Press archive
What was written and broadcast about Harry Pepl: reviews, portraits, interviews and obituaries, with summary and source. The originals are protected by copyright and kept in the archive; we provide them to researchers and the press on request.
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December 1998 · Report · DE
Das Waldviertel, Jahrgang 47, Heft 4 (p. 408): Kulturpreise des Landes Niederösterreich 1998 (nach NÖ Landeskorrespondenz, 22.10.1998)
List of the prizewinners of the 1998 culture prizes of the state of Lower Austria (award of the State of Lower Austria for the arts and culture), based on a release from the NÖ Landeskorrespondenz of 22 October 1998. In the music category Harry Pepl receives the prize of honour, while Friedrich Keil and Elisabeth Schimana receive recognition prizes.
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Music: Harry Pepl (prize of honour), Friedrich Keil and Elisabeth Schimana (recognition prizes)
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April 1998 · Interview · DE
Concerto (music magazine), issue 2/1998: „Man könnte Klavierspielen müssen“
Martin Schuster
Interview in the Café Museum in Vienna, conducted in connection with the solo piano CD “Flow”.
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Pepl talks about his beginnings, the Jazzzwio, the brief engagement with Benny Goodman, Real-time Composing and MIDI technology, and announces reissues of “Gegenwind” and “Montreux 81”.
I wanted you to be able to hear the room on the CD as well.
Harry Pepl
My main problem is my high blood pressure. Another contradiction: on the outside I may seem calm, but inside it races around in me like mad.
Talking to Martin Schuster of the Austrian music magazine Concerto in 1998, at the Café Museum in Vienna, around the time of his piano album “Flow”. Pepl speaks openly and with self-irony about the blood pressure that kept him off the stage from 1994/95, and about the contrast between outward calm and inner high voltage
Harry Pepl
I am a man of contrasts, often very funny or ironic and then very sad again. You can probably hear that in my playing too
Talking to Martin Schuster (Concerto, an Austrian music magazine) at the Café Museum in Vienna in 1998; the interviewer describes how Pepl speaks in a deep, gentle voice, giggles at a bon mot and turns serious again the next moment
Harry Pepl
For me music means emotions and memories. And even when I play something I don’t much like, my blood pressure goes up, because then it gets on my nerves.
In Concerto in 1998, about the guitar, which he did not touch for a long time after 1994 because he feared the excitement; „auf den Wecker gehen“ (literally “to get on one’s alarm clock”) is colloquial German for “to get on one’s nerves”, and the remark is self-ironic. At the piano he then found a new freedom
Harry Pepl
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1998 · Encyclopaedia · DE
Kulturpreis Niederösterreich (Preisträgerdatenbank des Landes): „Bewusster Grenzgänger“ (Harry Pepl, Würdigungspreis 1998 Musik)
Tribute text for the 1998 prize of honour for music. It traces Pepl as a boundary-crosser between jazz and New Music, from the Austrian Evergreens via the Fledermaus bar and the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster) and the professorship in Graz to composing in real time.
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Exploring the limits was obviously always his endeavour.
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1996 · Press release · DE
information sheet (press kit, 5 pages): Infos Harry PEPL
Undated biographical information sheet, produced in 1996 at the earliest.
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It contains a short biography, collaborations, festivals and a discography, the method of Real-time Composing and a list of works with premieres for Ensemble Wien, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, Kronos Quartet, STUDIO PERCUSSION and Artis-Quartett.
has come to the fore since 1984 as a composer of European contemporary art music
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8 June 1994 · Other · SK
Hudobný život (Slovak music magazine): Nr. 11: „Infojazz č. 2/94“, Abschnitt „Súťaže, dielne a festivaly v zahraničí“ (Wettbewerbe, Workshops und Festivals im Ausland)
Yvetta Lábska (Slovak Jazz Society)
The jazz page of the Slovak Jazz Society reports on the jazz festival in Raab, Upper Austria, Austria, from 20 to 23 May 1994 (Whitsun), with the Brecker Brothers, the quintet of Archie Shepp and Arthur Blythe, Jack DeJohnette, the Ray Anderson Quartet, the Dave Holland Quartet, David Murray, Randy Weston and others, including Harry Pepl in a duo with Jack DeJohnette.
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Jazz Festival Raab, 20 to 23 May 1994 (Whitsun). At the festival in Austria, the performers included […] Harry Pepl in a duo with Jack de Johnette
Short news item from the Slovak Jazz Society on the jazz page of the Slovak music magazine “Hudobný život” of June 1994 about the jazz festival in Raab, Upper Austria, Austria (today INNtöne), at Whitsun 1994; “Jack de Johnette” as printed
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27 May 1994 · Review · DE
Der Standard: „Der Groove-Professor gibt sich recht unberechenbar“
Ljubiša Tošić
Record review of “N.Y.C. Impressure”: the funky rhythm section plays flat out, and after years dominated by play with sound, Pepl’s guitar is again recognisable as a guitar sound, with the MIDI guitar serving only as an atmospheric addition.
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Tošić hears a groovy affair with a rock-style distorted tone and highly individual phrasing; sound quality very good.
