The album takes its title from Sebastian Brant's moral satire of the same name. Though first published in 1494, the book's central sentence remains both timeless and relevant: Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur, or – The world wants to be deceived, so let us deceive it.

Although the composition "On the Ship of Fools" is labeled as a scherzo, it is no musical joke, but rather an eerie vision and typical of Jüri Reinvere, whose sources of inspiration are as diverse as his compositions.

People are deceiving each other on Facebook or Instagram, while our politicians are trying to be likeable instead of solving the problems that are urgent, the composer said.

Born in Tallinn in 1971, Reinvere grew up in Soviet-occupied Estonia and received early instruction from Lepo Sumera before moving to Poland and then Finland to continue his studies.

Through his mentor, the Estonian-Swedish pianist and writer Käbi Laretei, he met her then-husband Ingmar Bergman. The Swedish director encouraged Reinvere to study clinical psychiatry and worked with him to develop his narrative frameworks.

Laretei and Bergman also persuaded Reinvere to write poems and essays, and he has since won major awards in Estonia for his essays in the cultural magazine Sirp and the daily Postimees. He also writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany, where he has lived since 2005.

"Ship of Fools" is Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra's 5th recording for Alpha Classics. Previous releases include Shostakovich Symphony No. 6 and Sinfonietta (2018), "Mythos," dedicated to the music of Erkki-Sven Tüür in celebration of his 60th birthday (2019), "Estonian Premieres" (2022) featuring the music of Tõnu Kõrvits, Ülo Krigul, Helena Tulve, Tauno Aints and Lepo Sumera; and "Kratt" (2023), which explores the relationship between Estonia and Poland under Soviet occupation, through the music of Tubin, Lutoslawsi and Bacewicz.

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