The late Mal Dean did a series of cartoons in 'Melody Maker', including one of this duo. In it, Parker is playing a drainpipe, complete with grating and running water. Lytton's kit seems mainly to be constructed out of Spitfire parts. Those sorts of oppositions always informed this duo, in countless ways. Parker's robin, in search of worms, serenaded by a distant car crusher.
Music can and does sound like something else.
His circular breathing, which often flummoxes the most resourceful partners, brought out some of Lytton's most original playing. At the time of this recording, circular breathing was a newly rediscovered art, Parker being the first free player to incorporate it seamlessly into his musical language. In '72 some of his trademarks were beginning to blossom - the incredible tonguing technique, the circular breathing. By '74 his virtuosity was well in place. Lytton is the more subversive of the two, but one longs for the live presence of the man and his instruments.