The Focus Family Album
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The Focus Family Album
''The Focus Family Album'' is the thirteenth studio album by the Dutch progressive rock band Focus (band), Focus. It's a compilation album, and shares the same concept with 1976's ''Ship of Memories''. A total of 15 previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions are included on this set. Track listing Production From the CD's liner notes Disc one "Nature Is Our Friend" The first of solo pieces by Thijs, recorded in early 2017 on his 1989 Muramatsu flute, especially for ''The Focus Family Album''. Recorded by Geert Scheijgrond. "Song for Eva" The second of two tracks recorded during the ''Focus X'' sessions, but not included, due to its long length on an album which already flowed well. Eva is Thijs's second eldest daughter and the spoken word portion comes from "They Say That Hope is Happiness" by Lord Byron (1788-1824). "Riverdance" The first piece from Pierre's ''Drum Poetry'', an album he initially made for friends only from sessions to experiment into h ...
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Focus (band)
Focus is a Dutch progressive rock band formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by keyboardist, vocalist, and flutist Thijs van Leer, drummer Hans Cleuver, bassist Martijn Dresden, and guitarist Jan Akkerman. The band has undergone numerous formations in its history; since December 2016, it has comprised Van Leer, drummer Pierre van der Linden, guitarist Menno Gootjes, and bassist Udo Pannekeet. They have sold one million RIAA-certified albums in the United States. After the addition of Akkerman to Van Leer's rock trio in late 1969, the band named themselves ''Focus'' and initially worked for a Dutch production of the rock musical ''Hair''. Their debut album ''Focus Plays Focus'' (1970) gained little attention but the follow-up, '' Moving Waves'' (1971), and its lead single " Hocus Pocus", earned the band international recognition. Their success continued with ''Focus 3'' (1972) and ''Hamburger Concerto'' (1974), the former containing their second hit single, " Sylvia". After recording two al ...
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Progressive Rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its " progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Progressive rock is based on fusions of styles, approaches and genres, involving a continuous move between formalism and eclecticism. Due to its historical reception, the scope of progressiv ...
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Instrumental Rock
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instrumental rock was most popular from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, with artists such as Bill Doggett Combo, The Fireballs, The Shadows, The Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes and The Spotnicks. Surf music had many instrumental songs. Many instrumental hits had roots from the R&B genre. The Allman Brothers Band feature several instrumentals. Jeff Beck also recorded two instrumental albums in the 1970s. Progressive rock and art rock performers of the 1960s and 1970s did many virtuosic instrumental performances. During the 1980s and 1990s, the instrumental rock genre was dominated by several guitar soloists, including Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai. The 2000s gave way to a new style of instrumental performer. For example, John ...
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Jazz Fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll. Jazz fusion arrangements vary in complexity. Some employ groove-based vamps fixed to a single key or a single chord with a simple, repeated melody. Others use elaborate chord progressions, unconventional time signatures, or melodies with counter-melodies. These arrangements, whether simple or complex, typically include improvised sections that can vary in length, much like in other forms of jazz. As with jazz, jazz fusion can employ brass and woodwind instruments such as trumpet and saxophone, but other instruments often substitute for these. A jazz fusion band is less likely to ...
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Hard Rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard rock music was produced by the Kinks, the Who, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the late 1960s, bands such as Blue Cheer, the Jeff Beck Group, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Steppenwolf and Deep Purple also produced hard rock. The genre developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with the Who, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple being joined by Queen, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Kiss, and Van Halen. During the 1980s, some hard rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock.V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, ''All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul'' (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), ...
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Focus 8
The discography of the progressive rock band Focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ... consists of 11 studio albums, 1 compilation album, 6 live albums, and 8 singles. Studio albums Compilation albums Live albums Singles References External links * {{Focus Discographies of Dutch artists Rock music group discographies Pop music group discographies ...
