Embryo is a

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

band from

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, West 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 the initial stage of development for 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 spe ...

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 Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

bands."

History

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

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

santur The santur ( ; ) is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origin.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻUmmāl al-Markazīyya. History The santur was invented ...

, keyboard) and Edgar Hofmann (

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

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

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

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

Trilok Gurtu Trilok Gurtu (born 30 October 1951) is an Indian percussionist and composer whose work has blended the music of India with jazz fusion and world music. He has worked with Terje Rypdal, Gary Moore, John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Joe Zawinu ...

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 Marty Cook (born May 1947) is an American jazz trombonist. Biography Cook was born in New York (state), New York and raised in Ohio, where he began playing trombone at age seven. He played in New York in the late 1960s, recording with Marzette W ...

Yuri Parfenov Yuri may refer to: People 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), feminine Japanese given names, including a list o ...

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

, X.Nie,

Nick McCarthy Nicholas John McCarthy (born 13 December 1974) is an English-German musician. His main focus is on songwriting and song production. He is also a guitarist, singer and keyboard player. McCarthy was a founding member of the Glasgow-based band Fr ...

Monty Waters Monville Charles Waters (April 14, 1938 – December 23, 2008), known as Monty Waters, was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist and singer. Early life Monville Charles Waters was born in Modesto, California. He studied at Modesto High School ...

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 ...

. Longtime members have been Edgar Hofmann (sax, violin), Dieter Serfas (drums), Roman Bunka (guitar, oud), Uve Müllrich (bass), Michael Wehmeyer (keyboard),

Chris Karrer Christoph Karrer (20 January 1947 – 2 January 2024) was a German guitarist and composer who also played saxophone, violin and oud. He was a pioneer of krautrock, playing and recording with his band Amon Düül II from 1969 when they release ...

(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 mari ...

, drums), and Jens Polheide (bass, flute). With Ton Steine Scherben, 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, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

by bus, which is documented in the movie ''Vagabunden Karawane''. Embryo developed from jazzy

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

to a

band, having merged different styles and trends throughout their history. 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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

( Reading 1973),

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

(Port Harcourt Jazz 1987), and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(Wakayama 1991) to name a few. In July 2008, Embryo was awarded the German World Music Award RUTH 2008 at the TFF Rudolstadt Festival. In 1981, Müllrich and Wehmeyer left Embryo to form Embryo's Dissidenten, who soon became simply Dissidenten. 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 AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

{{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