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, such as Charlie Mariano, Trilok Gurtu, Ramesh Shotham, Marty Cook, Yuri Parfenov, Allan Praskin, X.Nie, Nick McCarthy, Monty Waters and Mal Waldron, have played on multiple occasions. 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 able to merge different styles and trends. 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), 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. In 1981, Müllrich and Wehmeyer left Embryo to form "Embryo's Dissidenten" who soon became Dissidenten. On the road to Morocco in March 2016, Christian Burchard had a stroke. Since then his daughter Marja Burchard (drums, vibraphone, vocals, trombone, keyboard), who grew up with the band, has been leading Embryo. On January 17, 2018 Christian Burchard died in Munich. He was 71 years old. Discography Opal (Ohr, 1970) Embryo's Rache (United Artists, 1971) Father Son and Holy Ghosts (United Artists, 1972) Steig Aus (Brain/Metronome, 1973) We Keep On (BASF, 1973) Rocksession (Brain/Metronome, 1973) Surfin' (Buk, 1975) Bad Heads and Bad Cats (April, 1976) Live (April, 1977) Apo Calypso (April, 1977) Embryo's Reise (Schneeball, 1979) Anthology (Materiali Sonori, 1980) Life (Schneeball, 1981) La Blama Sparozzi Zwischenzonen (Schneeball, 1982) Zack Gluck (Materiali Sonori, 1984) Embryo & Yoruba Dun Dun Orchester feat. Muraina