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UNA GIRA PER CATALUNYA
available as...
CD-R Cosmic Egg UTCE 011 CDR £8.00
bandcamp download
duration:
58'33"
1.
Prelude 1'53"
2. Lotus 5'57"
3. Oriental Mix 8'59"
4. Francesc 15'25"
5. Tak-A-De-Dan 12'51"
6. Catalunya 13'16"
Previously
unreleased recording.
Embryo live in Spain, early July 2001 (exact venue and date unknown).
Remastered by Alan Freeman 2010/2014,
from a recording supplied by Christian Burchard.
Cover art, notes and layout by Alan Freeman.
This limited edition © November
2014.
Produced by Alan & Steve Freeman, Auricle Music, Cosmic Egg, Ultimate
Transmissions.
Christian Burchard: drums,
vocal, marimba, vibes, electric santour
Dirk Engelhardt: tenor / soprano saxophones
Chris Karrer: oud, guitar, violin
Nick McCarthy: bass
Jens Pollheide: nai, flute, bass
Mik Quantius: vocals
Max Weissenfeldt: marimba, drums
plus unknown Indian tabla player
review...
This disc documents a gig by Embryo from Spain in 2001. It was
included as a freebie along with a stock order from Christian Burchard with a
note saying something like "Enjoy!" and I certainly did. Christian
sent me a number of such discs over the years, many that - although they were
obviously fine performances - would not stand up as a good releases. But this
was different. Re-listening over the years it became one that I marked
"should definitely be released". The only minus point: the
recording was a bit flat. A few years later I had the know-how to improve and
"chunky up" the sound. Now, after a further re-tweak and clean-up
the results are this disc.
As is the case with many a busy
live band Embryo have never kept an accurate log of live gigs, and
members/musicians vary from one gig to the next. Documentation on the Embryo
web site from 2001 is rather sketchy "After doing the musical work for a
theatre play Wittgen-steins... we did another tour to Italy, France and Spain
that lasted till July, having a legendary lineup including Chris, Dieter,
Jens, Nick, Dirk, Didak, Max and Christian. Performing mostly in and around
Barcelona we had great meetings with the scene there" and in reply to my
queries Christian said "about the date I know that we finished the tour
on 17.07.2001 and the concerts around Barcelona were few day before" but
he managed to work-out most of the line-up.
This unique gig goes through many
stylistic changes, largely acoustic at the start with some reflective duos
and trios. About the tracks, I initially titled them and Christian agreed
with most. About track 3 he said "Chris Karrer is playing lots of
Oriental melodies, so call it Oriental Mix, Jens is playing nai, Max marimba
and I do the percussion and drumming" - indeed, why not? Better than my
clichéd Asia Minor! Christian titled track 4 "Fancesc" no doubt due
to the Francesc Díaz press-clip. Apparently he was an active promoter on the
Spanish jazz and cross-culture scene. The different focus here is because
it's Max on drums (not Christian), with Chris Karrer sizzling on guitar and
Christian on cool vibes. "Tak-A-De-Dan" features the unknown Indian
tabla player. Christian says "Mik and me are doing the vocals, later my
electric santour and Dirk`s tenor sax". Finally "Catalunya" is
a big wig-it-out mixture of traditional themes and typical Embryo jamming
hearkening back to the early 70's. In all, it gets to some incredible highs
during the final three tracks, often close to the feel of later great studio
albums "Zack Gluck" and "Ibn Battuta" - the latter
because of Chris Karrrer and his unmistakable playing. This also seems to be
one of the earliest documents with the eccentric Mik Quantius on vocals (although
only on one track).
Versions...
CD-R edition: Cosmic Egg UTCE 011 CDR, 20 numbered copies - released
10/11/2014
CD-R second edition, 20 numbered copies (21-40) - released 30/10/2015
CD-R third edition, 20 numbered copies (41-60) - released 14/10/2016
Bandcamp download - released 29/11/2018.
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