Carl Weissner (1940-2012) was a German writer, translator, publisher, cut-up artist and musician. As a student of English Language and Literature he founded the literary magazine Klactoveedsedsteen, which introduced poets and writers such as Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Jeff Nuttall and William Burroughs to a German audience.

While still a student, Weissner went to the US in 1966 on a prestigious grant and recorded readings by Beat poets, which he released on vinyl a couple of years later in collaboration with Gerard Bellaart’s Cold Turkey Press. This Klacto/Cold Turkey LP (plus a number of additional recordings) was later re-issued on CD by Klacto/Cold Turkey/Sea Urchin. Carl Weissner translated works by William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Andy Warhol, J.G. Ballard, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa and others.

After Klactoveedsedsteen he founded the literary magazines UFO and Gasolin 23. Weissner collaborated with William Burroughs and was an inventive cut-up writer himself.

Death in Paris is one of Weissner’s last books, an experiment in ‘noir’ and a cut-up novel with roots in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Each copy of Death in Paris bought through Sea Urchin comes with a small print of one of Weissner’s collages (courtesy of Jan Herman).

Bone Hebrew contains poems, letters, and drawings by Sinclair Beiles, tributes to and memories of Beiles by Heathcote Williams, Lilliane Lijn, and Yannis Livadas, photographs and artwork, all lovingly compiled and edited by Beiles’s friend Gerard Bellaart.

Bone Hebrew is a beautiful tribute to the mad and lost poet from South Africa.

“But, despite all this, the sad, mad and bruised old mind that was Sinclair Beiles was at root the mind of a natural ecstatic, a luftmensch, of the kind that society is always inclined to punish for one reason or another, which is why unreason is sometimes such an attractive escape route…” (Heathcote Williams)

Also available from Cold Turkey Press: the new Heathcote Williams poems Dylan and An Iraqi Child.

Mole’s Milk & Other Pieces documents a number of improvised collaborations of members of Dutch electro-acoustic ensemble Kapotte Muziek (Frans de Waard, Roel Meelkop, Peter Duimelinks) and Dutch artist Ben Schot.

The audio CD contains four recordings of memorable and intense performances under the monikers “Wieman” (2010 & 2012), “Kapotte Muziek” (2003), “The Whi” (with Puck Schot, 2010), and “Death Pact” (with vocalist Sjak van Bussel, 1999). Great stuff.

→ A drop of Mole’s Milk will set you right