On N.Y.C. Impressure his guitar sound is once again recognisable as such.
Of course his phrasing is once again highly individual, which means: appealing and pleasantly unpredictable.
And so it may well happen that the guitar professor shines with a rock-distorted sound.
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7 May 1994 · Review · DE
Salzburger Nachrichten: „Verständigungen über den Gartenzaun“ (Jazz-Gitarristen: Harry Pepls Comeback, Ray Cooder, Doctor Blocher, Bill Frisell)
Wolfgang Gratzer
Short review of the new album: the reviewer writes that Pepl, one of the continent’s most individual guitarists, is stepping out of his seclusion with his quartet recorded in New York (Claus Stöttner, Paul Nowinski, Jojo Mayer).
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Thanks to cleverly pre-planned pieces and compelling solos, the author counts the record among the most exciting things produced in Austria in recent years.
The Viennese Harry Pepl, who counts among the most distinctive guitarists on the continent
is among the most exciting things produced in this country in recent years.
recorded an album which, thanks to its so cleverly conceived tracks, ploughed through with compelling solos, ranks among the most exciting things produced in this country in recent years.
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20 April 1994 · Other · DE
Österreichische Mediathek, Katalog (online): „Harry Pepl Quartet 20.04.1994 (1)“ (unveröffentlichte Aufnahme)
The Österreichische Mediathek (Austrian Mediathek), Austria’s archive of sound and video recordings at the Technisches Museum Wien, lists an unreleased recording of the Harry Pepl Quartet of Wednesday, 20 April 1994, recorded at the Orpheum in Graz, Austria, that is, at the concert of the Graz Meeting “Strings”. It is on compact cassette (shelf mark 6-69528) and can only be heard on site at the Mediathek in Vienna. The catalogue names only Harry Pepl (guitar); according to the Austrian news agency APA, the quartet played with Wolfgang Puschnig.
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1994 · Radio · DE
Ö1, „Aus dem Konzertsaal“ (live recording, in der Österreichischen Mediathek): „Aus dem Konzertsaal: Graz Meeting 1994 (2)“
Jörg-Martin Willnauer (presenting)
Jazz broadcast by Ö1, ORF’s cultural radio station, from the Graz Meeting 1994, featuring among others the Harry Pepl Quartet according to the catalogue of the Österreichische Mediathek (Austrian Mediathek), and presented by Jörg-Martin Willnauer.
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The recording is on compact cassette (shelf mark 6-69955) and can only be heard on site at the Mediathek in Vienna; the catalogue does not give the broadcast date. The quartet played at the Graz Meeting on Wednesday, 20 April 1994, at the Orpheum in Graz, Austria.
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1994 · Other
Amadeo, Vienna (CD-Booklet, 523 570-2): Abstract Truth: „Beginnings“ (Booklet)
Booklet of the CD “Beginnings” with all eight tracks, timings, composers and line-ups: Harry Pepl (guitar, guitar synthesiser), John Purcell (tenor saxophone, flute, saxello), Kenny Davis (bass), Ronnie Burrage (drums, synthesiser), Paul Zauner (trombone).
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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.
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1994 · Review · DE
magazine (title not preserved), record review: Harry Pepl Quartet: „N.Y.C. Impressure“
Record review of “N.Y.C. Impressure” (Extraplatte (Vienna independent label) EX 203-2, recorded 6/92 at the Active Recording Studio, New York): according to the review, Pepl, a native of Lower Austria, has been experimenting with the MIDI guitar for years, and his new hobbyhorse is real-time composing. The album is said to reflect the mood, colours and rhythmic density of New York, realised with Claus Stötter, Paul Nowinski and Jojo Mayer. Rating (8).
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The Lower Austrian Harry Pepl loves the battle with “Bits and Bytes”.
His latest hobby-horse goes by the name of “real-time-composing”.
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6 May 1993 · Programme booklet · DE
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, programme booklet, Brahms-Saal (Vienna Spring Festival 1993, Artis Quartet, concert 3): Artis-Quartett mit Stefan Vladar, Donnerstag, 6. Mai 1993, 19.30 Uhr
editor: Joachim Reiber
Programme booklet for the evening with Beethoven (Op. 18/4), the world premiere of Pepl’s string quartet “Über kurz oder lang, von der Weite und der Enge” and Brahms’s Piano Quintet.
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The discussion of the work lists commissions, festivals and awards and describes the quartet, written in February 1993, in three parts. The ORF (Austria's public broadcaster) broadcast the concert on Ö1 (the ORF's cultural radio channel) on 12 May.
from Pepl one may only expect the unexpected
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December 1992 · Report · DE
Jazzlive (vol. 10, no. 99/1992): Titelbild Harry Pepl; „Soundknitting. Die farbenfrohen Klangmuster der New Yorker Knitting Factory“
Hannes Schweiger (article); Rainer Rygalyk (cover photo)
The Viennese jazz magazine shows Harry Pepl on its cover, photographed by the publisher Rainer Rygalyk.
