Page "Amon Düül" Paragraph 1

Amon Düül began in 1967 as a radical political art commune of Munich-based artists calling themselves, in part, after the Egyptian Sun God Amon.

Düül, which is probably a fictive word, came from a Canadian band's album, Tanjet, which was highly appreciated by band members.

This album contained a self-created mythology with an element called " dyyl ", but it was transformed into " düül " by Amon Düül members, to create a more Germanish, and at the same unusual sounding word.

Led by Ulrich Leopold, Amon Düül included Ulrich's brother Peter Leopold ( 15 August 1945-8 November 2006 ), together with Austrian Rainer Bauer and Chris Karrer on guitars.

Karrer has since claimed that, " the only original thing from that period which hasn't been released yet is a 1967 recording of the basic Amon Düül band.

" Later, the commune would add Bauer's sister Ella, Helge and Angelika Filanda, Uschi Obermeier, Wolfgang Krischke, Falk Rogner and Renate Knaup.

The commune attained underground popularity for its free-form musical improvisations, performed around the happenings and demonstrations of the youth movement at the time.

The commune had a liberal attitude to artistic freedom, valuing enthusiasm and attitude over artistic ability, and as a result, band membership was fluid ; anyone who was part of the commune could be part of the group.

They issued a declaration: " We are eleven adults and two children which are gathered to make all kinds of expressions, also musical.

" A faction within the commune was more ambitious, conventional and musically structured than the commune society overall.

This led to a split within the collective, and in September 1968 they performed at the International Essen Song Days — Germany's first underground festival — as two groups, " Amon Düül " and " Amon Düül II ", at the suggestion of drummer Peter Leopold.