Ibn Battuta 2 / A Musical Homage

Embryo - Ibn Battuta (1994)

The German band Embryo is centered around multi instrumentalist Christian Burchard. Embryo was founded in the late 60s, after Burchard had played in several jazz combos and allegedly had spent a short time in Amon Düül II. Busloads of musicians have played together with Burchard in Embryo and there are probably not two Embryo albums that have the same line-up. Nevertheless, several musicians stayed with Burchard for quite a long time. […]

In addition, Embryo has played constantly with musicians from outside Europe, especially musicians from Asia and Africa. […] The continuous changes in the band line up and the wide range of musical styles probably typify the musical restlessness of Burchard. Although the band started as a Krautrock outfit, it was clear within a few albums that Burchard had a genuine interest in combining jazz (rock) and a large variety of ethnic music styles. Throughout the 70s, the jazz and ethnic influences were often embedded in a jazz rock/fusion format, while in the mid and late 80s the band often focused on purely ethnic music, especially from Africa. During the 90s, Embryo developed more or less into an «ethnic jazz» band, trying to combine and absorb all kinds of ethnic influences, but rarely restricting themselves to a strict compositional format and, as such, always allowing ample room for spontaneous musical interaction. Surprisingly, Embryo still exits after 30 years and the band still play many concerts and festivals, especially throughout Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. [...]

On Ibn Battuta, the focus has shifted towards music from the Middle East. Quite an excellent album mixing jazz, fusion and above all various styles of Arabic music. On the title track Edgar Hoffman plays some lovely Turkish clarinet. Simai Ka features a Coltrane like soprano sax solo by Chuck Henderson, and Edgar Hoffman plays a dreamy solo on the nay (a type of flute often used in North African/Arabic music). Burchard adds several virtuoso contributions on vibraphone/xylophone. Kletta is an interesting piece trying to merge percussive elements and structures of three continents. Dieter Serfas plays on the African talking drum and Yusuf Esqah joins on Indian tablas, while Burchard plays the hackbrett (hammer dulcimer). (gnosis2000.net)

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