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In the issue, Hannes Schweiger describes the history and programme of the New York club Knitting Factory (New York music club for jazz and the avant-garde) and reports that in summer 1992 Pepl played there for an evening with his quartet (Klaus Stötter, Paul Nowinski, JoJo Mayer). Pepl describes how the pace of New York changed the way he plays.
I noticed myself that I play completely differently there than at home.
On his performance at the Knitting Factory, New York’s avant-garde club, in summer 1992
Harry Pepl
The ambience of the club is rather plain. Playing there was really an experience.
On the Knitting Factory, New York’s avant-garde club, where he played in summer 1992
Harry Pepl
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17 July 1992 · Other
Pori Jazz, festival archive (online): Festival years 1992: John Purcell´s Blue Brass Connection
The online archive of Pori Jazz (jazz festival in Pori, Finland, held every year since 1966 and one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe) lists, for the 27th festival from Saturday, 11 to Sunday, 19 July 1992, the band “John Purcell´s Blue Brass Connection” with Harry Pepl (guitar), John Purcell (saxophone), Graham Haynes (trumpet), Ron Burton (piano), Kenny Davis (bass), Ronnie Burrage (drums) and Paul Zauner (trombone). Three performances are listed: Friday, 17 July 1992, on the main stage at Kirjurinluoto in the programme starting at 5 pm, the same evening at the Village Gate, and Saturday, 18 July 1992, at the Nuorisokeskus (youth centre). For the same Kirjurinluoto programme the daily schedule also lists Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band and the Hammond line-up of Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff. Pepl appears in the archive only in this year.
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2 April 1992 · Other
Knitting Factory Works, New York (letter): Einladung an das Harry Pepl Quartet für den 2. Juni 1992
Michael Dorf, Director
Letter from the Knitting Factory to Harry Pepl in Hernstein: on behalf of the club management, Michael Dorf invites the Harry Pepl Quartet to perform on 2 June 1992 at 11 p.m. at the club, which he describes as the first venue for avant-garde jazz in New York.
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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.
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1991 · Portrait · DE
Kulturpreis des Landes Niederösterreich (Broschüre 1991, Preisträgerdatenbank): „Spontane Klangerlebnisse“ (Anerkennungspreis 1991, Sparte Musik)
Tribute text from the 1991 culture prize brochure on the Lower Austrian Recognition Prize in the music category, now online in the state's database of prizewinners.
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It presents Pepl as a professor in Graz and a composer in demand: a piece for the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet is about to be premiered in Graz in the autumn of 1991, another for the Artis Quartet is planned. For two years he has been composing with his “instant” or “real-time composing”. Pepl admires Mozart, Schoenberg's piano works and Giacinto Scelsi, and has analysed the rhythmic precision of a Bach recording by Glenn Gould on his computer. The text also mentions his two years at Gerhard Bronner's “Fledermaus” bar, the ORF Big Band (ORF: Austria's public broadcaster), several wins in the Jazz Live readers' poll and Le Monde calling him a “giant of improvisation”.
It is hard to place Harry Pepl anywhere musically, and strictly speaking it is not even necessary.
Pepl, and he leaves no doubt about this in this conversation either, is a musician of the moment.
the leading French newspaper Le Monde crowned him, without further ado, a “giant of improvisation”
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27 February 1990 · Programme booklet · DE
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, programme booklet, Brahms-Saal (special society concert): Komponistenportrait Harry Pepl, Dienstag, 27. Februar 1990, 19.30 Uhr
editor: Teresa Hrdlicka
Programme booklet for the composer portrait with the Ensemble Kontrapunkte under Peter Keuschnig, with Christine Whittlesey, Pepl on guitar and guitar-to-MIDI system, Josef Pitzek and Rainer Keuschnig; the piano sound comes from the Bösendorfer (Vienna piano maker) computer grand piano. Fifteen pieces were played. The note on the work explains “Instant composing” and names “Grogos” as a commission from the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (the Vienna Musikverein, historic concert hall of the Society of Friends of Music).
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free process of composition, in which the work is already fixed in writing at the very moment in which it is invented
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February 1990 · Report · DE
Tschin Bumm (music magazine, technology column, p. 52): „Harry Pepl im Studio: Das Bösendorfer-Projekt“
Studio report on the recordings for “Schönberg Improvations” (PolyGram) at the SingSang studio in Vienna: six studio days, pieces averaging 15 minutes with borrowings from Arnold Schoenberg, entirely without guitar tone, on the Bösendorfer (Vienna piano maker) computer grand piano, with David Liebman, Mino Cinelu and Wolfgang Reisinger. Pepl had played in the parts at home on the Roland MIDI guitar; the studio head Richie Österreicher jr. explains the technology. Only page 52 has survived; the continuation is missing from the scan.
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Harry Pepl is a man like Albert Einstein, a genius whom probably only a handful of people can still follow in his work.
Richie Österreicher jr.
The latest LP by the guitarist, acclaimed worldwide, is: a piano record.
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1990 · Other
Amadeo (CD-Booklet): Liner Notes und Credits zu „Schönberg Improvations“
Harry Lachner
Harry Lachner's English booklet text for the CD “Schönberg Improvations” (Amadeo 843 086-2, PolyGram Vienna, 1990).
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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