Terry Fox & Joseph Beuys - Isolation Unit 7"

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Label: The Lab

Edition of 500.

Originally self-published by Terry Fox in a hyper limited edition, this reissue was reproduced as part of the catalog for Terry Fox: Resonance at The Lab, San Francisco in 2019.

"Isolation Unit" was a collaboration between Terry Fox and Joseph Beuys performed at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany, November 24, 1970. The record represents the final twelve minutes of the event, which lasted approximately one hour.

The first sound heard on the record is Terry Fox striking an eight-inch pipe with a one-inch iron pipe. The mouth of the pipe is directed toward a window frame containing four panes of glass. The pipe is struck and acoustically dead spots are searched for in the glass by listening to the echo. When those spots are found, the glass is shattered.

There is a candle burning behind the window frame. When all of the panes are broken, the wooden cross is knocked out of the frame and an attempt is made to bend the candle flame with the sound wave emanating from the pipe.

Then the small pipe is struck on the floor in search for the dead spots in the glass of a burning light bulb. At this time, Beuys begins eating a Cherimoya fruit, spitting the seeds one at a time into a small silver bowl at his feet. These two sounds continue simultaneously until the fruit is consumed.