Amon Düül was a West German political art commune formed out of the student movement of the 1960s that became well known for its free-form musical improvisations. This spawned two rock groups, Amon Düül (sometimes referred to as Amon Düül I) and the more famous Amon Düül II. After both groups disbanded in the 1970s, some of the original members reunited in the 1980s under the name Amon Düül again, though this incarnation is commonly referred to as Amon Düül UK to avoid confusion with earlier versions of the band. Origins 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. The word Düül originally had no intended meaning. 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. Later, the commune would add Bauer's sister Ella, Helge and Angelika Filanda, Uschi Obermaier, 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 —Germany's first underground festival—as two groups, "Amon Düül" and "Amon Düül II", at the suggestion of drummer Peter Leopold. Amon Düül engaged in exuberant open-ended experimentation that at times equalled their psychedelic rock equivalents in countries such as the USA or Brazil (e.g. Os Mutantes), with a focus on political activities. The members were close to Kommune 1 in Berlin and boasted, for a time, a prominent member in the model and activist Uschi Obermaier. Amon Düül signed a contract with the firm Metronome Records, and continued for seven years with varying degrees of success and in various guises. They wound down in 1973 after releasing four official albums (and a posthumous fifth),