When you contacted me about the duos, I thought there is nothing more original than playing with a dead person […] which is curious because Derek Bailey is very much alive, especially when we hear his voice and I feel he's sort of sitting here, in the studio, and he's waiting for me and I'm waiting for him and we're not quite sure what's gonna happen. 
„Derek and I always wanted to do a duo recording together and we never quite managed that. Within the later years that we were trying to set something and his health was failing, we would get close to it and he would phone up and say „I'm just not up to it, I can't do it”, and of course he died and I always regretted it – that we never did that. […] So when you contacted me about the duos, I thought there is nothing more original than playing with a dead person […] which is curious because Derek is very much alive, especially when we hear his voice and I feel he's sort of sitting here, in the studio, and he's waiting for me and I'm waiting for him and we're not quite sure what's gonna happen” (John Tilbury on BBC talking about the session).