WIESBADEN 1972

This is EMBRYO which I really liked in the 70s - they had their creative peak during the first half of this decade. The Wiesbaden gig saw an audience of 1200 people - not to believe! Three core members are on the stage here at the end of 1972. Roman Bunka, one of the most important german jazz rock guitarists ever who adopted oriental elements to his style more and more playing saz and other 'unsual' instruments at that time. Furthermore Dieter Miekautsch - the master of the Fender Rhodes piano and Christian Burchard, founding member and alltime drummer, who is holding up the band up to now. They were supported by bassist Randy Stiletti, a short-time band mate hailing from San Francisco and percussionist Klaus Götzner who later changed to TON, STEINE, SCHERBEN.

This concert was recorded by organiser Muck Krieger who used an Uher tape recorder. The sound quality is not top-notch always - just like a bootleg - but what more can you expect from live recordings in 1972? The band offers fine improvised jazz rock/fusion here in any case. The first six songs are one long jam devided in several sections - compelling and a great dream for every open-minded jazz rock fan. Roman Bunka and Christian Burchard are starting the show with a long marimba and saz collaboration. Don't know if this was really intended because they had some technical problems at the beginning. Anyhow - this can be treated like an excellent warm-up with an intensive oriental flavour. For the last minutes on Sunrising Burchard changes to the drums, Bunka later to the traditional electric guitar and then Miekautsch is interfering with his piano - the ultimate jazz rock jam is on the run now fitting exactly.

Some patches and fragments from the later recorded studio albums are to notice clearly. Space to no place to go appears one year later on 'We keep on' as 'No place to go' for example. Master plan of Pharoa is derived from Pharao Sanders' 'The creator has a master plan'. At the end some audience action is to hear when the band announces a short break. The following long track Pygmäen überall - Back from Africa is basically continuing the 'Space to no place to go' jam. Hansi Fischer adds some nice soprano saxophone contributions to the song which serves an oriental world music mood once again.

Clockwork Blue finally is a bonus track from the following AUS DEM NICHTS performance - an EMBRYO and XHOL related band which presents this song in a very jazzy freestyle version but can't reach the brilliance of the previous EMBRYO appearance. For a summary this is another high voltage EMBRYO performance released by the Garden Of Delights label. Roman Bunka once again is heading with his fantastic guitar work - 4.5 stars.

This is an archival live document of EMBRYO playing in Wiesbaden back in 1972 but not released until 2008. We get the legendary duo of Roman Bunka and Christian Burchard, the latter I just found out passed away a month ago sadly. Dieter Miekautsch plays electric piano mostly. He played as well with MISSING LINK and MISSUS BEASTLY. Hansi Fischer from XHOL CARAVAN and XHOL plays sax on that last 21 minute plus track. Klaus Gotzner adds percussion he would go on to play drums in TON STEINE SCHERBEN. It was strange reading all these song titles and not recognizing them but Uwe points out in his excellent review that some of these songs and sections would appear later under different names. By the way, if you don't have EMBRYO's first six studio albums you need to rectify that, all classics. Happy birthday Uwe!

"Ouverture Marimbasaz" is as the title suggests filled with lots of marimba from drummer Burchard along with saz from guitarist Bunka. A very ethnic sounding track that blends into "Sunrising" where the saz and marimba continue. Drums arrive around 3 1/2 minutes as they continue to jam. Like SOFT MACHINE they go from one song to the next in this live setting without missing a beat. It blends into "Dieter Plays" where we get guitar after 2 minutes as the drums pound away, bass too then keyboards from Dieter. So the first three tracks really aren't my thing but man these last four songs are very much my thing.

"Space To No Place To Go" features drums and guitar leading the way making this more my thing. I like that sound a minute in with bass and drums as the guitar solos over top. Really good! Check out that guitar 2 minutes in, oh my! A calm after 3 minutes with guitar expressions and atmosphere. The bass starts to come to the fore. Some spoken words before 5 1/2 minutes and then it kicks in again before 6 minutes, vocals too. The guitar lights it up 6 1/2 minutes in.

"Andalucia Si" continues with the bass, guitar and drums as keys join in quickly. This sounds amazing. It settles after 2 1/2 minutes with some impressive guitar. Some vocals then it starts to build. So good! A jazzy section that I recognize takes over after 4 minutes. Not worthy as we get more vocals. Guitar to the fore 5 1/2 minutes in. Love this relaxed jazzy sound, reminds me of NUCLEUS.

"Master Plan Of Pharoa" features bass and drums with guitar playing over top. The guitar actually reminds me of Carlos Santana here. And man that guitar really steals the show on this 9 1/2 minute track. Keyboards before 2 1/2 minutes as the guitar steps aside. Vocals after 3 1/2 minutes and they will come and go. Love that guitar 7 minutes in and there's a jazzy section a minute later.

"Pygmaen Uberall/ Back From Africa" ends the album with a 21 plus minute tour de force. Bass, percussion, drums and more to start. Guitar just before a minute and it will impress as this plays out. Sax from Hansi arrives before 7 minutes and continues until 9 minutes in when the guitar takes over. Sax is back before 11 minutes then we get drums only after 11 1/2 minutes then bass and more as it builds. The guitar really shines the rest of the way, man Roman has some skills. Some fuzz 19 minutes in as it settles back. Some vocals after 20 minutes as it comes to a close.

A really excellent archival release as we get both their World Music leanings along with classic sounding EMBRYO. While I prefer the latter by far this is a really solid album. And it's pretty cool to get all these songs I haven't heard before but there is some familiarity regardless.