Duets

There are at least four tracks where only two men play

1. Le Clochard where Akkerman plays acoustic guitar and van Leer is on Mellotron.

2. Delitae Musicae where Akkerman is on lute and van Leer on recorder.

3. Holy Graal where only van Leer and Dumee are involved.

4. Focus 9. Just van Leer and Gootjes on the Completely Focussed version.

Some of the tracks on Focus 1985 come into this category. Also, Born to be You on Focus 12 appears to be just van Leer and Gootjes, the composer.

Solo Tracks

Of the 200 tracks listed on this website so far, some 14 or so are solo efforts.

1. Moving Waves. Thijs van Leer sings and plays piano.

2. Britannia Live. On this unreleased track Jan Akkerman plays the lute.

3. Sonata for Flute (Live). Thijs van Leer. This is the first solo flute release.

4. Nature is our friend. Thijs van Leer. This is the second solo flute release.

5. Let us wander. Thijs van Leer. This is the third solo flute release.

6. Drum solo. Pierre van der Linden. This unreleased track can be found on Old Skin.

7. River Dance. Pierre van der Linden. This track from a solo album is on The Focus Family Album.

8. Spiritual Swung. Pierre van der Linden.  This track from the same solo album is also on The Focus Family Album.

9. Two part interventon. Menno Gootjes. Acoustic guitar solo.

10. Hazel. Menno Gootjes. Acoustic guitar solo.

11. Song for Yaminah. Udo Pannekeet. Bass solo.

12. Anaya. Ydo Pannekeet. Bass solo with drum machine.

Bowie and Born to be You from Focus 12, piano solos by Thijs van Leer and Menno Gootjes repectively, need to be added to this list.

Sound effects

A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasise artistic or other content of films and music or other media. Here we are thinking mainly of a sound recorded and presented to make a specific storytelling or creative point. Such effects are found on some few Focus tracks.

1. Elspeth of Nottingham. The sounds of birds and cows can be heard towards the end of the track and this is the first example of such a thing on a Focus recording.

2. Ship of memories. This track closes with wind and seagull sounds.

3. Red sky at night. This track begins and ends with the sound of a wind machine that appears to go on throughout the track.

4. Blizu Tébe. Seagulls are again heard both at the beginning and the end.

5. Flower shower. This strange track includes the sound of a bathroom shower.

6. Aya-yuppie-hippie-hee. At the beginning of this track van Leer blows a clay bird whistle.

7. Nature is our friend. The sound of ducks in the water and then various birds in a wood are heard throughout this track.

8. Let us wander. This track has a similar but different set of nature sounds near water and in woods.

200 Tracks and rising

According to our records, Focus have by now released 200 official recordings. That number is slightly misleading in that three tracks have been released twice - Clair-Obscur, Winnie and Victoria (shorter and longer versions).

So the exact number is 197.

There are

44 live tracks

We include four live albums (Rainbow, BBC, America and Rio) leaving 153 distinct studio tracks.

So 153 studio tracks.

20 or so re-recorded tracks

Sometimes tracks have been re-recorded, the obvious examples being the 9 tracks on Golden Oldies and 11 of the 12 tracks on Completely Focussed but also Birds come fly over and Eddy with different vocalists and two versions of Who's calling, leaving 130.

So about 130 fairly unique studio tracks.

First period - 49

There are 49 tracks from the first period, the Akkerman period - In and out (7) House of the King (1) Moving Waves (5) Focus 3 (9) Hamburger Concerto (6) and Mother Focus (12) plus the "Left overs album" Ship of Memories which featured 9 tracks.

That leaves 81.

Second period - 16

There are 16 tracks in what we might call the middle period, namely the albums Focus con Proby (9) and the album that Akkerman and van Leer did together in 1985 Focus.

That leaves 65.

Third period - 65

Those 65 are from the most recent period and include 10 on Focus 8, 5 on an obscure album dubbed 8.5/Old skin, 12 on Focus 9, 10 on Focus X, 11 on Focus 11, the track Focus 12 and 16 tracks unique to the album Focus Family album.

This third period number now rises to 75 with the release of the ten tracks on Focus 12 in 2024.