Reed, the Magenta mastermind, devised the work as an entirely one-man project, and planned it as his personal version of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

He recently told Prog: "I wanted to play all the instruments, and for them all to be real - no synthesisers. The next four weeks were a bit of a blur as the music just came out. It turned out to be the most enjoyable album I've made."