Ash Ra Tempel, along with Tangerine Dream, was one of the first bands to turn the trippier side of late 1960s psychedelia into the cosmic rock of the 1970s. Formed in Berlin in 1970 by the guitarist Manuel Göttsching, the bassist Hartmut Enke and the drummer Klaus Schulze, it made a self-titled debut in 1971 that still sounds like a jam recorded on the edge of a cliff, and Seven Up (1972) with Timothy Leary as a guest. Most of the ten albums were essentially Göttsching's work, with whoever happened to be around; by New Age of Earth (1976) the name had shortened to Ashra and the music to sequenced, melodic electronics, the road that led to his solo landmark E2-E4 (1984), a founding record of techno and ambient house.

Ash Ra Tempel, along with Tangerine Dream, was one of the first bands to turn the trippier side of late 1960s psychedelia into the cosmic rock of the 1970s. Formed in Berlin in 1970 by the guitarist Manuel Göttsching, the bassist Hartmut Enke and the drummer Klaus Schulze, it made a self-titled debut in 1971 that still sounds like a jam recorded on the edge of a cliff, and Seven Up (1972) with Timothy Leary as a guest. Most of the ten albums were essentially Göttsching's work, with whoever happened to be around; by New Age of Earth (1976) the name had shortened to Ashra and the music to sequenced, melodic electronics, the road that led to his solo landmark E2-E4 (1984), a founding record of techno and ambient house.