Auf Auf

Album review

The eclectic, well-traveled German band Embryo first encountered fervent fan Madlib when the visionary hip-hop producer visited the group and jammed with several of its long-standing members in a Bavarian wine cellar. Founder Christian Burchard suffered a stroke in 2016 and passed away in 2018, and his daughter Marja has been leading the band since the release of 2016's It Do, Christian's final album with Embryo. Marja started work on the group's next album following Christian's death, with collaborators including Embryo alumni such as guitarist and oud player Roman Bunka (also of the related group Dissidenten) and producer/guitarist Jan Weissenfeldt (co-founder of funk acts Whitefield Brothers and the Poets of Rhythm), as well as bassist Maasl Maier (Karaba) and flautist/saxophonist Wolfgang Schlick (the Poets of Rhythm, the Express Brass Band). The album was finished in 2020, and Marja asked Madlib and Egon to release it on their Madlib Invazion label, which was an easy sell. Marja Burchard wrote or co-wrote three of the album's six tracks, and co-arranged the two traditional pieces. Inviting opener "Besh" combines winding rhythms, pianos, and horns with Bunka's earthy oud playing. "Yu Mala" is sung and co-arranged by Dr. Mohcine Ramdan, a ghembri player and leader of Bavaria-based Moroccan music collective Jisr, which shares several members with Embryo. The song is smooth, mellow, and gorgeous, with lush vibraphone and guitars meshing with trippy synth fluctuations, and an unexpected shot of adrenaline arrives as the rhythm changes up near the end. The Maier-composed "Auf Auf" merges Krautrock with Ethio-jazz, simmering with complex rhythmic patterns and unexpectedly erupting in a celebratory freak-out before resuming the initial groove, yet spiking it with more energy. After the sweet, bubbly raga-synth-rock tune "Baran," the band launch into "Januar," a 17-minute epic that flows through several solos and textures, retaining an exploratory spirit and uncovering new expressions at each turn. The 2021 incarnation of Embryo is every bit as adventurous as any of the other formations of the group during the previous half-century, and the sublime Auf Auf honors the band's legacy while voyaging ever onward.
© Paul Simpson /TiVo