Saturday, 17 October 2026

New: “The Paradox of Simultaneity”

How can tracks recorded alone, one after another, sound like a band improvising together? A study of Harry Pepl’s home studio recordings, with signal and listening analysis.

Black-and-white photo: Harry Pepl sits in his home studio with an Ibanez semi-hollow electric guitar and looks at the fingerboard with a smile; behind him shelves with archive boxes, a pair of headphones on a hook, a tape recorder on the left. — Harry Pepl in the home studio with an Ibanez guitarPhoto: musical estate, private collection

“The Paradox of Simultaneity” opens the series Research Notes. It looks at Harry Pepl’s recordings of the Lonely Single Swinger Band from his home studio in Hernstein, Lower Austria, Austria: Pepl recorded the tracks alone and one after another, and yet the music sounds like a band improvising together. The text draws on jazz and music research by Paul Berliner, Ingrid Monson, Alfred Schütz, Glenn Gould, Philip Auslander and George Lewis, shows a signal analysis of “Volume One” and “Nach Saalfelden” in graphics and, since 18 October 2026, Daniel Pepl’s listening analysis: who plays when and where the sound changes. A detailed version is available as a PDF in German, English and French. Read the article