Ashra (band)

History

Ash Ra Tempel played their last concert in February 1973, and their final album Starring Rosi was recorded later that year, featuring future Ashra member Harald Grosskopf. After the band dissolved, Göttsching remained musically inactive until 1975, when he released his debut solo album Inventions for Electric Guitar, which introduced effects he would later use with Ashra in a more basic form. Later that year, Göttsching was commissioned to record a film soundtrack; the resulting album was released in 1993 as Le Berceau de Cristal under the Ash Ra Tempel name, though none of the other original members appear.

Instead, Göttsching was backed by former Agitation Free guitarist Lutz "Lüül" Ulbrich, who would later collaborate with him as Ashra. In 1976, Göttsching debuted as Ashra with New Age of Earth on Isadora Records, an album on which he played all instruments. A second solo Ashra album, Blackouts, followed in 1977. The third Ashra album, Correlations, was released in 1979 and featured Ulbrich on guitar and keyboards and Harald Grosskopf on drums.

This lineup released one further album, Belle Alliance. In 1981, the band performed on the Spanish television program "Musical Express" and played a jam session with Neuronium and Teddy Bautista. In the mid-1980s, the trio recorded Tropical Heat, though it was not released until 1991. The duo of Göttsching and Ulbrich released Walkin' the Desert in 1990.

The band's next album, Sauce Hollandaise, a live album recorded in the Netherlands, was released in 1998 and is now out of print; for this album the trio was joined by Steve Baltes, who also featured in the @shra series, the first of which was released in 1998. The @shra series, embracing a more techno-oriented sound, is the band's last new recording to be released. Göttsching died in December 2022.