Artist
Bob Cobbing
Bob Cobbing, a pioneer of concrete poetry from the UK, transformed language into sound through 116 experimental releases.
About
Bob Cobbing, an alchemist of language and sound, sculpted the British Poetry Revival into a cacophonous landscape of concrete and performance poetry. His work, spanning from 1920 to 1994, traverses the liminal spaces where text morphs into sound and visual art into ephemeral experience. Cobbing's output, captured in 116 archival releases, is a testament to his relentless drive to dissolve boundaries between mediums. Anchored in the UK, Cobbing's collaborations with labels like Writers Forum and Balsam Flex reveal a process-driven ethos, where each magazine and cassette becomes a fractal of experimentation. Cobbing's ABC in Sound, notably reaching its fifth iteration in 1994, stands as a pivotal release—a sculptural exploration of phonetic architecture. Each edition reconfigures the alphabet into new auditory landscapes, challenging listeners to engage with the materiality of language itself. His process was interdisciplinary, merging poetic improvisation with visual art forms, as seen in releases like Voice Prints (1993) and the Improvisation is a dirty word collection (1990). The Writers Forum, a recurring collaborator, provided a fertile ground for Cobbing's avant-garde vision. This partnership birthed numerous series like Stracci (1988) and BOTHBOTH (1987), where textual and auditory elements intertwine, creating a multifaceted dialogue between paper and voice. In the company of peers like Henri Chopin and François Dufrêne, Cobbing's work resonates within a network of like-minded innovators, each contributing to an evolving conversation in experimental artistry.
Discography
115 totalLiterature
Two Leaf Book Writers Forum
Computer Poems (Writers Forum)
In Line (Writers Forum)
Processual Quintett
Sound of Jade for Clive Fencott (Writers Forum)
Processual Swarf Process Number 10
Three Sequences
Processual Supplement
several Poem Drawings
Typestract 1 (second edition)
Type-Writer Poem
Processual Spin Off
Fingrams (Writers Forum)
Processual ProSexual
Processual Notation
Processual One Writers Forum
Lightsong Two (Writers Forum)
Four Letter Poems (Writers Forum)
Postcard Typewriter-Poem
TokyoKyoto (Good Elf Publications) limited 12 signed
Typestract 2
In Memorian Francois Dufrene - Winter Poem No8J (Writers Forum)
Processual New River Box
Tu To Ratu (Writers Forum)
Processual Three
Or Ro (Writers Forum)
Marcomoviesmatter
Triptych Two (Writers Forum)
Triptych (Writers Forum)
Ginetics Writers Forum
Processual Spin Off Two
A Processual - Nonny Nonny (Writers Forum)
Processual Novation
In any Language
Processual Summation
Poem Drawing 1 Wan do Three
m n hm hn mm 1974
Jade Sound Poems
Processual Four
Processual almost random snippets
Title of the Work
a winter poem
Processual Double Octave
Dadadoo (Writers Forum)
Appeal
Pictureshoot One (Good Elf Publictions)
Point of Departure Computer graphics
Soma Light Song (Writers Forum)
The Scared Mushrooms (Writers Forum)
Poem into landscape (Writers Forum Folder No17)
Rag Mag Mark One (Writers Forum)
ABC in Sound (Writers Forum) 5th edition
Voice Prints (New River Project Vol13)
Improvisation is a dirty word - Collected Poems Vol 12 (Magenta)
Stracci 3 (Writers Forum)
Stracci 2 (Writers Forum)
Stracci 1 (Writers Forum)
Poetry into music (Writers Forum)
Twelve (Writers Forum)
ABC in Sound - 4th edition of Sound Poems (Writers Forum)
BOTHBOTH (Writers Forum)
Entitled Entitled collected poems vol. 11 (Micro Brigade)
Variations on a Theme (Writers Forum)
Metamorphosis - a tribute to bpNichol (Writers Forum)
Vowels and Consequences (Galloping Dog Press)
Jade Sound Poems (Writers Forum)
Processual Two (Writers Forum)
In Memorian Francois Dufrene - Winter Poem No8 (Writers Forum)
In Memorian Francois Dufrene - Winter Poem No3 (Writers Forum)
Girlie Poems Collected Poems Volume 5 (Good Elf Publications)
Bob Cobbing Clive Fencott in New York (El UEL UEL U Writers Forum)
In Memorian Francois Dufrene - Winter Poem No7 (Writers Forum)
Voicings (Writers Forum)
Statue of Liberty Suite (Community Arts Press)
Patterns of performance (Writers Forum)
grin grin (Writers Forum)
Sensations of the Retina (GRONK Intermediate Series IS15)
a Peal in Air Underwhich Editions 1978
ABC - Wan do tree collected poems vol12 1978 (El Uel Uel U publications)
Five Ways (Writers Forum)
Windwound
Number structures (Writers Forum Stockholm)
Cygnet Ring (Tapocketa Press)
Voice Prints (Writers Forum)
Poems for Canada (Writers Forum)
A round Dance (Writers Forum)
Bob Cobbing and Writers Forum Ceolfrith Press 1974
concrete poetry (arc publications / gloup and woup)
The Five Vowels (Writers Forum Folder No 16)
E Colony- A Version
a series of poems 1973 (third edition)
The Judith Poem (second edition)
Trigram 1 2 3 (Writers Forum 1972)
Song Signals (Second Aeon)
free form poetry two (Writers Forum pamphlet eight)
Poem for Voice and Movement 3
Five Visual Poems (Writers Forum Folders no9)
3 Poems for Voice and Movement (writers forum) second ed
Poem for Voice and Movement 2
Koncrete Canticle (Covent Garden Press)

