Track 7. Kurdistan 9:51
is only downloadable as part of the complete album.
The early 1980s were volatile times for Embryo. The one constant, of course, was "Mr. Embryo" himself, percussionist extra-ordinaire Christian Burchard. Only that one detail was certain here! (you can read more about the "Embryo name the line-up detective game" in the CD insert)
So, prepare yourself for one awesome gig, and one of the very last performances by this version of Embryo. There's lots of pure patent Embryo Krautrock here, tons of wicked grooves, lots of middle-Eastern ethnic spice, lots that is familiar and also quite a bit that isn't. Embryo rarely used as much electronics as you'll hear here. And it's pretty much a crazy segue of themes known and unknown. There were no titles or track indexes with the source recording, and only two identifiable Embryo compositions: Cello Cello and Kurdistan, with the others identified by what little vocals we hear. Turkish Theme actually mixes two or three different such themes previously recorded by Embryo. Seems that Christian was quite happy with my choice of titles. I recall asking Christian about the sketchy track titles on the Invisible Documents set, to which he replied something like "these Embryo performances would be very improvised and run from one piece to another, and often go many other places" meaning definitive titles would never be possible!
A rescued piece of Krautrock history to savour then. And this from the time when many had pronounced Krautrock dead. But Embryo never died, they kept on reinventing themself...
credits
released November 29, 2018
EMBRYO
Christian Burchard: drums, percussion, vibes, marimba, darbouka, vocals, etc.
Michael Ehlers: guitar, saz.
Freido Josch: flute, vocals.
Uve Müllrich: bass, rubab, electric saz, oud.
Michael Wehmeyer: organ, synthesizer, harmonium.
plus unidentified extra percussion
Live in Mogliano Veneto, Italy, 3/9/1980.
Licence: Christian Burchard.
Clean-up from the bootleg CD in October 2009.
This remaster May/June 2014 by Alan Freeman.
Cover photos supplied by Christian.
Cover design, text and layout by Alan.
The download includes a selection of bonus Embryo live photos.
Many thanks to: Christian Burchard, Uve Müllrich, Michael Wehmeyer, Roman Bunka, Ramesh Shotham, Regigius Drechsler, etc.
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