Deluxe box. CCC Recordings and Marco Bakker jointly present Ira Cohen – Electronic Multimedia Shaman, the second installment in what promises to become an ongoing series of homages to countercultural icons from the USA and beyond, following last year's acclaimed Lionel Ziprin box. This meticulously curated edition celebrates Ira Cohen, the self-proclaimed "multimedia shaman" whose visionary work bridged Beat poetry, experimental photography, and countercultural mysticism.

Born to deaf parents in the Bronx in 1935, Cohen developed his visual language early, learning to communicate through multiple sensory channels. His extraordinary journey took him from Tangier in the 1960s, where he lived among William S. Burroughs and Paul Bowles, to Kathmandu in the 1970s where he founded the Starstream poetry series under his Bardo Matrix imprint, and finally to Amsterdam where he created the legendary Bandaged Poets series with Caroline Gosselin. This hour-long tape features rare recordings captured at the Knitting Factory and at Ruigoord, the artist village near Amsterdam that Cohen helped sustain through his presence and performances. Ruigoord, saved from demolition by writers like Hans Plomp, became a crucial haven for international experimental artists, and Cohen's recordings there represent some of his most intimate and powerful vocal work.

The collection includes a chapbook featuring remembrances by Florian Vetsch, who has championed Cohen's work in Europe; Robert Yarra, longtime friend and documentarian of the downtown scene; and a poem by Louise Landes Levi written in tandem with Ira. Landes Levi was Cohen's close collaborator, poet, musician and translator who worked with him on numerous projects throughout their friendship. These texts provide essential context for understanding Cohen's position as a bridge between the Beat Generation and the international experimental community. Cohen's photographic work in his "Mylar Chamber" created some of the most iconic images of the 1960s counterculture, capturing Jimi Hendrix, Allen Ginsberg, and countless other luminaries in reflective, otherworldly states. His 1968 film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda, with soundtrack by Angus MacLise, remains a landmark of experimental cinema. Yet it was his poetry—written, he claimed, by "opening himself to otherworldly voices"—that formed the core of his mystical practice. This limited edition of 50 copies includes a postcard, facsimiles of a manuscript poem, a personal mailcard, and a flyer for an Amsterdam reading, plus three high-quality photoprints by Dutch photographer Marco Bakker, numbered and signed. Each element reflects Cohen's belief in the integration of visual and verbal arts, his understanding that true shamanic work required multiple media to reach multiple dimensions of consciousness. Electronic Multimedia Shaman captures Cohen at the height of his powers, performing the vocal poetry that he developed through decades of international wandering and mystical seeking. These recordings document not just a poet, but a cultural catalyst whose apartment on the Lower East Side served as a crossroads for jazz musicians, Beat writers, experimental filmmakers, and spiritual seekers from around the world.