Cracked Mirrors

Harry Pepl / Herbert Joos / Jon Christensen

ECM (the renowned European jazz label) album in a trio with Herbert Joos (flugelhorn) and Jon Christensen (drums); the first album on which Pepl uses the Roland MIDI guitar as a defining voice.

Released: 30 May 1988
Label: ECM Records
Catalogue number: ECM 1356 / 833 472-1 (LP), 833 472-2 (CD)
Formats: LP, CD
Harry Pepl: leader
Project: Pepl / Joos / Christensen
Recording: February 1987, studio in the Wachau (ECM gives Lindner Studio, Furth, Lower Austria, Austria), recorded by Gerhard Tauber; drums added afterwards at Rainbow Studio, Oslo (Norway), mixed by Jan Erik Kongshaug
Reissued: 1992: part of the ECM box set “Hey, Guitar”; digital 12 June 2009
Archive ID: HP-T-0042

ECM Discogs

Tracks

The session came about at the suggestion of Heimo Steps (gamsbART, Graz concert promoter); gamsbART advanced the studio costs, and ECM reimbursed them later. The album received the German Record Critics' Award (German award for outstanding recordings, chosen by a jury of critics) in 1988 (the Österreichisches Musiklexikon speaks of a nomination). Pepl’s own short biography of 2000 (Sammlung Essl) clarifies: the album was on the quarterly list (Vierteljahresliste, best-of list) of the German Record Critics’ Award. Wikipedia and mica (Austria's music information centre) list Pepl here as a sideman; the cover names him first. In the United Kingdom the album came out in the week beginning Tuesday, 30 August 1988; the British music trade magazine Music Week listed it among its new releases as a jazz album on ECM/New Note, with the CD number 833 472-2. The order of the track listing is not documented.

Listen and watch

Harry Pepl, Herbert Joos, Jon Christensen: Schikaneder Delight (Cracked Mirrors, 1988)

1988 · ECM Records, 1988

“Schikaneder Delight” (Harry Pepl), track 3 of the ECM album “Cracked Mirrors” by Harry Pepl, Herbert Joos and Jon Christensen (1988), 2:36. Prepared in 2020 for the Ö1 radio programme on his 75th birthday.

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Harry Pepl, Herbert Joos, Jon Christensen: Tintenfisch Inki (Cracked Mirrors, 1988)

1988 · ECM Records, 1988

“Tintenfisch Inki” (Harry Pepl), track 8 of the ECM album “Cracked Mirrors” (1988), 2:56, suggested by Daniel Pepl in 2020 for the Ö1 radio programme as a beautiful ballad.

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