Moving Waves

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Moving Waves
Studio album by Focus
Released	October 1971
Recorded	1971
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	41:40
Label	Imperial/EMI-Bovema Sire Records I.R.S. Records (1991)
Producer	Mike Vernon
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1]
Focus chronology
In and Out of Focus (1971) Moving Waves (1971) Focus III (1972)

Moving Waves is the 1971 second album by the Dutch band Focus. It includes the hit "Hocus Pocus" which features yodelling and operatic falsetto from Thijs van Leer combined with Jan Akkerman's heavy metal guitar. Even though the sound was highly experimental, it became very successful peaking at #9^[2] in the Dutch Top 40 and later becoming popular in the United States with a #9 position^{[citation needed]} on the Billboard Hot 100 and a #2 position^[3] in the UK Albums Chart.

The album also features "Eruption" − a 23 minute long adaptation of Jacopo Peri's opera Euridice, which tells the tale of Orpheus and Euridice.

Track listing

1. "Hocus Pocus" (Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman) – 6:42
2. "Le Clochard" (Jan Akkerman) – 2:01
3. "Janis" (Jan Akkerman) – 3:09
4. "Moving Waves" (Thijs van Leer, Inayat Khan) – 2:42
5. "Focus II" (Thijs van Leer) – 2:56
6. "Eruption:" -23:04
   1. "Orfeus" (van Leer) – 1:22
   2. "Answer" (van Leer) – 1:35
   3. "Orfeus" (van Leer) – 1:20
   4. "Answer" (van Leer) – 0:52
   5. "Pupilla" (van Leer) – 1:03
   6. "Tommy" (Tom Barlage) – 1:45
   7. "Pupilla" (van Leer) – 0:34
   8. "Answer" (van Leer) – 0:21
   9. "The Bridge" (Akkerman) – 5:20
   10. "Break" – 0:24
   11. "Euridice" (van Leer, Eelke Nobel) – 1:40
   12. "Dayglow" (van Leer) – 2:02
   13. "Endless Road" (Pierre van der Linden) – 1:43
   14. "Answer" (van Leer) – 0:34
   15. "Orfeus" (van Leer) – 0:51
   16. "Euridice" (van Leer, Nobel) – 1:37

Track descriptions

The aforementioned "Hocus Pocus" is Focus's biggest hit and has gained the band fair popularity.

"Le Clochard" is a two minute acoustic guitar composition backed by mellotron. Comparisons can be made to "Horizons" on Genesis's Foxtrot album.

"Janis" is a flute ballad with mellow guitar throughout.

"Moving Waves" is the only song (other than the yodeling of Hocus Pocus and the "Pupilla" sections of Eruption) that contains vocals. It is mainly classical piano accompanied by vocals.

"Focus II", the second song in the "Focus" series, is a moving guitar ballad which contains some of Akkerman's best playing.

The 23 minute "Eruption" is split into 16 different parts and reincorporates themes such as "Orfeus", "Answer", and "Euridice" quite frequently. The sixth section, "Tommy", consists of a lengthy Akkerman solo accompanied by operatic humming from van Leer.

"Eruption" is regarded to be Focus's best song and one of the greatest progressive rock instrumentals of all time.^{[citation needed]}

Personnel

• Thijs van Leer – piano, Hammond organ, synthesizer, mellotron, harmonium, flutes, accordion, vocals
• Jan Akkerman – guitars, bass guitar, percussion
• Cyril Havermans – bass guitar, vocals
• Pierre van der Linden – drums, percussion.

References