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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11 June 1984 · Other · DE
moers festival, festival archive (online): Archiv 1980 bis 1989: 11. Juni 1984, Eissporthalle
For the festival from Friday 8 to Whit Monday 11 June 1984, the online archive of the moers festival (international festival for jazz and improvised music in Moers, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) lists “Airmail (AUT)” on the last day in the ice rink hall, with Wolfgang Puschnig, Karl “Bumi” Fian, Mike Richmond and Wolfgang Reisinger, on the same evening as Pension Winnetou, Yoshiaki Fujikawa & Eastasia Orchestra and the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet. Pepl is not listed in this line-up; according to Nikolaus Kohler he played.
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20 June 1986 · Report · DE
Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, no. 25: „Jazz-Formation »Air Mail« gastiert in Landeck“
Preview in the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck (Tyrol, Austria), a local paper delivered to every household in the district, of Air Mail's concert on Thursday, 19 June 1986, at 8.30 p.m. at the Hotel Sonne in Landeck, the last before the summer break. The band's profile gives 1984 as the year it was founded and names its international debut at the New Jazz Festival Moers and at festivals in Cologne and Warsaw, the LP “Prayer for Peace” (1985) and the tour in May and June 1986 through Switzerland, Germany, France and Austria with the festivals in Coutances, Amiens, Maur near Zurich and Neuwied, as well as invitations to Istanbul, Ankara and Basel. It adds four press quotes in English, Polish, French and German, without naming the publications, and a group photo by Rainer Rygalyk.
“Air Mail”, one of the best contemporary quartets on the European jazz scene, is coming to town.
A much-noticed international debut at the “New Jazz Festival Moers” and at the festivals in Cologne and Warsaw.
Air Mail was the most enjoya[ble] discovery of the festival
English-language press quote on a festival appearance by Air Mail, publication and year not named; the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper in Tyrol, printed it in 1986 before the concert at the Hotel Sonne. The addition in square brackets fills the cut-off margin of the print.
an ideal jazz quartet … in the same breath we cite the example of John Coltrane's quartet of the 1960s
Polish press quote, publication and year not named; it compares Air Mail with John Coltrane's quartet of the 1960s. The Polish wording is given as printed in the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck in 1986, with copying errors and additions at the margin in square brackets.
Air Mail is establishing itself as one of the most exciting quartets on the European scene.
French-language press quote, publication and year not named; the original wording is given as printed in the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck in 1986.
A music that does justice to a trait of the times, an artistic togetherness to whose wholeness each contributes his own independent and irreplaceable share.
German-language press quote on Air Mail, publication and year not named; as printed in the Gemeindeblatt für den Bezirk Landeck, a local paper in Tyrol, in 1986.
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8 March 1988 · Report · DE
APA-Basisdienst (Austria Presse Agentur), Rubrik APA JAZZ NEWS: „Jazz aus Österreich“
initials „hmf/fwi/ca“
Record column on Austrian jazz: Air Mail with Wolfgang Puschnig, Harry Pepl, Wolfgang Reisinger and Mike Richmond, successful abroad as well, releases “Light Blues” on PolyGram. “Cracked Mirrors” with Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen was initiated and co-financed by the Graz arts association gamsbART and taken over by ECM (the renowned European jazz label).
“Cracked Mirrors” is the name of the LP featuring the three jazz musicians in truly outstanding form.
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September 1988 · Programme booklet · DE
Jazz Festival Willisau, Programmheft 1988: „Jazz in Willisau: Coming Dates“
On p. 110, under “Jazz in Willisau: Coming Dates”, the programme of the 14th Jazz Festival Willisau (canton of Lucerne, Switzerland) of 1 to 4 September 1988 announces a double concert by Airmail (Harry Pepl, Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond, Wolfgang Reisinger) and Depart (Harry Sokal, Heiri Känzig, Jojo Meyer) for Saturday, 3 December 1988, at 8 p.m. at the Mohren. According to the concert list, poster and press documentation of the Willisau Jazz Archive, the Ray Anderson Quartet played that evening; whether Air Mail's concert was cancelled or postponed is not known.
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2001 · Review · DE
Concerto (music magazine), issue 5/2001, p. 54: „Fünf Variationen österreichischer Jazzkunst“ (Austrian Jazzart)
Jörg Weitlaner
Joint review of the first five CDs of Universal Music’s Austrian Jazzart series (reissues of Austrian jazz albums). First comes “Light Blues” by Air Mail, the quartet’s second and last record, with Wolfgang Puschnig, Wolfgang Reisinger and Mike Richmond. Pepl describes the band’s “telepathic understanding”; the review quotes from the liner notes (by Andreas Felber according to Discogs) his playing “marked by rough, jagged cascades of notes” and highlights the then still young MIDI technology. For Wolfgang Puschnig’s “Pieces Of The Dream” (No. 5) Pepl is named among the duo partners.
playing marked by rough, jagged cascades of notes
Andreas Felber
The interplay of the whole band, in which we had developed a telepathic understanding, was what made Airmail special for me.
Looking back in 2001 on his quartet Air Mail
Harry Pepl
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10 September 2026 · Other · DE
Facebook (Thomas Palme): „...noch eine Harry Pepl Story zu seinem heutigen 81 Geburtstag“
Thomas Palme
Public Facebook post by the Viennese jazz and blues guitarist Thomas Palme for Harry Pepl's 81st birthday with a memory of an Air Mail concert (Wolfgang Puschnig, Mike Richmond, Wolfgang Reisinger) at the Titanic, a fashionable club at the time in the Theobaldgasse in Vienna, Austria, in the 1980s or early 1990s: when the power failed in the middle of the set, Pepl played a Wes Montgomery tune by candlelight, all alone and acoustically, and the room fell silent and reverent. Photo in the original post: Andreas Mayer.
An anecdote that shows how deeply Pepl, despite his modern, highly virtuosic guitar playing, was also rooted in the jazz guitar tradition
to this day a very vivid memory of one of Austria's greatest jazz guitarists