The Abrahadabra Letters — Coil Correspondence, 1984–1988

The Abrahadabra Letters collects the correspondence between John Balance and Anthony Blokdijk across the years 1984 to 1988. This Second Edition is published by Korm Plastics, following an earlier edition issued by Maldoracca in 2016. The current edition is a hardcover of 136 pages measuring 170 × 240 mm, designed by Alfred Boland and prefaced by Nick Soulsby.

The Correspondence

Between 1984 and 1988, Blokdijk visited Threshold House in London and exchanged letters with Balance. The letters move between practical matters — performances, releases, the logistics of underground exchange — and the more personal register that ran through Coil's early formation. Balance's voice shifts between direct notation and a charged, idiosyncratic tone, reflecting a period of active formation rather than retrospective reflection.

Supplementary Material

The volume extends beyond the letters themselves. Two Coil-related articles from Blokdijk's own Abrahadabra magazine are included, alongside an interview he conducted with Coil for the Dutch magazine Opscene. Translations of the reproduced magazine material are included. This supplementary layer situates the private exchange within a wider context of underground music print culture in the mid-1980s — zines, correspondence networks, and small-press publication as the connective tissue of a scene working outside mainstream distribution.

The Object

The book reproduces scans of the original correspondence, preserving Balance's handwriting and decorative marks as they appeared on the page. The publication functions as archival document and physical object at once: Balance's language and rhythms remain directly visible rather than filtered through editorial summary. The current edition's format — hardcover, 170 × 240 mm — is suited to legible reproduction of the original documents.

Contributors

John Balance was co-founder, writer, and central voice of Coil, and his correspondence carried the same intensity and idiosyncratic charge found in the music. Anthony Blokdijk maintained direct contact with Coil during the period covered here; his role in the book extends beyond preservation, adding context through Abrahadabra and Opscene and shaping private exchange into a readable document of scene history. The foreword is by Nick Soulsby; design is by Alfred Boland.

Who This Is For

This publication is suited to researchers and readers with a serious existing interest in Coil, experimental and post-industrial music history, mail art, and underground print culture of the 1980s. It sits within the broader Music Books, Sound Art & Underground Culture collection as a precise, intimate document rather than a retrospective overview, and alongside other John Balance titles in the catalogue. The reader is assumed to bring their own context.

Publisher

The Abrahadabra Letters is published by Korm Plastics, the imprint founded by Frans de Waard, whose catalogue concentrates on sound culture, experimental music, and related documentary publications.