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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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). 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