Embryo is a musician collective based in Munich, founded by the drummer Christian Burchard after he left Amon Düul II in 1969. Together with Edgar Hofmann, a saxophonist popular in Munich’s underground jazz clubs, the two played with various other musicians until a permanent line-up with bassist Ralph Fischer and the English guitarist John Kelly was established for the first recording. With the support of four further guest musicians, they recorded their debut album Opal in April 1970, produced by the band themselves. It was released with an abstract cover design by Reinhard Hippen as the fourth release on Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser’s legendary Ohr label.

The album presents an original and innovative blend of psychedelic jazz fusion, free jazz, space rock and early British progressive hard rock, fused with traditional ethnic music, very free, very improvised. Their first album is now regarded as one of the most influential albums to have contributed to the genre of psychedelic jazz-rock avant-garde. Although the band’s original line-up did not last long, many more releases were to follow, as Embryo is one of the few German bands to have endured to the present day. This is probably due to the fact that it is a musical collective through which hundreds of musicians have come and gone over the years, with the multi-instrumentalist Christian Burchard as its founder and constant driving force.