Paul Lytton

The first solo electronics and percussion by the radical European improvisor since 1979, '?''!' is the culmination of decades of research into and experience of new modes of communication. The disc, recorded and mixed in Germany by Gerald Schauder, features cover art in collaboration between Lytton and Brazilian artist Federico Peñalve.
Lytton, a central figure in the British free improvisation movement of the 1960s and 70s which included Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and Paul Rutherford, was instrumental in reshaping the way drums and percussion were viewed in free music. He is one of a handful of percussionists from that time whose work allowed the drum kit to become even more free from the timekeeping constraints of jazz up to that point; the instrument becoming less a set of drums and more a series of membranes on which to create an atmosphere.
His earliest experiments in homemade instruments and electronics with Evan Parker have spurred generations on to look outside systems with names such as jazz and improv and to explore new modes of communication in the moment. ?! marks the first solo recording of Lytton since 1979's The Inclined Stick on PoTorch. The recording, as expected, is more structural or stratified, than linear or narrative. It allows the listener multiple levels and multiple views into the ever-changing language of one of the 21st century's master musicians.