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Focus 11
''Focus 11'' is the fourteenth studio album by Dutch progressive rock band Focus (band), Focus, released in November 2018 on in and Out of Focus Records. It is their first album to feature bassist Udo Pannekeet, who replaced Bobby Jacobs in 2016. Track listing # "Who's Calling?" (Thijs van Leer) – 5:27 # "Heaven" (van Leer) – 4:26 # "Theodora Na Na Na" (van Leer) – 4:27 # "How Many Miles?" (van Leer) – 4:48 # "Mazzel" (van Leer) – 4:23 # "Winnie" (van Leer) – 5:13 # "Palindrome" (van Leer) – 5:33 # "Clair-Obscur" (van Leer) – 3:14 # "Mare Nostrum" (Udo Pannekeet) – 5:08 # "Final Analysis" (van Leer) – 3:51 # "Focus 11" (van Leer) – 6:11 Personnel * Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, organ, piano, synthesizers, Western concert flute, flute, vocals * Menno Gootjes – guitar * Udo Pannekeet – bass, mixing * Pierre van der Linden – drums * Geert Scheijgrond – producing, mixing References

* http://www.focustheband.co.uk * https://progjazz.nl/releases/ ...
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Progressive Rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its " progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Progressive rock is based on fusions of styles, approaches and genres, involving a continuous move between formalism and eclecticism. Due to its historical reception, the scope of progressiv ...
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Ship Of Memories
''Ship of Memories'' is the sixth studio album from the Dutch rock band Focus, released in 1976 on EMI-Bovema. It's a compilation album. During a period of group inactivity, longtime associate Hubert Terheggen asked their producer Mike Vernon to select previously unreleased material for official release. Compiled without any active involvement by any band member, the recordings date from January 1970 to mid-1975, and largely during unproductive recording sessions in 1973 for a follow up studio album to ''Focus 3'' (1972). Production The first four songs were recorded in May 1973 at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. "P.'s March", though seemingly a pun on "peace march", was meant to be "Pierre's March" in honour of the drummer, Pierre van der Linden. The second, or "B" motif first appeared as a "B" motif in the song, "Carmen Elysium", on Thijs van Leer's "Introspection 2" album. Written in the classical style by Thijs van Leer, but performed with ...
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Thijs Van Leer
Thijs van Leer (pronounced: ; born 31 March 1948) is a Dutch singer and keyboardist, best known as the founding member of the rock band Focus as its primary vocalist, keyboardist, and flautist. Born and raised in Amsterdam among a musical family, van Leer took up the piano and flute as a child and pursued them at university and music academies. From 1967 to 1969, van Leer performed in a theatre cabaret act headed by Ramses Shaffy as his backing vocalist and musician, recorded singles as a solo artist, and produced, arranged, and conducted music for Bojoura. He formed Trio Thijs van Leer, a three-piece rock band which evolved into Focus in late 1969 following the addition of guitarist Jan Akkerman. Focus achieved international success following the release of '' Moving Waves'' (1971) and its lead single, " Hocus Pocus", which features van Leer's yodelling and whistling. After several albums with various line-ups, van Leer disbanded Focus in 1978; he reformed the band in 2002. V ...
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Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the greatest of English poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy Narrative poem, narratives ''Don Juan (poem), Don Juan'' and ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage''; many of his shorter lyrics in ''Hebrew Melodies'' also became popular. Byron was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, later traveling extensively across Europe to places such as Italy, where he lived for seven years in Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa after he was forced to flee England due to lynching threats. During his stay in Italy, he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks rev ...
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Pierre Van Der Linden
Pierre van der Linden (born 19 February 1946) is a Dutch drummer, songwriter and member of the band, Focus. Biography Van der Linden was influenced by his childhood hero Buddy Rich. He finds inspiration in French philosophers and classical composers of the twentieth century. For drumming, he is influenced by Tony Williams and Elvin Jones. Van der Linden practises his drumming technique each day, at least one hour on his practise pad. He avoids modern tuning and prefers to use open tuning, closer to a jazz than a rock drummer, and adopts a mix of matched grip and traditional grip. Away from music, van der Linden enjoys painting and writing poetry. In the 1990s he joined the free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ... group Advance Warning and played on four album ...
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