It features a line-up of Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley, Paul Morley and Lol Creme, along with other appearances from John Hurt, soprano Sally Bradshaw, Rakim, and Donna Lewis.

The group blended the music of French impressionist composer Claude Debussy with drum and bass, opera, hip hop, jazz, and narration, to create a concept album which they described as "the soundtrack to a film that wasn't made about the life of Claude Debussy.

The polybag contained several sheets of 5×5" paper listing people and groups who were inspirations; two cardboard cover pockets, one containing the album, and the other an EP titled Sources & Methods with the following five tracks: "Moments In Love", "Close (To The Edit)", "(Three Fingers of) Love", "Beat Box (Diversion 1)", and "A Time For Fear (Who's Afraid)".

This version, retitled The Production of Claude Debussy and described as a "producer's cut", was included on the 2015 compilation Art of Noise at the End of A Century.

From 24 June through 30 September 1999, people who purchased the US edition of The Seduction of Claude Debussy from certain vendors received, by email, a code which could be used to order a custom CD-R containing 5 to 12 (initially, 5 to 10) previously unreleased tracks from the group's early years, with one of three titles, each with its own cover art: Bashful, Belief System, or An Extra Pulse of Beauty.