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Harry Pepl * 1945  † 2005

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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  1. 18 December 2017 · Review

    Guitar Moderne (Online): „Harry Pepl: The One That Almost Got Away“

    guitar moderne

    Short piece in the American online magazine for adventurous guitarists. 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.

  2. 25 November 2017 · Review · JA

    ジャズCDの個人ページ ECM Blog (kudoecm.blog.jp): „Cracked Mirrors/Harry Pepl(G, G Synth, P)/Herbert Joos(Flh)/Jon Christensen(Ds)(ECM 1356)“

    kudojazz

    Review on the Japanese blog “ジャズCDの個人ページ ECM Blog” (roughly “Personal jazz CD page, ECM blog”), on which the author kudojazz discusses the records of the renowned European jazz label ECM by catalogue number. He lists the recording of February 1987 with Harry Pepl (guitar, guitar synthesizer, piano), the German flugelhorn player Herbert Joos and the Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen, and notes that six of the eight pieces are by Pepl and two (“Wolkenbilder 1” and “Wolkenbilder 2”) by Joos. In his view the album combines passages that sound like free improvisation with pastoral ones, and depending on the piece the Roland MIDI guitar system creates a synthesizer-like expanse. On Pepl’s pieces he notes distinctly free traits with fine riffs and broad synthesizer textures in “Reflections in a Cracked Mirror”, a small ballad with a gentle flugelhorn melody in “Schikaneder Delight”, plenty of space and freedom in “Die alte Mär und das Mann”, very fast, mechanical free playing in “More Far Out Than East”, a melody floating above the jagged guitar in “Purple Light” and a calm, piano-led melody in “Tintenfisch Inki”.

    There are passages that sound like free improvisation and passages that are pastoral.

    kudojazz on his Japanese blog about ECM records, on “Cracked Mirrors” (ECM 1356, recorded in February 1987) with Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen

    Depending on the piece, the Roland MIDI guitar system creates a synthesizer-like expanse.

    kudojazz on the sound of Pepl’s Roland MIDI guitar system on “Cracked Mirrors” (ECM 1356, 1987)

  3. 27 October 2017 · Review · DE

    Passauer Neue Presse (p. 21, local news, Passau city): „G'schmackiger Fusion-Eintopf“ (Gerald Gradwohl Group im Café Museum)

    Christine Pierach

    Concert report on the Gerald Gradwohl Group in Passau, which pays homage to the late Viennese jazz guitarist Harry Pepl. Gradwohl says that Pepl was underrated and that Pepl taught and inspired him; Pepl is a marginal note in the report.