AUF AUF

Back in 2018 I heard about the unfortunate passing of Christian Burchard. What I didn't realize was his daughter Marja Burchard has taken over the Embryo name, but she has and very much following in her father's footsteps, playing drums, vibraphone, santur (Iranian dulcimer), and keyboards, while having additional drummers when her hands are too full. At least she didn't name it Embryo 2.0 as that would make me cringe as it's been too trendy to throw in that "2.0" in everything, like bands with new generations of band members, cities that changed drastically in the last 20-40 years, etc. (people would refer to Portland, Oregon as portrayed in the TV series Portlandia as Portland 2.0), when it used to be using that "2.0" or similar numbering was for computer software revision (ie. Atari DOS 2.0, Windows 2.0, etc.). Can Marja succeed in continuing her father's legacy in Embryo? Definitely so! Although I'm hardly familiar with everything Embryo has done, I do have Rache, Father, Son and Holy Ghosts, Steig Aus, and We Keep On, and those are amazing albums, with probably Steig Aus being my all-time favorite. It's unbelievable to say that Auf Auf actually ranks with the best of those! It has a very serious retro feel to the point you'd swear this was recorded in the 1970s but was actually recorded during COVID lockdown. This album is truly a wonderful combination of jazz fusion, prog, Krautrock, and world music, in this case Middle Eastern and music styles from Afghanistan. Helps that Moroccan and Afghan musicians are included playing all sorts of obscure instruments including a Turkish stringed instrument called a cümbüş (which features a banjo-like body). Also we have none other than Embryo veteran Roman Bunka to play oud. "Besh" is the opening pieces and has a rather jazzy Middle Eastern feel to it, with piano, and no doubt Roman's oud playing to give it that Middle Eastern feel. "Yul Mala" features some ethnic vocals, but by and large a jazzy piece, in fact a good portion of this album during its jazzy moments leans more towards fusion with electric piano and saxophone dominating. The title track is also a truly wonderful jazzy piece with some truly wild moments that just blow me away. "Baran" is in a motif common to Afghanistan, but to be honest I'm not so familiar with the music styles of that area, but in this recording it sounds very Middle Eastern to my ears. I also love those nice synths that are also used. At 16 minutes is "Januar" and it's a truly wonderful fusion and world music combination complete with santur and cümbüş. Parts of this piece also has a bit of a Canterbury feel in the organ and electric piano department, and the end part with that electric piano riff reminds me a bit of Soft Machine. Then it ends with "Alphorn Prayer". I was suspicious with such a title hoping it wouldn't be polka with alphorn, thankfully far from it, Instead the alphorn is used in an ethereal meditative manner with a continuous drone, which I'm sure was done by circular breathing similar to a didgeridoo. It reminds me of an Indian raga but with the alphorn drone instead of tambura. There's some rather eastern sounding flute creeping in before it veers into more avant garde jazz territory with horns and piano. I can't believe it! Daughter of founding member of Embryo steps in and with the help of various musicians creates a truly amazing masterpiece every bit as good as what they did in the 1970s! While Christian is no longer with us, we all know he should proud of his daughter!