Looking at the music of Dutch rock band Focus, started in the late sixties by Thijs van Leer (b /31/03/48) with Jan Akkerman (b 24/12/46). Van Leer still performs and records under the name today (official site here). Akkerman's site here.

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20240224

Track by track 173 Mare Nostrum

Archive number: 173
Title: Mare Nostrum
Main Album: Focus Family 11
Track number: 9
Genre: Progressive Rock Instrumental
Studio: WedgeView Studios, Netherlands
Length: 5:08
Composer: Udo Pannekeet
Key: C
Musicians: Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ; Menno Gootjes – Guitars; Udo Panekeet – Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums
Producer: Geert Scheigrond
Engineer: Geert Scheigrond
Label: In and Out of Focus Recordings
Date of recording/release: November 2018
Alternative recording: None
Notes: The whole band begin together with a laconic guitar-led melody slightly changing arouf the one minute mark. At about 1:53 the drums energetically lead into a jauntier section. The guitar work  grows increasingly more energetic. At around 4:32 it slows before quickly closing with drums and the whole band.
Mare Nostrum is the Latin for "Our Sea" and was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea. In the decades following the 1861 unification of Italy, Italian nationalists and Italian fascists who saw Italy as the successor state to the Roman Empire attempted to revive the term.

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