COBBING, BOB - Ballet of the Speech Organs

"Bob Cobbing: an English poet and a senior and major exponent of the international concrete poetry movement. Cobbing practiced both visual and sound poetry, and has made more effort than most concrete poets to liberate the text from the page into performance contexts. The unity of the creative project of Cobbing was guaranteed by his division of labour between self-publishing and performance. Cobbing said the ‘the ABC of Sound made him believe that he could become a professional’. Cobbing made a series of 17 pamphlets and sheets called ‘Processual’ between 1982 and 1985 using his photocopier as a new poetic tool and as the latest mode of production of Writers Forum. Cobbing wrote the Third ABC in Sound during his 80th year in 2000." - Robert Sheppard

"Cobbing describes the first time he used words in a non-semantic way (1959). Now does no belive that there are any distinction beween music and art and poetry and dance. He indicates that he does not notate his sound poems because "every shape one sees on a page, conjures up a sound - any sound one hears conjures up a pattern, a mark on the page. Ross asks Cobbing about his sound scores [abstract markings] and how he reads these marks. He cites Norman McLaren who drew a sound track on film. McLaren stated that "a thin line will give you a high sound, a thicker line will give you a lower sound. If you make a little tiny point it'll give you a high 'ping,' if you make it a rounder blob, a biggr blob, it'll give you a 'boom'..." Cobbing indicates than when he makes marks on paper, he writes in sound. Cobbing tells about a painting he made that was exhibited in a library entitled "Integration alone is not enough" (1962/1963) in which Margaret Thatcher, then a local representative saw and pronounce it obscene. She told the librairian that it was obscene because it was full of sperm!" - Marvin Ruth Sackner

Underwhich Editions was a literary publisher of destinctive editions: books, chapbooks, hand-made editions, and unusual formats, as well as audiocassettes of sound poetry, spoken word, and contemporary electroacoustic music." - Discogs