Anyone’s Daughter were among the finest and best-loved of Germany’s symphonic progressive bands — a Stuttgart group who, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, played a melodic, keyboard-rich prog closer to British masters like Genesis and Camel than to the krautrock around them. Across four albums from “Adonis” (1979) to “In Blau” (1982), led by the warm voice of Harald Bareth, they made some of the most accomplished German prog of their era.

The short version

Formed in Stuttgart in 1972 and named after a Deep Purple song, Anyone’s Daughter spent years playing covers before emerging with the acclaimed “Adonis” (1979). Their melodic, symphonic prog — keyboard-led, tender and ambitious — peaked with “Piktors Verwandlungen” (1981), a setting of a Hermann Hesse fairy tale that became their biggest success. Beginning in English and later switching to German, they were one of the most popular German prog bands of their time.

Stuttgart: a British-style band in Germany

Anyone’s Daughter began in Stuttgart in 1972, founded by the teenage guitarist Uwe Karpa and keyboardist Matthias Ulmer, who took the band’s name from a Deep Purple song. For years they played covers of English groups — Deep Purple, Cream — alongside their own material in Stuttgart youth centres. When drummer Hansi Derer joined, he brought with him the singer and bassist Harald Bareth, whose voice would come to define the band. After a string of line-up changes, and with drummer Kono Konopik now in place, they finally released their debut album in 1979.

Symphonic, melodic, keyboard-rich

Anyone’s Daughter looked across the Channel rather than to their krautrock neighbours, playing a melodic, keyboard-rich symphonic prog in the British tradition of Genesis, Yes, ELP and Camel. Matthias Ulmer’s banks of keyboards — Moog, Hammond, Fender Rhodes and string synths — gave the music its lush foundation, over which Uwe Karpa’s Steve-Hackett-inspired guitar and the tender, earnest voice of Harald Bareth, often likened to Greg Lake, carried the melodies. Long, suite-like epics sat alongside shorter songs, and while their accessible style anticipated the neo-prog to come, they retained a real instrumental virtuosity. They sang in English at first, turning to their native German from their third album on.

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Adonis to In Blau

The debut, “Adonis” (1979), remains one of their best-loved records, dominated by its sidelong, four-part title epic — twenty-odd minutes of soaring keyboards, languid guitar and explosive crescendos. Its self-titled follow-up, “Anyone’s Daughter” (1980), turned to shorter songs and gave the band a radio favourite in “Moria”. Their peak came with “Piktors Verwandlungen” (1981): a forty-minute setting of a fairy tale by the German author Hermann Hesse, narrated by Harald Bareth, that had long been the centrepiece of their concerts and became their biggest success — and their first album in German. “In Blau” (1982) leaned further into the poetic and lyrical, including the three-part meditation on death “Tanz und Tod”. With over five hundred concerts and more than a hundred thousand albums sold, they were among the most successful German prog bands of their day, until the classic line-up split in 1984.

Album by album

Four albums of melodic, keyboard-led German symphonic prog. Tap any title for its guide.

The players and afterwards

At their peak Anyone’s Daughter were Harald Bareth, Uwe Karpa, Matthias Ulmer and Kono Konopik, with Peter Schmidt later taking over on drums. The classic line-up came to an end in 1984 when Harald Bareth left for military service — he would go on to a career in medicine, as a hospital radiologist — and the band drifted apart. Karpa and Ulmer reformed the group with new musicians in 1986, and again in 2000, with Matthias Ulmer remaining the one constant presence through the years. But it is their run of albums from 1979 to 1982 on which their reputation rests.

Where to start

Begin with “Adonis” (1979) — the debut and the perfect showcase for their symphonic ambitions, built around its magnificent side-long title piece. From there, the self-titled “Anyone’s Daughter” (1980) offers their more song-based side and the lovely “Moria”, while “Piktors Verwandlungen” (1981) is their most ambitious statement. Together they capture one of the great German symphonic bands at full stretch.

Why they still matter

Anyone’s Daughter matter as one of the leading lights of German symphonic prog — proof that the British tradition of Genesis and Camel found worthy heirs across the Rhine. Melodic, accomplished and quietly ambitious, they brought a real warmth and craft to the style, and their early albums remain favourites among lovers of symphonic rock. For anyone exploring German prog beyond krautrock, they are essential listening.

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