Soft Need #23 is the final issue of a little mag founded by Udo Breger back in 1973. Planned as another mag, Soft Need #23 ended up as a book of 260 pages with more than 80 contributors from all over the world & 190 illustrations. Soft Need #23 is a book conceived in the spirit of friendship. Dedicated to Ian Sommerville, mathematician, friend & collaborator of William Burroughs & Brion Gysin, it contains literary essays, photographs, poetry, visual art, caricature, memories & and all kinds of bits & pieces.
Udo Breger in his own words:
“In the beginning was the word. Two words, actually: SOFT NEED. They came to me in 1973 as an aftermath of a three weeks’ stay across Xmas and New Year’s with Gysin and Burroughs. SOFT NEED – two words that somehow formed themselves late one Göttingen night in the wake of my Duke Street experience. Was it briefly before or shortly after Ian Sommerville’s visiting me in February ‘73, I don’t recall. We had met on Xmas Eve, and Ian had had an immediate crush on me. So, SOFT NEED somehow also had to do with love. Now, there I was, stuck in emotionally rough times, and had a name, a label without a product to hang it on. At first I thought a local psychedelic rock group might be interested, but they were not. And when, weeks later, they called, having changed their minds to: Yes! – it was too late, since I already had made up my mind and named a new English-language little mag SOFT NEED 8, to be published in the fall of 1973. Followed in the years to come SN#9 (1976), and SN#17 – The Brion Gysin Special (1977), all in print-runs of 300-500 copies; and now, after a long, long break, as a result of Luzius Martin’s friendly lobbying, a final issue was decided: Soft Need #23 – a publication in book-form with a focus on Burroughs, Gysin, dedicated to Ian Sommerville.”
With contributions by: Abdel Azim Mohamed, Assunta – Andersen, Eric – Armleder, M. John – Burroughs, William S. – Chapman, Harold – Corso, Gregory – Cooper, Mike – Esch, Matthias – Gatewood, Charles – Ginsberg, Allen – Gysin, Brion – Haddock, Phil – Harms, Win – Harris, Oliver – Hausswolff, Carl Michael von – Heil, Axel – Hesse, Gregory – Hillebrand, Ulrich – Hochuli, Andreas – Hopkins “Hoppy”, John – Hope 1930, Andy – Kohlhöfer, Christof – Lebel, Jean-Jacques – Léger, Suzie – Levi Landes, Louise – MacFadyen, Ian – March, Michael – Matta, Roberto – Matta, Ramuntcho – Meinzer, Dirk – Miles, Barry – Neurath, Thomas – Nicosia, Gerald – Pehlke, Wolf – Pennington, Jim – Ploog, Jürgen – Reed, Jeremy – Resnick, Marcia – Smith-Groves, Maketa – Snyder, Gary –- Stevens, Matthew Levi – Szasz, Audrey – Tripp, Jan Peter – Weibel, Peter – Willi, Jean – Wilson, Robert – Wilson, Terry – and many others.
Limited edition 
Also available is a limited edition of Soft Need #23, which contains the above book plus 2 photographs by Udo Breger: Ian Sommerville in Duke Street and William Burroughs at the Bunker plus two 7″ singles. One 7″ contains: Brion Gysin & Ramuntcho Matta – Junk and on the flipside William Burroughs – The Wild Boys, a reading at SUNYAB State University of New York. The other 7″ has Sonic Boom – Thinking (Long & Hard) on one side and Papiro – Dream Journal (for Udo) on the other. This limited edition of 69 copies is 179,00 euros.
Deluxe edition
An even more limited edition of 9 copies contains the book, the two singles and either three photographs by Ian Sommerville of William Burroughs at Glastonbury, 1973 or three photographs by Udo Breger of Burroughs and John Giorno, Burroughs and James Grauerholz and Brion Gysin under his window in Paris. This limited de luxe edtion is 359,00 euros.