A glimpse into the electronic pioneers’ formative years .

Months after Kraftwerk was formed in Düsseldorf during 1970, the group appeared on German television show Rockpalast in one of their first performances.

Read more: The sample legacy of Computer World, Kraftwerk’s most influential album

Their 48-minute set features founding members Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, alongside drummer Klaus Dinger with pianist Michael Rother.

The avant-garde outing saw the group experimenting with distortion and organ sounds, mixed with post-krautrock rhythms.

During the early 1970s, Kraftwerk began to explore synthesizers, drum machines and effects in their music; this lead to the group cultivating a self-described “robot pop” sound as they became innovators of electronic music.

Watch the performance in full above.