The saxophonist and flautist Helmut Hachmann and the drummer Wolfgang Spillner knew each other from a previous band. Years later, in 1970, they teamed up with the two resident musicians from a Hamburg pub – the guitarist and singer Harald Gleu and the bassist Michael Ufer – and formed the band Ardo Dombec. The quartet played an earthy, sometimes bluesy jazz-rock, dominated by Hachmann’s saxophone, accompanied by sparkling jazz guitar and driving rhythms. They recorded their first and only album with eight own compositions in just three days, from 13 to 15 August 1971, at the Windrose Studios in Hamburg.

It was released that autumn on Rolf Ulrich Kaiser’s legendary Pilz label and distributed by BASF. Production was handled by in-house producer Jürgen Schmeisser, who had previously been responsible for albums by Dies Irae, Blackwater Park, McChurch Soundroom and Virus for the BASF sub-label. Although they were often compared to Colosseum, incorporated additional progressive elements with virtuoso flute playing, and English-language vocals, their self-titled debut LP was not a success. The band split up at the turn of 1972/73. The album, with its bizarre cover, which shows a blood-stained ice-cream cone with a cactus peeking out of it, is one of the rarest records on the Pilz label, as it is said to have been pressed in a run of just 2,000 copies.