The Marionette and the Music Box is a 2003 concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 by the instrumental rock group, Unwed Sailor

Unwed Sailor

Unwed Sailor is a mostly instrumental band formed in 1998 by Johnathon Ford. Unwed Sailor's recordings range from instrumental rock to ambient drones. The band's touring and recording line-ups have largely been in rotation over the years, with the core member being the band's founder, Johnathon Ford...

. The album consists of 17 instrumental tracks, each of which coincide with a painting by graphic artist Jamie Hunt in the included booklet. The paintings and song titles tell the story of a marionette

Marionette

A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...

 who journeys out of his cottage and discovers a music box in the woods nearby. The pages following their initial meeting go on to detail the entrance of a mysterious unicorn, the marionette's subsequent "enchantment", his "hopeless pursuit" of the unicorn, and eventually his return to the open arms of the music box. The album was released on compact disc, vinyl, and also in a hardcover book which included large versions of all the paintings in the CD and vinyl booklets, along with the compact disc attached to the back cover.

Track listing

1. "Morning in the Forest" – 0:51
2. "The Marionette's Cottage" – 1:09
3. "Cuckoo Clocks. The Call of the Windmill" – 2:39
4. "The Windmill's Tale of the Music Box Floats Through the Air. Riding the Windmill" – 5:32
5. "The Music Box" – 1:22
6. "In Search of the Music Box" – 1:37
7. "The Meeting of the Marionette and the Music Box" – 0:55
8. "The Floating Waltz" – 1:14
9. "At Peace in the Forest" – 1:12
10. "Asleep in the Forest" - 2:28
11. "Behold the Unicorn!" – 0:26
12. "The Distraction. A Conflict of Interest. Enchanted by the Unicorn" – 3:37
13. "The Separation. A Hopeless Pursuit" – 2:27
14. "Lost and Alone" – 5:37
15. "The Return to Open Arms" – 0:52
16. "The Embrace" – 1:10
17. "Jubilee" – 4:38