As the title suggests, the ten songs that make up The Jester’s Quest in the City of Glass tell the story of a comical knave and his journey in search of a mysterious prize. Along the way he meets wise flowers, alcoholic angels, mermaids, shape-shifting fortune-tellers, aged magicians, shining metal men and a whole shipful of fools. His journey represents a particular human life, but also the quest and fate of Everyman, and has echoes of some of the great legends of pursuit, from Moby Dick to Scooby Doo, from Robinson Crusoe to The Pilgrim’s Progress, from The Wizard of Oz to The Hunting of the Snark. Some of the songs are the also musical tributes to bands beloved of Lyrian and of the dedicatee of the album. The music is progressive through and through, with Mellotrons in evidence, flutes and pipes, acoustic guitars and synthesizers, and a great variety of voices, playing the parts of the various protagonists. Narration is provided by superannuated thespian Brian Nash (Paul Nash’s father). The album is full of jests, but in deadly earnest, and of sober philosophy, but in pure jest.

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