At 72 years old, the supremely gifted guitarist Jan Akkerman will be releasing ‘Close Beauty’, his first studio album in eight years on Friday 25th October, and a track from the album, 'Tommy's Anniversary', is today's Track Of The Day. Akkerman was a founding member of Focus from 1969 to 1976 where he recorded a number of breakout albums including ‘Focus II/Moving Waves’ (1971), which spawned the mega-hit ‘Hocus Pocus’, plus ‘Focus 3’ (1972) which featured another hit single ‘Sylvia’. That year Melody Maker declared him the ‘Best guitarist of the world’, above Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page! ‘Close Beauty’ is the return of the distinctive ‘Akkerman-sound’, which runs like a thread through twelve compositions; acoustic, electric, solo performing and accompanied by his own band, Marijn van den Berg (drums), David de Marez Oyens (bass) and Coen Molenaar (keyboards).