The Abrahadabra Letters - John Balance & Anthony Blokdijk

The Abrahadabra Letters — Coil correspondence, private exchange, and underground print culture

The Abrahadabra Letters gathers a body of correspondence between John Balance and Anthony Blokdijk from the years 1984 to 1988. The letters move through practical matters such as live appearances and releases, but they also open onto personal exchange, mood, and the unstable atmosphere around Coil’s early world. Because the book reproduces scans of the original pages, including Balance’s decorative marks and handwritten flourishes, it works as both document and object.

What makes the book especially strong is the way it holds private and public material together. Alongside the letters themselves, it includes two Coil-related articles from Blokdijk’s Abrahadabra magazine and an interview he conducted with Coil for the Dutch magazine Opscene. That combination gives the publication a wider frame. It is not only a correspondence archive, but also a compact map of underground music print culture in the mid-1980s.

The result is unusually direct. Rather than reconstructing John Balance through later commentary, the book allows his own language, rhythms, and visual habits to remain visible on the page. For readers interested in Coil, Threshold House, mail art, zine culture, and experimental music history, this is a precise and intimate publication rather than a retrospective summary.

Threshold House, Abrahadabra, and Opscene

• Collects John Balance letters from 1984–1988
• Includes scans of the original correspondence
• Adds two Coil texts from Abrahadabra
• Includes a Coil interview for the Dutch magazine Opscene
• Useful for readers of Coil, underground music press, and archival music books

Edition details for The Abrahadabra Letters

• Title: The Abrahadabra Letters
• Authors: John Balance & Anthony Blokdijk
• Publisher: Korm Plastics
• Publication date: 8 November 2023
• Format: correspondence archive / music book / artist document
• Binding: hardcover
• Size: 17 × 24 cm
• Extent: 136 pages
• Language: translations included
• Foreword: Nick Soulsby
• Design: Alfred Boland

Publisher / Manufacturer: Korm Plastics
Country of origin: Netherlands
Website: https://www.kormplastics.nl

Email: info@kormplastics.nl
Address:
Korm Plastics / Frans de Waard
Acaciastraat 11
6521 Nijmegen
Netherlands

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