Moving Waves

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Of course, Akkerman and van Leer were exceptional in writing to each others’ strengths as musicians: Akkerman’s “Janis” is really a showcase for van Leer’s multitracked flute parts, while Akkerman totally steals the show with his guitar arpeggios on van Leer’s fusion track “Focus II. The latter theory is demonstrably false, which makes me wish the folks in their commune had traded Tarkus for a copy of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Once again, the combined talents of Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman and drummer Pierre van der Linden work a truly special kind of magic.

It went on to peak at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, [6] number 8 on the US Billboard 200, [7] and number 4 on the Dutch Album Top 100 chart. Focus II (better known by its international title, Moving Waves) is the second studio album by Dutch progressive rock band Focus, released in October 1971 on Imperial Records.Having recently seen the new incarnation of Focus in a recent gig (with Thijs and Pierre), I promptly bought a stack of Focus CDs and would recommend this to any Focus and indeed non-Focus fan as it simply exudes fantastic musicianship. The Dutch quartet’s second full-length album, Moving Waves —alternately titled Focus II —is one of the least-probable success stories of the early part of the 1970s. Proof that Focus was capable of pulling off pretty much anything in those days can be found in “Eruption,” a 22-minute hard rock rendering of Jacopo Peri’s opera Euridice that canvases the record’s second side. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Focus II was recorded from 13 April–14 May 1971 at Sound Techniques and Morgan Studios with Mike Vernon as their producer.Tommy" features a guitar solo and was named and written by Tom Barlage of the Dutch fusion band Solution. You come out of the adrenaline rush of Hocus Pocus to the gentle acoustic guitar of Le Clochard, so perhaps this was not the best way to start an album; play your ace first. The group wanted to incorporate an element of humour in the track because they felt it was missing in the rock genre.

Le canzoni sono tutte molto belle e alcune delle piccole perle , una tra tutte la sezione di Eruption denominata "Tommy" (in onore di Tom Barlage , sassofonista olandese membro dei Solution , dal quale è stata presa e rielaborata in forma chitarristica la linea di sax sulla canzone "Divergence" dell'omonimo album).Focus was formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by keyboardist, vocalist, and flautist Thijs van Leer, bassist Martin Dresden, drummer Hans Cleuver, and guitarist Jan Akkerman. The album features " Hocus Pocus" a hard rock song featuring keyboardist Thijs van Leer's yodelling, scat singing, and whistling, and "Eruption", a 22-minute track inspired by the opera Euridice by Italian composer Jacopo Peri. My pal Martijn informs me that “If “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” didn’t exist, “Hocus Pocus” would be the greatest song ever.