Otar came from a distinctly classical and folk infused musical background. As the grandson of famed Georgian composer Otar V. Taktakishvili (1924-1989), he classically trained under his grandfather’s guidance, and received several years of piano instruction from his aunt, Ia Paatashvili. After his parents settled near Iowa City during the mid-`90s burly up-rise of the American folk/blues/grunge, Otar picked up a guitar and began the performer’s venture into song-writing. Forming The Gglitch together with Brian Cretzmeyer & Ty Byerly in 1997, Otar songwriting helped define the band’s energetic brand of hard jamming folk/funk/oompa/rock that had Midwest audiences dancing through the night. In addition to live bootlegs from their often wild shows, The Gglitch released Scenes from the Good Life (2008), and Rosie's Big Day (2011), a posthumous remembrance of Brian’s recorded works played on “Rosie,” his beloved Rhodes piano. After years of acclimating in a New York medical residency, which began in 2008, Spectrum took shape during the late off-hours between work-shifts. “I started to realize each song was creating a sort of dialogue with changes going on in my life. I was grieving the loss of my best friend, Brian...I was adjusting to a new place far from home, reluctantly letting go of old relationships, but trying to stay open to new ones, and all the while, becoming an Emergency Medicine physician. I suppose, music was my spiritual crutch, and beyond just a nostalgia of my carefree years in Iowa, it became a healing force that kept my mind and spirit clear. This album, as well as the song Spectrum, came from that magical place between wakefulness and sleep, where a lot of my musical ideas seem to emerge”. Recent review - "These startlingly unhinged, funhouse wizards have created a beautifully packaged, 2-CD set entitled "Scenes from the Good Life" that well may be the most amazing local recording EVER. The core quintet can play anything, and the performances are brilliantly recorded. The astonishing Otar Taktakishvili (guitars, vocals and studio) shares writing/siging credits with Ty Byerly and Brian Cretzmeyer, and the groups collective ethos boggles the imagination with a mix of Bonzo Dog Band, Zappa, Celitic folk, Holy Modal Rounders, vaudevillian Kinks, the Dead, and disconnected 'White Album' Beatles and hill-coutry granola. the GgLITCH are awesome and deserve yer love." --Jim Musser of the Daily Iowan.