Customer Reviews

Invisible Documents

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Decently assembled 2-CD live performance of a previously unreleased 1974 Embryo concert. Just five tracks, spanning over a duration of 112 minutes. Best two cuts here are the twenty-minute title track "Invisible Documents" and the (almost) too lengthy 39-minute "Singing". Noticed that some of the solos through out this title went on just a bit too long. Nonetheless, it's a good find. Most fans would consider this live CD to be 'progressive jazz rock'. Line-up: Roman Bunka-guitar,sax&vocals, Christian Burchard (Embryo's only constant member)- drums,marimba&vocals, Edgar Hofmann-violin&sax and Norbert Domling-bass. Worth checking out.

Embryo is a german space band that has been around since 1969. It is lead by drummer Christian Burchard, who has been the only musician from the beginning. The band has varied in size. The band plays European jazz/rock fusion that has evolved over time. Some of it has been fairly spacy while other times it is more conventional. The music has some middle eastern and Indian influences.

This is a live CD, released in 1999 from a 1974 concert. The group is a quartet, consisting of drums, guitar, bass and violin and sax. The music is more on the spacy side, with extremely long compositions. They remind most of early Soft Machine.

The tracks are 20, 31, 38, 9 and 16 minutes long. Each track is significantly different is style and instruments featured. Strangely enough, the 38 minute track is the most interesting throughout. It never drags. If this were a reasonably priced single CD, with only that track, I might give this 5 stars. The first 2 tracks feature a lot of percussion solos, and I think that slows them down. The last 2 tracks seem anti-climatic. The final track is a vibraphone solo and sort of reminds me of Gentle Giant.

The sound quality of this CD is fair, being just better than an audience recorded bootleg. The guitars, sax and percussion come through pretty well. But the flute is distant and the vocals are faint and have an echo. But there are very little vocals and the poor sound quality is usually not much of a detraction. Also, between songs, you can hear someone in the background coughing.

On the cover, there is an incoherent quote from Miles Davis, which featrues a few bad words. I think he is saying he likes the band. A significant comment from Miles Davis for a space rock band.