He began to write new material at a considerable pace, completing the arrangements to "Which Way the Wind Blows", "God if I Saw Her Now", and "Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times" on the 12-string guitar within ten days of leaving the group.

He put demos of these songs to tape at the studio set up in his parents' home between late July and early August 1970, receiving assistance from friends Harry Williamson and former Genesis roadie David Rootes.

At one point, he listened to a piece by Jean Sibelius and had "one of those strange revelations" and realised he was "terribly limited" and "narrow" as a musician, and declared to himself that his guitar playing lacked enough technique.

[3] Phillips tackled this by halting development on his songs and taking lessons in piano and classical guitar, and studied orchestration and harmony over the course of the following four years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Demos of the latter two were recorded at Island Studios in November 1973 with producer Rhett Davies, the former dating back to 1969 as a parting farewell to Genesis drummer John Silver.

"Autumnal" was an orchestral piece that Phillips had recorded with the orchestra at Guildhall School, but it was later removed from the final track listing due to the dissatisfaction from Charisma management.

After choosing the final track running order, the two agreed to begin recording the basic guitar parts at Send Barns, the home of Phillips's parents in Woking, Surrey.

To finance the project, Rutherford had pitched the album to Charisma and the label agreed to an advance of £3,000 which they used to purchase two reel-to-reel TEAC 4-track tape machines, a mixing desk, and outboard equipment.

[2] After Rutherford left the project for upcoming touring commitments, matters changed in October 1974 after Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett had injured his hand, which pushed the opening dates back one month.

[2] The pair soon ran into technical difficulties as the TEAC machines were creating static clicks that were heard upon playback, causing visits from numerous people who were able to fix the problem.

[2] After Genesis wrapped up touring in May, Rutherford reunited with Phillips, and the pair decided to place the finished overdubs onto 16-track tape to facilitate the parts yet to be recorded.

He was the subject of a prank from Phillips, who initially handed him a flute part that he described as "Stravinsky on speed" with notes too difficult for him to play, leaving him "quake inside" for several moments before he received the real arrangement.

[2] This was during the rise of punk, making its quasi-classical compositions, blatantly progressive rock song titles (e.g. "Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times"), and rococo cover art remarkably ill-suited to the contemporary market.

"[7] Paul Stump, in his History of Progressive Rock, said The Geese and the Ghost served as the template for nearly all of Phillips' solo work, and praised it as "orchestrated with innocent and idiosyncratic delicacy; the flavorful sonorities of woodwind against chiming spider-webbed guitars crossed an allusive, stylized folk texture with the churchy chord sequences that had always dominated Genesis's music.