The group was founded by Göttsching, drummer
Klaus Schulze, and bassist
Hartmut Enke in 1971, following their participation in
Conrad Schnitzler's short-lived group
Eruption. Prior to Eruption, Schnitzler and Schulze had played together in
Tangerine Dream. Ash Ra Tempel released its self-titled debut album in June 1971; it is considered by critics to be a classic of the krautrock genre. Following the album's release, Schulze left for a solo career and subsequent albums utilized different drummers, frequently augmented by additional musicians. In 1972 the band collaborated with
Timothy Leary, who was living in exile in Switzerland; an album,
Seven Up, was released in 1973. On February 28, 1973, a reunion concert performance with the original line-up took place in
Cologne. An album featuring the original three plus added vocalist Rosi Müller,
Join Inn, was released later that year. After
Join Inn, both Schulze and Enke departed and for the next album —
Starring Rosi — the band was credited as only Göttsching and Müller, with special thanks to Harald Grosskopf on drums and engineer
Dieter Dierks, who played bass. In 1975 Göttsching released a solo album,
Inventions for Electric Guitar, that was subtitled "Ash Ra Tempel VI" — dubbing it the sixth Ash Ra Tempel album. Later that year Göttsching collaborated on the soundtrack for
Philippe Garrel's
Le berceau de cristal with Lutz "Lüül" Ulbrich of
Agitation Free. The soundtrack's first commercial release — under the Ash Ra Tempel banner — wasn't until 1993. The next Ash Ra Tempel album, 1976's
New Age of Earth — for all intents and purposes another Göttsching solo album — was re-released the following year under the band name
Ashra, signaling the end of Ash Ra Tempel. Ashra continued to release music into the early 2000s. When
Julian Cope, musician and author of
Krautrocksampler, invited Göttsching to perform at his April 2000 Cornucopea festival, an attempt was made to once again reunite the original trio. Unable to convince Enke to participate, Göttsching and Schulze nonetheless resurrected the Ash Ra Tempel name for the performance, releasing an album of new material —
Friendship — later that year. ==Musical style and influence==