Modrigue The ultimate fusion journey to Asia

"Reise" is the German word for "Travel", and that's exactly what the album has to offer here: a genuine musical journey... to the East. After the band's average jazz/rock/world releases during the second half of the 70's (last good album being 1973's "We Keep On"), EMBRYO's leader Christian Burchard decided to save his baby and brought with him the other members for a long trip, from Middle-East to India. During their journey, they met various local musicians, played jam sessions and recorded tracks in their company.

Instead of the band's initial jazz/rock/ethnic approach, the music is clearly oriented towards middle-eastern, oriental and Indian styles this time. Most compositions combine these genres with progressive rock (like the great "Kurdistan" and "Farid"), or even punk ("Eis Ist, Wie's Ist"), while others are fully oriental (like the Indian "Chan Delawar Khan" and "Rog de Quadamuna Achna"). As you may expect, the palette of instruments used is very large. The result is astonishing and mesmerizing. This fusion of musical genres was quite original at the time. Furthermore, there are no weak on the record. Such a little treasure will make you travel from desert sands to ancient Asian temples, through mystical lands.

This 1979 opus was the first double album of the band. However, the most common released version nowadays is the single CD edition, which does not include the songs "Paki Funk", "Maharaj" and "Lassie, Lassie", but this does not matter much.

"Embryo's Reise" is one of the finest examples of "world music", presenting a genuine and unique crossing of Occidental and Eastern genres. Even 40 years after, such mastery in mixing these musical ingredients from opposite origins remains still rare. Highly recommended if you enjoy middle-eastern and Indian music! Simply one of the best albums from EMBRYO!

Miler72 Embryo has always been Christian Burchard and whoever he can find at the time, so that always affected the outcome of each Embryo album. I understand there is an Amon Duul connection (members of that commune), so I shouldn't be too surprised Amon Duul II members have popped up from time to time. 1971's Rache, released in 1971, is their second album. Jimmy Jackson, who played on several Amon Duul II albums, including Tanz der Lemminge and Wolf City, and apparently (uncredited) on Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditation, appears here, playing Mellotron and organ. I have to say the vocals are the weak point of this album, but the musical quality more than makes up for it. At first it starts off in Jethro Tull territory, complete with flute, but you won't mistake this for a Tull album because of the clavinet used and some world music influences. "Time" while featuring vocals, features a tone of great use of clavinet and organ giving it an almost funky feel. "Revenge" features some really great Mellotron brass from Jimmy Jackson, while "Spain? Yes! Franco, Finished" shows once again the weakness of the album and the lyrics are badly written, although the lyrics very much protest the Franco regime in Spain. But then it's the instrumental part this band really shines, and if you can block out the vocals, you get treated with more great clavinet and Mellotron. I really glad to try out Embryo, this album, despite the vocals, really blew me away, and it comes highly recommended.

seyo Hmmm, EMBRYO...

I can't but recall for the moment a wonderful concert they played around 1982 or 1983 in the popular "Dom mladih" Dancing Hall in my hometown of Sarajevo! They came out of the blue and without any announcements succeeded to attract enough audience (maybe up to 1500) to fill the hall. They played full three hours and we knew that was Chris Karrer (of AMON DUUL II reputation) who played guitar and sax, accompanied by a bunch of freaks who showed what was a real improvisation and fusion jam session. I remember the silence after the concert ended - no one could possibly utter any comments, the prog/kraut fans remained speechless. EMBRYO continued (or they actually were coming back from, I don't remember) the Asian/Middle Eastern tour.

Now back to the present - I only recently listened to "We Keep On" and was amazed how fresh and innovative they still sound nowadays. That is what I would call - a timeless music! It is a perfect blend of jazz-rock improvisation, ethnic-fusion rhythms and odd instruments like saz or bamboo flute, performed with "krautrock" sensibility. "Don't Come Tomorrow" is a singing piece that reminds me of the later style utilized by New Wave avantgarde artists TUXEDOMOON in the early 1980s. If only the flute were replaced with saxophone, I would comfortably put it on the "Desire" or "Holy Wars" albums.

Christian Burchard, Roman Bunka, Dieter Miekautsch and Charlie Mariano recorded this gem back in December 1972 in Italy and presented one of the better albums of jazz-rock style in general. A perfect album that must be heard by any serious fusion/krautrock fan.

snobb The second Embryo studio album shows their transition from the jazz fusion of their (live) debut, to psychedelic jam sessions with some jazz elements, which will become their calling card just a few years later.

All the compositions consist of heavy electric piano, organ and Mellotron driven by African percussion with a psychedelic flavor. With some improvs coming from their jazzy past, there is also a lot of rock (psychedelic/space) elements in this album's music, fortunately both directions are mixed quite organically.

The 14+ minutes long "Spain Yes, Franco Finished" is a real rock song with very Ian Anderson-like flute and vocals. This album is really interesting evidence of a quite fragile period in krautrock when early experimental jazz influenced bands moved to a more psychedelic rock/jamming direction, but still have almost the same proportion of both genres in their music. This transformation generally was finished by 1973, after that time you mostly hear the "classic" krautrock sound.

A first class album from one of the leading krautrock bands, recommended for fans of this genre.

snobb Being a representative band of the jazzy end of the Krautrock wing, Embryo started their career playing psychedelic fusion in the late 60s (with American jazz pianist Mal Waldron on board). A few years later they transformed into more of a jam band with an artistic peak in 1972-1973.

"Steig Aus" is possibly the greatest example of that change in direction - three long compositions with some Eastern elements, obvious rock aesthetics and repetitive hypnotic rhythmical constructions are all good examples of German psychedelic jamming at that time. The level of musicianship is above average and their interplay is great so if you like this kind of music, this album is a really good choice.

Embryo is kind of a German version of Gong - musicians that not only play together, but it would be more clear to say that music is just a component of their way of living. The band is still active without any serious changes in their musical direction, and their works from the early 70s coming from their youth still radiate that atmosphere.

Its not much of a jazz fusion record, but one important evidence of 'krautrock's' golden age.