Focus II

Focus II
Cover of the international edition under the title Moving Waves
Studio album by Focus
Released	October 1971
Recorded	13 April – 14 May 1971
Studio	Sound Techniques (London) Morgan (London)
Genre	Progressive rock instrumental rock jazz fusion hard rock
Length	41:40
Label	Imperial
Producer	Mike Vernon
Focus chronology
Focus Plays Focus (1970) Focus II (1971) Focus 3 (1972)

Focus II (better known by its international title, Moving Waves) is the second studio album by Dutch progressive rock band Focus, released in October 1971 on Imperial Records. Following the departure of original bassist Martin Dresden and drummer Hans Cleuver in 1970, the band recruited Cyril Havermans and Pierre van der Linden, respectively, and prepared material for a new album. Focus recorded Focus II in London in April and May 1971 with Mike Vernon as producer. The album features "Hocus Pocus" a hard rock song featuring keyboardist Thijs van Leer's yodelling, scat singing, and whistling, and "Eruption", a 22-minute track inspired by the opera Euridice by Italian composer Jacopo Peri.

Focus II was released to a mostly positive response and remains one of their most commercially successful albums, reaching No. 2 in the UK, No. 4 in the Netherlands, and No. 8 in the US. "Hocus Pocus" was released as a single in the Netherlands in July 1971, followed by its international release in 1973, where it reached No. 9 in the US and No. 20 in the UK.^[1][2] The album is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling 500,000 copies in the US.^[3]