music journalism, liner notes
Andreas Felber
Wrote the liner notes of the EmArcy releases “Light Blues” and “Pieces Of The Dream” (2001), “Live At Miles Smiles” (2003), “Schoenberg Improvisations” (2004) and “Live In Concerts” (2009) and of “Against The Wind” by the Christian Muthspiel Trio (2007). In 2001 he gave an interview with Pepl to Nikolaus Kohler. Produced the Ö1 programmes “Spielräume” of 3 December 2015 (Harry Pepl’s return) and 13 February 2020 (Werner Pirchner).
Music journalist and musicologist (born 1971 in Salzburg); head of the jazz department of Ö1 (ORF’s cultural radio station) since June 2015 and, since June 2018, also head of Ö1’s department for jazz, popular and world music.
More about Andreas Felber: oe1.orf.at/team/andreas_felber/bio
Voices
the most spectacular record of one of the most original guitar players of European Jazz in those years
playing marked by rough, jagged cascades of notes
When Pirchner/Pepl played, it was an event. I personally still remember Pepl’s avalanche-like improvisations very well, where things always somehow got ‘dangerous’, hot. His immense rhythmic power was unbelievable.
During my studies, standards and the academic jazz repertoire were held in high esteem. Through the ‘Jazz-Zwio’ I learned that in this music you really could do exactly what you wanted yourself.
They offered an impressive homage to the “Jazzzwio” of Werner Pirchner/Harry Pepl, disbanded in 1985: the brothers Christian and Wolfgang Muthspiel.
celebrated triumphs on Europe’s festival stages in the Jazz-Zwio with the guitarist Harry Pepl
most uncompromising document to date of his principle of Instant Composing
the rugged rhapsodic style of a Harry Pepl
Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl were perfectionist characters who never did anything by halves.
While the young improvisers of the JazzWerkstatt Wien, after Hans Koller, are now discovering Harry Pepl too and so elevating him to the father figure of the Austrian scene
Two years have passed since Harry Pepl, one of the great guitarists of the European jazz scene, died.
Agnes Heginger, Clemens Salesny, Martin Bayer and Peter Primus Frosch play Harry Pepl
compositions by his former Jazz-Zwio duo partner Harry Pepl were also heard
Meanwhile, Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner also joined forces with the young Austrian jazz scene
Harry Pepl’s lyrical hit “Air, Love and Vitamines”
Recordings of his music
In the chronology
In the press
- 2001 Concerto (Musikmagazin), Ausgabe 5/2001, Seite 54: „Fünf Variationen österreichischer Jazzkunst“ (Austrian Jazzart)
- 2002 treibhaus Innsbruck (Programmtext): „DuoDue: Muthspiel & Muthspiel spielen die Musik von Pirchner & Pepl“
- 2002 Concerto (Musikmagazin), Ausgabe 5/2002, Seite 40: „24. Internationales Jazzfest Saalfelden“
- 27 July 2002 Der Standard (Seite 30, Szenario): „Urwüchsiges Material“ (Werner-Pirchner-Schwerpunkt beim Festival „Glatt & Verkehrt“)
- 31 August 2004 Der Standard (Seite 24, Kultur): „Sicherheitsdenken und ‚positive Signale‘“ (Ausklang des Jazzfestivals Saalfelden 2004)
- 2007 Christian Muthspiel Trio, „Against The Wind“ (Linernotes): „Das Christian Muthspiel Trio spielt Werner Pirchner und Harry Pepl“
- 3 December 2015 Ö1, Spielräume: „Spielräume“ vom 3. Dezember 2015 (Musik aus allen Richtungen, Harry Pepls Wiederkehr)
- 14 July 2016 Ö1, „On Stage“ (Programmhinweis der Wiener Zeitung): Christian Muthspiels Werner-Pirchner-Hommage beim Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2015
- 13 February 2020 Ö1, Spielräume: „Werner Pirchner, der Vibrafonist“ (Musik aus allen Richtungen zum 80. Geburtstag des Tiroler Kosmopoliten)
- 10 June 2022 Ö1, Spielräume (Sendungsseite auf orf.at): „Nachruf auf Wolfgang Reisinger“
- 6 November 2025 Ö1, Spielräume (Sendungsseite auf orf.at): „Kammerjazzige Duoklänge“
- 26 November 2025 Ö1, „On stage Spezial“: Österreichischer Jazzpreis 2025, live aus dem Casino Velden