Press archive

The album “Live at H15 Studio” by the Kresten Osgood Quintet (ILK Music), on which Pepl’s piece “The Halleys Comet - Light Blue Blues” can be heard, was named Jazz Release of the Year. The text itself does not mention Pepl.

The album, it says, is the most idiosyncratic of the ECM records of its time and hard to classify; Pepl breaks the material into a thousand pieces.

If you're Harry Pepl, you bust it into a thousand pieces and shoot it into the ether.

Cracked Mirrors … is easily the oddest of the bunch, a nearly unclassifiable record.

Track 2 is “The Halleys Comet - Light Blue Blues” by Harry Pepl; the album was named Jazz Release of the Year at the Danish Music Awards Jazz (Danish jazz awards) in 2024.

he went into the studio with Austrian guitar master Harry Pepl and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen to record ‘Cracked Mirrors’

Müller first met Pepl in 1984 at an Air Mail concert in Vienna. He describes the Jazzzwio and the time with Benny Goodman, the making of the “Schönberg Improvations”, whose idea Pepl brought to his office, and the solo piano record “Flow” from 1996, recorded without corrections. Some biographical details, such as his birth and the start of his teaching in Graz, differ from the documented sources.

a very humble, charismatic and private person with a great sense of humour. Someone who was constantly looking for new ideas

While Harry was building his reputation as one of Europe’s most interesting and unique guitarists

He swings like hell

Harry Pepl on Benny Goodman

Musically, I still find this album exciting, challenging and powerful.

Harry sat down at the piano, which he never really learned to play, nor practised, and plays, let’s the music flow through him.

After a few moments I don’t feel time anymore. An emotion of happiness floats through me and the sounds stream on their own

Harry Pepl

the most spectacular record of one of the most original guitar players of European Jazz in those years

Andreas Felber

The godfather of all Austrian jazz guitar players, a legend

Asked about Austrian role models, he names, besides Joe Zawinul, his teacher Harry Pepl: an important guitarist with a sound of his own, a heavy player with a great sense of time, to him an international figure with his own voice.

There was also an important guitar player by the name of Harry Pepl, who was my teacher. He had a unique sound and was a heavy player, with a great sense of time.

Wolfgang Muthspiel

I think he was an international figure and definitely had his own voice.

Wolfgang Muthspiel

And not to forget the fourth concert: Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner.

Christian Muthspiel

The author discovered Pepl in 1986 on the ECM (the renowned European jazz label) album “Volver” by Enrico Rava and Dino Saluzzi: his sound recalled Metheny, but with a harder attack and a freer sensibility. He recommends “Cracked Mirrors”, which still sounds fresh today.

His chorused sound and fluidity were reminiscent of Metheny, but his attack was harder and his sensibility was decidedly more “out.”

Check out “Cracked Mirror” to hear how his playing in 1988 sounds fresh even today.

For 2008 it lists his leadership of the Porgy & Bess (Vienna jazz club) stage band Studio Dan and the Harry Pepl Prize 2008.

He is an interesting musician to check out, especially in the rhythmical field.

Wolfgang Muthspiel

After readers objected, Grillo writes, he kept returning to the album and had not initially given it the attention it needed. He now highlights the depth of Pepl's talent, the interplay between Pepl and Pirchner as the core of the trio and Pepl's solos, and calls the record “this curious little gem”; only on the processing of the Ovation guitar does he stand by his first opinion.

I simply did not give this date the attention it deserves.

The depth of Pepl’s talent, now that I’m more familiar with it, is immediately evident in the spaciousness of his evocations.

The reviewer calls the album a far better showcase for Pepl’s innovative playing than the ECM record with Pirchner and DeJohnette and highlights Joos’s “Wolkenbilder”, the MIDI passages and Pepl’s piano on the closing piece. The page shows 18 July 2021 as the date of the update. Here Grillo himself calls his first impression of the album with Pirchner and DeJohnette “faulty impressions”.

a far better showcase for Pepl’s innovative talents

The chorus effect of the Ovation guitar and the lack of rapport among the three musicians are criticised; Pepl’s solos and the closing piece “Better Times In Sight” are regarded as strengths. The page shows 10 February 2015 as the date of the update. Almost a year later, on 13 November 2012, Grillo revised his verdict in “A second look”.

When soloing, however, it sounds fantastic

Grillo praises the airy, atmospheric sound, Pepl's soft guitar licks in the opening track and the Metheny-like picking in “Loveland”, and calls urgently for a reissue.

The fantastic sax solo and Metheny-esque picking lend even more elegance to the track’s progressive sound.

Lamprecht describes how Mathias Rüegg's orchestra fostered distinct musical personalities who shaped European jazz and contemporary improvised music, and for the 1970s names [Werner Pirchner](person:werner-pirchner), Harry Pepl and [Leszek Zadlo](person:leszek-zadlo).

distinct music personalities, many of whom have helped shape the character of European jazz and contemporary improvised music

The moderator calls him one of Austria's most original jazz guitarists and recalls the Jazzzwio with Werner Pirchner, the ECM (the renowned European jazz label) album with Jack DeJohnette and Air Mail with Mike Richmond.

one of Austria's most original jazz guitarists

Liebman calls Pepl a “groundbreaking guitarist” with whom he recorded several times and recalls their first recording together with the drummer Wolfgang Reisinger: from his guitar, via the computer, Pepl played a Bösendorfer grand piano (Bösendorfer is the Viennese piano maker) whose keys were moving by themselves. He is referring to “Schönberg Improvations” (recorded in November 1989). His verdict: “This was in the 80’s-far ahead!!” In the same section he pays tribute to Shirley Horn, Steve Marcus and Richard Pryor. The page survives only in the Internet Archive.

a groundbreaking guitarist that I had the pleasure to have recorded with several times … He had a Busendorfer piano playing music programmed from his computer-the keys were moving, the sound was a piano but it had come from the guitar. This was in the 80’s-far ahead!!

