Hans Plomp (1944) is a Dutch writer, poet and activist from Amsterdam. His first book was published in 1968 and dealt with his relationship with publisher Johan Polak, a period in which Plomp – much to Polak’s dislike – started experimenting with LSD and other mind-expanding drugs. Later his experiences with hallucinogens would be expressed in the leading drugs manual ‘Uit Je Bol’ (Out Of Your Mind), which Plomp…
Aminita Vulva (a pun on the mushroom species Amanita fulva) is a psychedelic improvisational band from Brussels featuring Bart Sloow, angoulème oridian, Bear Bones Lay Low, Weird Dust and Bonzai Tarzan. ‘Dwellers of Kleine Eiland’ released on Bart Sloow’s own label contains 7 pieces which vary from loose jazzy improvisations to slow and intense dronelike pieces. ‘Ghoulish Belladonna’ is the title of one, ‘Dancing…
Sea Urchin has just published two slim chapbooks that have been put together from a fine pick of papers and have been cut, folded, watercoloured and stitched by hand in limited editions of 15 copies. One is the expressionist poem The Bog (‘Das Moor’, 1913-1914) by German author Gustav Sack and the other the A…
Gustav Sack (1885-1916) grew up in the German village of Schermbeck, close to the Dutch border and the industrial Ruhr district. He attended the grammar school of the nearby town of Wesel and did German Studies and Natural Science at the universities of Greifswald, Münster and Halle before dropping out in 1910. Sack developed an interest in literature during his grammar school days, when he discovered…
‘A Wilderness of Dreams’ is a passage from Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Hans Phaall – A Tale’, an early science fiction tale about a balloon flight from Rotterdam to the moon that was published in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1835. After its first publication ‘Hans Phaall – A Tale’ was revised and reprinted several times and renamed ‘The Unparalleled Adventure of one Hans Pfaall’. A later version, which includes…