Track 6. Catalunya 13:16
is only downloadable as part of the complete album.
This disc documents a gig by Embryo from Spain in 2001. It was included as a freebie along with a stock order from Christian Burchard with a note saying something like "Enjoy!" and I certainly did. Christian sent me a number of such discs over the years, many that - although they were obviously fine performances - would not stand up as a good releases. But this was different. Re-listening over the years it became one that I marked "should definitely be released". The only minus point: the recording was a bit flat. A few years later I had the know-how to improve and "chunky up" the sound. Now, after a further re-tweak and clean-up the results are this disc.
As is the case with many a busy live band Embryo have never kept an accurate log of live gigs, and members/musicians vary from one gig to the next. Documentation on the Embryo web site from 2001 is rather sketchy "After doing the musical work for a theatre play Wittgen-steins... we did another tour to Italy, France and Spain that lasted till July, having a legendary lineup including Chris, Dieter, Jens, Nick, Dirk, Didak, Max and Christian. Performing mostly in and around Barcelona we had great meetings with the scene there" and in reply to my queries Christian said "about the date I know that we finished the tour on 17.07.2001 and the concerts around Barcelona were few day before" but he managed to work-out most of the line-up.
This unique gig goes through many stylistic changes, largely acoustic at the start with some reflective duos and trios. About the tracks Christian said: track 3 "Chris Karrer is playing lots of Oriental melodies, so call it Oriental Mix, Jens is playing nai, Max marimba and I do the percussion and drumming" - indeed, why not? Better than my clichéd Asia Minor! Christian titled track 4 "Fancesc" no doubt due to the Francesc Díaz press-clip. Apparently he was an active promoter on the Spanish jazz and cross-culture scene. About this he says "Max on drums, Jens on bass, Chris guitar and I do the vibraphone". Track 5 "Tak-A-De-Dan, & the unknown Indian tabla player, Mik and me are doing the vocals, later my electric santour and Wolfi`s tenor sax". Track 6 "& Wolfi flute and sax, Chris guitar". In all, it gets to some incredible highs during the final three tracks, and it also seems to be one of the earliest documents with Mik Quantius on vocals (although only on one track).
credits
released November 29, 2018
EMBRYO
Christian Burchard: drums, vocal, marimba, vibes, electric santour
Dirk Engelhardt: tenor / soprano saxophones
Chris Karrer: oud, guitar, violin
Nick McCarthy: bass
Jens Pollheide: nai, flute, bass
Mik Quantius: vocals
Max Weissenfeldt: marimba, drums
+ unknown Indian tabla player
Previously unreleased recording.
Embryo live in Spain, early July 2001 (exact venue and date unknown).
Remastered by Alan Freeman 2010/2014,
from a recording supplied by Christian Burchard.
Cover art, notes and layout by Alan Freeman.
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