Embryo

Embryo is a world music band from Munich, Germany that began in 1969. Its origins have even been traced to the 1950s in the city of Hof, when musicians Christian Burchard and Dieter Serfas met at the age of 10. The band was described by one critic as "the most eclectic of the krautrock bands." History In 1969, the band was founded by multi-instrumentalist Christian Burchard (drums, vibraphone, santur, keyboard) and Edgar Hofmann (saxophone, flutes). To date, more than 400 musicians have played with the collective, some on multiple occasions, such as Charlie Mariano, Trilok Gurtu, Ramesh Shotham, Marty Cook, Yuri Parfenov, Allan Praskin, X.Nie, Nick McCarthy, Monty Waters and Mal Waldron. Longtime members have been Edgar Hofmann (sax, violin), Dieter Serfas (drums), Roman Bunka (guitar, oud), Uve Müllrich (bass), Michael Wehmeyer (keyboard), Chris Karrer (guitar, oud, violin, sax), Lothar Stahl (marimba, drums), and Jens Polheide (bass, flute). With Ton Steine Scherben, they were founders of the first German independent label Schneeball in 1976. In 1979, the band started a nine-month tour to India by bus, which is documented in the movie Vagabunden Karawane. Embryo developed from jazzy Krautrock to a world music band, having merged different styles and trends throughout their history. Many of their albums originated during collective journeys in four continents. The band played many festivals around the globe: in India (Mumbai Jazz 1979), England (Reading 1973), Nigeria (Port Harcourt Jazz 1987), and Japan (Wakayama 1991) to name a few. In July 2008, Embryo was awarded the German World Music Award RUTH 2008 at the TFF Rudolstadt Festival.