Karel Čapek's RUR, by Binaural Space

Karel Čapek's RUR

by Binaural Space

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Lord Dust Found this album because of the RUR theme. unlike a lot of other ambient soudtrack albums I have listened to on bandcamp this one follows through with the theme. A good experience that tells the story it sets out to tell.

emiliolelias my love for this is very confusing Favorite track: Robot Soul.

P Coleman (Architrave) When an artist takes another artist's work and expands upon it in a new way it can be a revelation. Binaural Space accomplishes that here. I'd go so far to say that I'd LOVE to see this expanded in length for a modern dance/ballet performance.

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Cassette + Digital Album
Yellow cassette with red handwriting in a red case, dedicated & signed by Binaural Space.

Each copy was real-time recorded directly from analog master played on a fabled Marantz deck to a warm and beloved old Nakamichi deck. Every single copy is unique and has desired little artefacts like warble, flutter or wow, making your cassette a hearty lo-fi original.

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Includes unlimited streaming of Karel Čapek's RUR via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Prologue 02:06	buy track
2.	Helena 03:29	buy track
3.	History 03:26	buy track
4.	Married 01:35	buy track
5.	Robot Soul 02:12	buy track
6.	Radius 01:22	buy track
7.	Humankind 02:03	buy track
8.	Manuscript 01:53	buy track
9.	Annihilation 01:39	buy track
10.	Epilog 02:46	buy track
11.	Moment of Silence 02:06	buy track

about

100 years ago today, on January 25, 1921, Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. had its world premiere in Prague's National Theatre. This album commemorates this anniversary.

Čapek's play was a fundamental work about artificial, factory-assembled servants called "robots", a word derived from Czech term for forced serfs' labour. This word was suggested to Čapek by his brother Josef but it was the very play, R.U.R., that introduced it to the world. Without R.U.R. – Rossum's Universal Robots – there wouldn't be Asimov's three laws of robotics, no androids, no replicants, no other humanoids for a much longer time.

For me personally R.U.R. is the most significant and important play written in the 20th Century for us today: Čapek's robots weren't equipped just with physical power but also with brains capable of independent thinking. And as thus they preceded what we now call Artificial Intelligence. Current robots made by companies like Boston Dynamics are for those informed by Čapek more chilling and scary than entertaining and the same applies for various AI systems being developed across the Globe, some of them being used by us and influencing us on a daily basis. There is a big forewarning concerning them in R.U.R.

But the play itself is not just fundamental – it is beautiful, brilliantly written and unforgettable. I was very lucky that my friend, a roommate from the dorms where I lived during my studies, opened the world of the arguably best Czech theatre of that period for me some 20+ years ago. I didn't care about theatres we went to with schools but I would give my heart to that one immediately.

The most crucial performance for me happened five years after we began going to the Klicpera Theater in Hradec Králové regularly. A new director, David Drábek, would start a new, wonderful epoch there with the very R.U.R.

I was totally enchanted and fascinated by the play so I went to see it several times, although I lived in another city and had to travel back by very early morning trains. On one of the performances I even did something I wouldn't repeat, ever: I took a few pictures – that's how obsessed I was with the experience. And because the premiere of the play took place the very year I started dating a fantastic girl, I took her there with me, too. I was happy to see she also felt the huge power of Čapek's masterpiece. So I married her. ;-) And that friend/room-mate who had opened the world of theatre to me would join us as my best man, of course.

Today, 15 years later, and 100 years after the premiere night, I am thrilled, humbled and nervous to share with you my own treatment of R.U.R. The play itself had its American premiere in 1922 and in 1937 it was adapted for radio broadcast there. I've used excerpts of that adaptation on this album because its 80-year-old naiveté impacted and inspired me in a different way than modern theatrical sound effects would.

I love R.U.R. and I adore Karel Čapek. In this way I daringly merged my musical journey with Čapek's creative genius and, perhaps, participated on the evolution of the beloved play for new audiences. Now I'm linked with "RUR" forever, like generations of creators before me and it feels both scary and awesome. I'm very happy I followed the little idea I had last July when visiting Čapek's Museum with my aforementioned wife and our two kids. The six months of immersion, search for the right form and seemingly never-ending editing are now over and the album isn't mine anymore; it's yours.

If only one person loves this like I loved that performance 15 years ago, I'll be satisfied and happy. And if it inspires anyone to think about AI in a different way, my mission with "Karel Čapek's RUR" will have been accomplished.

Enjoy your listening adventure and thank you for your support as well as for reading – not just this; in general.

Binaural Space, 25th January 2021, mere 10 km from where RUR was premiered 100 years ago today

credits

released January 25, 2021

Artwork by pH

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Binaural Space

Ambient traditionalists say to Binaural Space what the Emperor said to Mozart: “Too many notes.” In both cases, the rest of the world tends to disagree.

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