In the early 1970s, members of The Source Family, who lived in the former Harry Chandler mansion in Los Feliz in the Hollywood Hills, formed an improvisational, psychedelic music group.

[citation needed] Most were pressed in small runs of 500 to 1000 copies on the Higher Key label and sold to the public in Father Yod's vegetarian restaurant.

[3] By the end of 1974, the Source Family had tried to move to Hawaii but were met with hostility, which forced them to temporarily relocate to Northern California before eventually returning.

It was recorded in the spring of 1975, just after Ya Ho Wha's spontaneous visit to India, which culminated in his initiation in the Great Pyramid of Giza on Easter Sunday.

This LP represents the first recording Ya Ho Wha made after his "resurrection" in the Great Pyramid, and is also his last full collaboration with the band.

[3] After Father Yod / Ya Ho Wha's hang-gliding accident and death in Hawaii in 1975, the original Yahowa 13 band dissolved, though many of the members continue to make music.

The original LP pressings of all incarnations of Ya Ho Wha 13 are now very rare and valued highly by music collectors; the albums Contraction and Expansion are especially sought-after.

They are currently working on their new live/studio album[needs update], and appeared at The South by SouthWest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in Spring of 2010 - playing with experimental psychedelic bands The Acid Mothers Temple and Plastic Crimewave Sound.