Embryo is a world music band from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, Germany, that began in 1969. Its origins have even been traced to the 1950s in the city of Hof, when musicians

Christian Burchard An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm ce ...

and Dieter Serfas met at the age of 10. The band was described by one critic as "the most eclectic of the

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, ...

bands."

History

In 1969 the band was founded by multi instrumentalist Christian Burchard (drums,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

santur The santur (also ''santūr'', ''santour'', ''santoor'') ( fa, سنتور), is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origins.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻU ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mu ...

) and Edgar Hofmann (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

s). To date more than 400 musicians have played with the collective, some, such as

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist who focused on the alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biography Mariano was born in ...

, Trilok Gurtu,

Ramesh Shotham Ramesh Shotham (born May 7, 1948 in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India) is a percussionist and drummer. Life Ramesh Shotham was born in Madras, South India. He graduated with a degree in zoology from Loyola College, University of Madras. He began his musi ...

, Marty Cook,

Yuri Parfenov Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. * Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Ja ...

Allan Praskin Allan Conrad Praskin (December 17, 1948, in Los Angeles) is an American jazz musician (alto saxophone player, composer and bandleader). He is living in Europe for more than 30 years. Life and works Praskin had clarinette lessons, when he was ...

, X.Nie, Nick McCarthy,

Monty Waters Monty Waters (April 14, 1938 in Modesto, California – December 23, 2008 in Munich, Germany) was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist and singer. Waters received his first musical training from his aunt and first played in the church. After h ...

and

Mal Waldron Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Wa ...

, have played on multiple occasions. Longtime members have been Edgar Hofmann (sax, violin), Dieter Serfas (drums),

Roman Bunka Roman Bunka (2 December 1951 – 12 June 2022) was a German guitarist, oud player and composer, active in world music and jazz fusion bands. He lived most of his life in Munich, Bavaria, where he was involved in various musical crossover proj ...

(guitar, oud), Uve Müllrich (bass), Michael Wehmeyer (keyboard),

Chris Karrer Christoph "Chris" Karrer (born 20 January 1947, Kempten, Germany) is a German guitarist and composer. He also plays oud, saxophone and violin. He is known as co-founder of the Amon Düül commune and a member of the related and much more commercia ...

(guitar, oud, violin, sax), Lothar Stahl (

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

, drums), and Jens Polheide (bass, flute). With

Ton Steine Scherben Ton Steine Scherben () was one of the first and most influential German language rock bands of the 1970s and early 1980s. Well known for the highly political and emotional lyrics of vocalist Rio Reiser, they became a musical mouthpiece of ...

, they were founders of the first German independent label Schneeball in 1976. In 1979 the band started a nine-month tour to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

by bus which is documented in the movie "Vagabunden Karawane". Embryo developed from

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

y Krautrock to a world music band able to merge different styles and trends. Many of their albums originated during collective journeys in four continents. The band played many festivals around the globe: in

(Mumbai Jazz 1979),

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

( Reading 1973),

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

(Port Harcourt Jazz 1987),

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

(Wakayama 1991) to name a few. In July 2008, Embryo was awarded the German World Music Award RUTH 2008 at the

TFF Rudolstadt TFF may stand for: Festivals * Taipei Film Festival, an annual film festival in Taipei, Taiwan * Taormina Film Fest, international film festival in Taormina * Telluride Film Festival, an annual film festival in Telluride, Colorado, USA * TFF Rudol ...

Festival. In 1981, Müllrich and Wehmeyer left Embryo to form "Embryo's Dissidenten" who soon became

Dissidenten Dissidenten are a German rock band known for their collaborations with Middle Eastern, African and Indian musicians. In a 1988 article for ''The New York Times'', music critic Stephen Holden acknowledged the band as being among the leaders of wha ...

. On the road to Morocco in March 2016, Christian Burchard had a stroke. Since then his daughter Marja Burchard (drums, vibraphone, vocals, trombone, keyboard), who grew up with the band, has been leading Embryo. On January 17, 2018 Christian Burchard died in Munich. He was 71 years old.

Discography

* ''Opal'' (Ohr, 1970) * ''Embryo's Rache'' (United Artists, 1971) * ''Father Son and Holy Ghosts'' (United Artists, 1972) * ''Steig Aus'' (Brain/Metronome, 1973) * ''We Keep On'' (BASF, 1973) * ''Rocksession'' (Brain/Metronome, 1973) * ''Surfin' '' (Buk, 1975) * ''Bad Heads and Bad Cats'' (April, 1976) * ''Live'' (April, 1977) * ''Apo Calypso'' (April, 1977) * ''Embryo's Reise'' (Schneeball, 1979) * ''Anthology'' (Materiali Sonori, 1980) * ''Life'' (Schneeball, 1981) * ''La Blama Sparozzi Zwischenzonen'' (Schneeball, 1982) * ''Zack Gluck'' (Materiali Sonori, 1984) * ''Embryo & Yoruba Dun Dun Orchester feat. Muraina Oyelami'' (Schneeball, 1985) * ''Africa'' (Materiali Sonori, 1987) * ''Jazzbuhne Berlin '89'' (Amiga, 1989) * ''Turn Peace'' (Schneeball, 1989) * ''Ibn Battuta'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 1994) * ''Ni Hau'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 1996) * ''Tour 98: Istanbul-Casablanca'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 1999) * ''Invisible Documents'' (Disconforme, 1999) * ''For Eva'' (Disconforme, 2000) * ''2000 Live Vol. 1'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 2000) * ''2001 Live Vol. 1'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 2002) * ''29.6.73 in Hamburg'' (Schneeball, 2003) * ''Bremen 1971'' (Garden of Delights, 2003) * ''Hallo Mik'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 2004) * ''Embryonnck'' (Staubgold/Schneeball, 2006) * ''News'' (Ultimate, 2006) * ''Live in Wendland'' (Schneeball, 2007) * ''Freedom in Music'' (Schneeball/Indigo, 2008) * ''Wiesbaden 1972'' (Garden of Delights, 2008) * ''Live at Burg Herzberg Festival 2007'' (Trip in Time, 2008) * ''Sloow Tapes'' (Choiak, 2010) * ''Message from Era Ora'' (Black Sweat, 2013) * ''Una Gira Per Catalunya'' (Cosmic Egg, 2014) * ''Eternal Forces'' (Cosmic Egg, 2014) * ''It Do'' (Trikont, 2016) * ''Umsonst Und Draussen Vlotho 1977'' (Garden of Delights, 2017) * ''Auf Auf'' (Madlib Invazion, 2021)

References

External links

Official site

* AllMusic biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Embryo (Band) 1969 establishments in West Germany Musical groups established in 1969 German experimental musical groups German progressive rock groups German world music groups Krautrock musical groups Brain Records artists Ohr label artists United Artists Records artists