The American saxophonist Dave Liebman in December 2005, a few weeks after Pepl’s death, in the obituary section of “Intervals”, the newsletter on his website. He recalls recording “Schönberg Improvations” in 1989 with Wolfgang Reisinger: Pepl played a Bösendorfer computer grand piano (Bösendorfer is the Viennese piano maker) from his MIDI guitar, its keys moving by themselves (Liebman spells it “Busendorfer”)

Ferguson calls Pepl “a musician who hears”, who immediately translates what he hears into music from his own fingers and his own voice; on the guitar he is “one of Europe’s undisputed jazz masters”, on the piano a virtual stranger, which is exactly what gives the music its magic. He hears “a dream played awake”, a pure music played without technique, only with musicality and flow, a response to the big black Steinway in the acoustics of the Musikverein, and in it the pianistic heroes Gould, Jarrett, Debussy, Cecil Taylor, Bach, Schoenberg and Schubert. Pepl has the jazz man’s joy of real-time composition; the titles are chosen for personal reasons (childhood, “High Noon”, Gould). It closes with the master of the strings as “a masterly novice full of music”. The booklet also names Ferguson as editor (with Daniel Pepl) and as translator of Georg Pepl’s text. The text is available as a text PDF for signed-in users.

his very own instrument–the guitar–where he is one of Europe’s undisputed jazz masters

Harry Pepl is a musician who hears. He has that seldom gift–to immediately translate what he hears into music coming from his own fingers, into music coming from his own voice.

It is a dream played awake, full of snatches of music, gestures, spaces.

he is simply unafraid of any musical task, and has the jazz man’s joy of real time composition.

Let us simply enjoy the novelty and richness of this master of the strings becoming a novice at the keyboard, a masterly novice full of music, in a fast stream of rhythms and thematic lines, flowing.

It also contains Colette Oswald’s band photo on the Bow Bridge in Central Park, New York, a cover painting by Margit Taus, design by Andreas Ortag, a long list of thanks (state of Upper Austria, Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs, American Music Project, musicians such as George Lewis and Harry Sokal), a remembrance of George Adams and Carter Jefferson and the note “Harry Pepl plays PRS guitars and Tomastik strings”. No recording date is given.

Shortly afterwards the album “N.Y.C. Impressure” was made in New York.

We think this will be an invaluable opportunity to expose your music to a New York audience.

Lachner describes the record's paradox: Pepl, once recognisable by a modified Ovation guitar, later worked with samples on the MIDI guitar; here, however, he plays a real Bösendorfer grand piano from the guitar, and only “The Last Bars Of Mankind” sounds different. He calls this “a most radical use of technology” and quotes Dave Liebman on the urge to go beyond the limits of the instrument. The piano track is completely improvised, inspired by recordings of Arnold Schoenberg's piano works; the lyricism of “Alone Is A Golden Stone” and the trance-like 4/4 groove of “Magnet Resonance” stand amid highly abstract, atonal pieces. It closes with Glenn Gould as another source of inspiration. Plus the credits: recorded in November 1989 at the Sing Sang studio, Vienna, recording engineer Richard Österreicher jun., digital editing “Ton Eichinger”, produced by Harry Pepl, executive producer Wulf Müller, published by Antenna Music; thanks to Peter Lemell and the technicians of Bösendorfer and to AKG; front cover concept Marie-Luise Rausch, photography and design Wolfgang Plenk, booklet photos Fischnaller. The scan lacks one page of text between “(hence” and “deconstruction of old and worn-out musical patterns”.

a most radical use of technology: to play on a midi guitar connected to a computer just to return to a natural, acoustic sound

The simulation is complete, the circle is fullfilled and we should not be puzzled by the technical method but by the musical result.

Austrian guitarist Harry Pepl has gone a long and imperturbable way.

And yet, it is not a sampled sound, it's a Bösendorfer grand piano - played on the guitar.

the lyricism of "Alone Is A Golden Stone", the trance like 4/4 groove of "Magnet Resonance" are organically embedded into a context of highly abstract, atonal pieces.

If you're a great instrumentalist, you want to be able to express anything of the instrument, even beyond the instrument. It's not an instrument any more but an expression.

Dave Liebman

Rava’s contribution to the title track is appropriately subdued, his muted trumpet briefly recalling Miles Davis; Pepl’s guitar adds a great deal to the mood, and the support from Furio Di Castri (bass) and Bruce Ditmas (drums) is understated and exemplary. He recommends the record.

Harry Pepl’s guitar adds greatly to the moody mix

The American critic Edward Strickland in 1988 in Fanfare magazine on the ECM album “Volver” by the Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava and the Argentine bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi (recorded in October 1986), on which Pepl plays guitar

Rockwell heard the first set, 40 minutes long, and found the music pleasant but not significant enough for the opening of a festival series; the evening began about an hour late. The Wednesday of the festival week was 15 May 1985.

relaxed and cool, in the ECM Records manner

Werner Pircher, Harry Pepl, and F. Don Moye as guest play jazz

The opening event on May 15th at the Ohio Theater will be shared by the Jazz Musicians, Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner

Artists from Styria and all over Austria meet with their friends in New York.