In early 1974 Joseph Beuys Klaus Staeck and Gerhard Steidl sat in a Boeing 747 from New York
to Düsseldorf returning home after Beuys' American tour. The trip had been a controversial
success and its every stage carefully documented by Staeck and Steidl in videos photographs
and audio-their trusty Sony TC-50 cassette recorder was always at Beuys' side during his
lectures conferences and workshops. To relieve the boredom of the flight the three listened
to some of the recordings and Beuys surprisedly noticed just how much he laughed: why not edit
this laughter into a single surreal track? Steidl subsequently gave the original tapes to the
young sound engineer Siegfried Schäfer who set to work reducing bass and background noise and
created a final edit of 20 minutes. Steidl played this master to a delighted Beuys who decided
to issue it as an audiotape edition in the mold of his 1969 recording Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja Nee
Nee Nee Nee Nee (Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No). Yet the master tape of Beuys
Laughing was then sadly lost for a period of 46 years only to resurface in 2020. Now
re-mastered and digitized by Schäfer and Pauler Acoustics it is finally available to the
public in a limited-edition vinyl EP. Co-published with Edition Staeck Heidelberg Limited
edition of 2 000 records
