Akkerman gained international fame with Focus from 1969 - 1976. In 1973 Melody Maker declared him the 'Best guitarist of the world', above Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Including live albums, Jan has released 30 solo albums and has collaborated with a number of musicians including Alan Price (The Animals), Jack Bruce and Ice T. '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). The album can be considered as one of Jan's most varied works, while this record is his first album in almost 30 years that also gets a vinyl release. The album took well over a year to complete and talking about it Akkerman says, "The title was inspired from a simple notion, that when you are too close to an object you cannot see the real value. The same applies to music."