The Topography of the Lungs is an album by saxophonist Evan Parker, guitarist Derek Bailey and percussionist Han Bennink recorded in London on 13 July, 1970 and became the first release on the Incus label.

Original copies of the album came with a typed letter that stated: The bulk of the revenue from any Incus recording will go directly to the musicians.... Once the basic cost of each record is recovered, thus providing the finance for the next, the vast bulk of all income will be paid in royalties to the artists.

The album's back cover consists of a collage of encyclopedia pages and brief phrases such as "Frederick Rzewski writes about free improvisation and makes sense" and "If you like to draw or paint, this booklet could help change your life."

The Allmusic review by Dan Warburton called it "one of the landmark early albums of English free improvisation" and states "Despite the music's furious energy – verging at times on the downright violent, thanks in no small part to the irrepressible Bennink – proceedings do not lack a sense of humor".

[4] Henry Kuntz wrote that "the importance of a record such as Topography of the Lungs can now be heard as an intuitive first leap in the direction of independent expression, of the players stepping forward and taking a fully assertive role in the making of the music rather than one of mainly responding to/interacting with the environment around them".