Founded in 1968 as Power of Music, the band toured after successful live performances in their Scottish homeland and in Germany as the opening act for well-known artists of the time such as Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple and Free. Renamed Northwind, the quintet with Brian Young (vocals, guitar), Hugh „Shug“ Barr (guitar), Colin Somerville (org, p), Tom Brannan (b, voc) from Glasgow and Dave Scott (dr, perc) from Edinburgh recorded the demo album Peaceful for the Beatles label Apple Corps Ltd. In the same year, 1971, they played their debut album Sister, Brother, Lover... at Regent Sound Studios in London with Tony Chapman as producer, which was released on the EMI sub-label Regal Zonophone. The cover, with its very impressive atmosphere of the coast at sunset, aptly visualises the progressive soft rock, partly acoustic, with calm and melodious organ and guitar passages.

Although the album sold over 10,000 copies in the UK and France and the band continued to tour successfully, they received little support from their management and label. As a result, they split up a year later. Their first and only album has since become a highly sought-after collector's item.