Rahman Mammadli + Embryo feat. Sumanth Manjunath

In the organizer's words:

Rahman Mammadli

Rahman Mammadli, was born on March 9, 1961 in Fuzuli, Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. He first learned the accordion. He secretly took his relative's harmonica and played it. In 1975, he asked for his relative's guitar and started playing without a teacher, he learned by himself. He was called up for military service in 1980. He finished his military service in 1982 and returned to his homeland. In 1983, he entered the Azerbaijan State Art University named after Mirzaga Aliyev, and in 1988 he graduated from that University. From 1983 to 1990, he worked as an artistic director at the Culture House of Bilajari Railwaymen. During these years, he also played tar and guitar in the ensemble of Azerbaijani folk instruments named after Ahmad Bakikhanov. Later, at Zeynab Khanlarova's invitation, People's Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan, he continued as a solo guitarist in her ensemble. Together with that ensemble, he performed in various countries. Rahman barely composed but performed like no other folk songs, mughams and folk dances. He played at weddings, made TV appearances, and recorded numerous cassettes with small local labels. In the late 2000s, he kept on playing his music outside his country. In 2008, he played his guitar at the invitation of eight Turkish television channels, programs and television concerts. An album was also produced at that time by a major music company and promoted in European countries. From 2016 he performed concerts program in different cities of Islamic Republic of Iran and was later invited in United States of America where he performed in the cities of Dallas and Houston, Texas.

Currently, he works as a tar teacher at children's music school in Fuzuli city. In November 2023, he participated in the international music festival "Le Guess Who" held in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Playing live with his son, composer-pianist and music director Tural Mammadli. He is currently working on a new album.

Embryo feat. Sumanth Manjunath

Embryo is a unique music collective from Munich that combines Kraut Rock Jazz, free improvisation, inner and non-European rhythms and sounds like no other. Embryo has existed since 1969, spanning generations, genres and borders. They have played with Mal Waldron, Okay Temiz, Fela Kuti, Charlie Mariano and many others.
Marja Burchard, daughter of founder Christian Burchard, took over the band she grew up in in 2015. Since then, Embryo has lived on with her and is always looking for new sounds, rhythms and ideas from those who think differently.
On this evening: Sumanth Manjunath, a young virtuoso on the violin from Mysore, South India. He comes from a musical tradition and represents the 4th generation of his large family of musicians. Even as a young boy he had lessons from his grandfather and great violin master Sri Mahadevappa, his uncle Vidwan Mysore Nagaraj and his father Dr. Mysore Manjunath.
Sumanth Manjunath met Marja Burchard, Jakob Thun and Maasl Maier last summer and they immediately hit it off both musically and personally and quickly found out that they had musician friends from South India such as Karthik Mani (son of Ramamani and T.S.A. Mani) from the Karnathaka School of Percussion in Bangalore, whose parents had already met Marja Burchard's father with Embryo in Bangalore in 1979, which was documented in the famous "Vagabunden Karawane" film by Werner Penzel.
An evening full of meditation and virtuoso expression with a great joy of playing. Jazz rock meets South Indian traditional music and forms new sound formations never heard before.

Sumanth Manjunath - violin, vocals
Marja Burchard - vibraphone, organ, santoor
Maasl Maier - bass, flute
Jakob Thun - drums