by Intrigue * ''Crossover'', an album by ...

bands made up of

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

and Israeli musicians. At this time he began his journey into

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

, textural manipulation of his music through his unique analogue sound rig. Arli also co-produced, edited and played on Whiteflag Project's album ''Talk'' released by

Phonag Records Phonag Records is a major record label in Switzerland based in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded in 1960 as Phonag Schallplatten AG later renamed Records AG. In 2007, Phonag Records AG was taken over by TBA AG with Phonag remaining an independe ...

in 2005. In 2009 Arli moved permanently to New Zealand, working initially as a guitarist and producer, releasing three solo albums
Arli Liberman
an
Fata Morgana
an
Allegra
published b
Marigold Music
During this period, his original work developed into the

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

and

genres, leading to performances worldwide at

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, WOW, the worldwide mass mediations of Wonderlust along with the meditation ap
1 Giant Mind
In 2018 Arli joine
Dusty Road
agency in Auckland and is represented by Bruce Everett for film and television score commissions. His first full-length feature film for director Sam Kelly and producer Vicky Pope,
Savage
was released by Madman Entertainment in September 2020.

Personal life

Arli Liberman, the youngest of six children, was born in

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

, Israel, to Zvi and Michal Liberman. Due to his severe dyslexia, at 13 he was sent to Shafririm School in Givat Haim, where they discovered his gift for music. His partner is French photographer and director
Jen Raoult
and they live in Titirangi, New Zealand with Coco her daughter.

Musical Collaboration

Whiteflag Project performed at various festivals worldwide such as the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...

in Switzerland and the Creation of Peace Festival in Russia. In 2005, Whiteflag Project went on to create an award-winning documentary ''Playing with the Enemy'' broadcast live on National Swiss Television. In 2008 the band made an appearance for

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

and in 2008 they performed at the Global Peace Festival. In 2007 Liberman was on the production team and played guitar for the world music project called ''Ras Hasatan – A Sinai Journey'' where 50 musicians from all over the world came together in the Sinai Desert,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and created a unique world music album – featuring Israeli artist

Mosh Ben-Ari Moshe "Mosh" Ben-Ari (; born 21 September 1970) is an Israeli musician, lyricist, and composer. Biography Ben-Ari was born in Afula, Israel, to a family of Mizrahi Jewish background. He first discovered music as a child through the traditional ...

– one of the songs went to the compilation album Putumayo. At the age of 17 he performed with one of Israel's most prolific artists

Shalom Hanoch Shalom Hanoch (; born September 1, 1946) is an Israeli rock singer, lyricist and composer. He is considered one of the founders of Israeli rock and modern Israeli music in more generally, both of which have been profoundly influenced by his w ...

who is considered to be the father of Israeli rock. Arli and Shalom Live 2004

Since 2008 he has been a member of the band Zaviot – one of Israel's premier jazz groups. Zaviot was the most successful, original jazz group in Israel during the 1980s with performances worldwide – featuring

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

player Harold Rubin. Zaviot performed in the first

Red Sea Jazz Festival The Red Sea Jazz Festival is a jazz festival held annually in Eilat, Israel. The Red Sea Jazz Festival was first held in 1987. It is a four-day-long event featuring 9-10 concerts per evening, 6 workshops with guest artists and nightly jam session ...

and won an award for the most original Israeli jazz group.

Artistic style

Liberman's signature sound is a blend of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Middle Eastern The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

influences from a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

perspective. He specializes in unique tones and phrasing, eastern

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

, alternate chord voicings, song arrangement and

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

looping. In contrast with many players his

effects Effect may refer to: * A result or change of something ** List of effects ** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality Pharmacy and pharmacology * Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug ** Therapeutic effect, ...

enhance the music rather than his playing. He is constantly experimenting with new sounds through spontaneity and originality while being innovative and progressive through

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

and

expression Expression may refer to: Linguistics * Expression (linguistics), a word, phrase, or sentence * Expression (mathematics), Symbolic description of a mathematical object * Fixed expression, a form of words with a specific meaning * Idiom, a type of ...

Discography

Soundtracks

* 2024 - '' Ka Whawhai Tonu'' (Original Feature Film) Directed by Mike Jonathan (Co-composed with Tiki Taane) * 2024 - ''The Mountain'' (Original Feature Film) Directed by Rachel House (Original Score with music by Troy Kingi) * 2023 - Stylebender (Documentary Film) Directed by Zoe McIntosh * 2022 - Dame Valerie Adams: MORE THAN GOLD (Documentary Film) Directed by Briar March * 2022 - Moko (TV Series) * 2021 - Datsun (Original Short Film) Directed by Mark Albiston * 2021 - Washday (Original Short Film) Directed by Kath Akuhata-Brown * 2020 - Purea (Original Short Film) Directed by Kath Akuhata-Brown * 2019 - Savage (Original Feature Film) Directed by Sam Kelly * 2019 - Ways to See (Original Short Film) Directed by Jessica Sanderson

Solo

* 2013 – ''Arli Liberman '' – Self-titled * 2015 - ''Fata Morgana'' * 2016 - ''Allegra''

Collaborations

* 2005 – ''Whiteflag – Exile'' – Guitarist * 2005 – ''Shai Naus – The Time has Come'' – Guitarist, editor & recording engineer * 2006 – ''Eyal Kofman – One second before'' – Guitarist * 2006 – ''Chuloo – Oldspice'' – Guitarist * 2006 – ''Har Ephraim '' – Guitarist & co-producer * 2006 – ''Amir Estline – Reflections'' – Guitarist, recording engineer, editor & co-producer * 2006 – ''SoulJa '' – Recording engineer * 2007 – ''Anger Boys '' – Guitarist * 2007 – ''Nagoa '' – Editor & assistant sound engineer * 2007 – ''Theatre Broadway Manhattan, NY '' – Editor, recording engineer & sound engineer * 2007 – ''

Rockfour Rockfour () is a psychedelic rock band, formed in 1988 in Holon, Israel. Most of their catalog is in English, and they regularly tour the United States. History Early years Rockfour began writing and performing in Hebrew, and in 1991 released ...

– Memories of the never happened'' – Editor & assistant sound engineer * 2007 – ''Ras Hasatan (A Sinai Journey) '' – Guitarist, co-producer, sound engineer & editor * 2008 – ''Kol Ha Ella (Voice of the Goddess)'' – Guitarist & editor * 2008 – ''

Rami Kleinstein Rami Kleinstein (; born 10 November 1962) is an Israeli singer and composer. Early and personal life Kleinstein was born in New York City to a family of Ashkenazi Jews in 1962. In 1968, they immigrated to Israel. After a year, the family moved ba ...

'' Tribute song for

Gilad Shalit Gilad Shalit (, ''Gilˁad Šaliṭ'' ; born 28 August 1986) is a former MIA soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who, on 25 June 2006, was captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid via tunnels near the Israeli border. Ham ...

– Sound engineer * 2009 – ''Adi Dagan'' – Guitarist & assistant sound engineer * 2009 – '' Whiteflag Project – Talk'' – Guitarist, co-producer & editor * 2012 – ''Ngatapa Black – I Muri Ahiahi'' – Producer, arranger & guitarist – Nominated Best Maori Album of the Year at the

New Zealand Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant that ...

2013)

TV/film appearances

*2005 — Playing With The Enemy – with Whiteflag Project *2012 — Neighbourhood – Satellite Media

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberman, Arli Progressive rock guitarists Israeli guitarists Israeli composers Lead guitarists Israeli rock guitarists 1986 births Jewish Israeli musicians Israeli record producers Living people 21st-century guitarists Musicians from Beersheba