Futura. Poesia Sonora

[Various Artists]
Futura. Poesia Sonora 
Milano, Italy: Cramps Records, 1989
5 CD box set
Edition size unknown

Often touted as the "most comprehensive anthology focused on past and contemporary sound poetry currents ever produced", this collection was originally released as 7 LP box set in 1978. Edited by Arrigo Lora-Totino, the collection also comes with a book featuring historical, biographical and bibliographical notes, in both Italian and English.

The collection is divided into the following subcategories:

The Futurist Declamation
Zaum: Transmental language
French Simultaneism
Forerunners and Dadaists in Germany
The howl: Antonin Artaud
The howl: the Ultra-Lettrists
and
Sound poetry today

An Antonin Artaud recording from 1947 warrants its own category (or initial full side of one of the seven LPs) and other artists featured in the historical sections include Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Vladimir Majakovskij, Pierre-Albert Birot, Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Kurt Schwitters, Henri Chopin, and Bernard Heidsieck. "Sound poetry today" features Gerhard Ruhm, Brion Gysin, Paul De Vree, Bob Cobbing, Isidore Isou, and Maurizio Nannucci, amongst others.

Reviewers have suggested that the CDs sound as if they were sourced from the LP release, not the original master tapes.