Like his previous "Private Parts and Pieces" albums, Ivory Moon is a collection meant to showcase the range of Phillips' compositional and musical abilities, rather than a series of new pieces written with an album already in mind. With the exception of his playing keyboards on Mike Rutherford's Smallcreep's Day (1980), this was the first time Phillips had been on an album that did not feature his guitar work to some extent.
The album cover is a work entitled "Sea-Dogs Motoring" by Peter Cross, based on an impression of Leith Hill Tower in Dorking, England. As per most Anthony Phillips albums, the liner notes to Ivory Moon contain a running joke reference to Phillips's friend Ralph Bernascone: "Ralph Bernascone appears courtesy of Ravaged Records".
The photography on the album is credited to "Pierror Krols and Vic Stench of Thrombosis". This is also a running joke: "Vic Stench" is one of Phillips' pseudonyms.
Ivory Moon was reissued on compact disc by Virgin Records in 1991, and by Blueprint Records in 1996. These reissues include a new recording, based on Phillips' original September 1968 piano version, of the Genesis song "Let Us Now Make Love".
Produced by Anthony Phillips.