Focus 12

A new Focus album is officially released today. Like other recent albums, its cover is graced with a pleasing piece of Roger Dean artwork. The opening two tracks - the tongue in cheek titled Fjord Focus and Focus 13 (yes 13, not 12) have been out for a while. These are the first two of a total of ten tracks, all written by our lead man Thijs van Leer, except for tracks 4-6 by the other members of the band. In reverse order - Born to be you is by Menno Gootjes, All Aboard is by Udo Pannekeet and Meta Indefinata is credited to drummer Pierre van der Linden, though it is not a drum track. As with any Focus album, it takes a while to get into what is going on but initial impressions are positive. All the tracks, as one might expect, are instrumental, although to have no vocals or voices at all is unusual if not unique. Acoustic guitar and flute are heard and plenty of piano and even may be some synthesisers appear. Uniquely, Bowie is a solo piano piece from van Leer. Born to be you is piano heavy too with no drums or bass as is the opening of Bela. One of the tracks was apparently completely improvised in the studio (Meta Indefinata).