Hydra-01.wav, which is my proposed contribution to the compilation, which is titled “Hydrangea - Tribute to BC"
Hydrangea-Notes.pdf, which contains an explanation of the piece and its background (also printed below)
Hydrangea-Image-01.jpg, which is my proposed image, which is based on three sources, which are also included:
BobinCS.jpg, an image of Bob Cobbing performing in Colourscape in August, 2001
Hydrangea-N02.jpg, which is one of the poems Bob made for “Hydrangea”, which I have used for this performance
Hydrangea-P5, which is page 5 of the score of “Hydrangea”, where the “N” poems are found.

Tribute to BC”

Bob Cobbing and I created the collaborative work “Hydrangea” for a performance by the multi-media group Hydra at the National Poetry Centre in 1974. Later it was revived for the second Nettlefold Festival in 1985 in what became the first appearance of the Electroacoustic Cabaret. Bob and Trevor Wishart performed the voice parts, and Evan Parker and Simon Desorgher performed the instrumental parts, while I was at the mixing desk. Also on that programme was the debut of the trio “Random Access” with Bob, Clive Fencott and myself. At that time we made a more formal version of the score, which was published by Writers’ Forum.

“Hydrangea” followed from our collaboration on the “15 Shakespeare Kaku” in 1972. We devised it when I visited Bob while he was in residence at Fylkingen, Stockholm in 1974. It takes the word ‘hydrangea’ and stretches it out for one hour. Bob provided concrete poems in a similar style to that used for the Kaku, based  cut up ‘Letraset’ transfers. He made poems for each letter of the word, which were interpreted by the two vocalists.

For this performance I have used one of the poems, which I interpret while my voice is transformed by my Signal Processing Instrument. I perform both parts live in real time.

My meeting with Bob Cobbing in 1972 had a profound effect on me, which continued over the years until our last collaboration, when he performed at my 60th birthday celebrations in Colourscape in York in 2001, only a year before he died.

Lawrence Casserley - 12 August, 2022

Lawrence Casserley - lawrence@lcasserley.co.uk
Lawrence Electronic Operations - www.lcasserley.co.uk
Eye Music Trust Ltd - www.eyemusic.org.uk