The Trial

Kafka Band is inspired by the work of Franz Kafka for the third time. After the albums Das Schloss (The Castle) and Amerika, the album Der Process (The Trial) will be released by Indies Scope in September 2023.

„The Trial“ is probably the best known of Kafka's three major novel projects. But Kafka didn't finish that one either," says writer Jaroslav Rudiš, who sings and recites lyrics in Kafka Band together with the singer and visual artist Jaromír 99. Both also compose the lyrics. They draw directly from Kafka's work or are inspired by it. The same goes for the musicians.

„The Trial is a novel about powerlessness,“ says Rudiš about the book. On his thirtieth birthday, bank clerk Josef K. is arrested in his apartment. He has no idea why, and he never learns what he is accused of. But he is exposed to the malevolence of a power that has no face. Yet he refuses to give up. The wheels of interrogation start turning. The whole fragment ends a year later in a quarry above Prague, where K. is executed. „Like a dog,“ as Kafka writes.

Both on the album as well as in the concerts, the music is intertwined with literature, Czech with German and dark moments with absurd humour. Kafka wrote in German, but he also knew Czech well. Today, the writer Jaroslav Rudiš also writes in both languages.

The year 2024 marks the centenary of the Kafka's death. And already this year is the 140th anniversary of his birth. Franz Kafka was born in Prague on July 3, 1883 and died on June 3, 1924 in Kierling, Austria. Today he is probably the most famous Prague author.

The album Der Process was recorded by Kafka Band in January 2023 in the Sono studio. The production was handled by the guitarist and bandleader Dušan Neuwerth. The first single will be released in May and the whole album in September. After that, Kafka Band is planning the first series of concerts in the Czech Republic and Germany. More concerts will be announced next year.

KAFKA BAND

A band consisting of musicians involved in well known Czech bands and respected writer Jaroslav Rudiš transformed the famous books Zámek (the Castle, das Schloss), Amerika and lately also Proces (the Trial, Der Process, premiered on 11/2022 in Stuttgart) by Franz Kafka into an original Czech-German-English concert. The band also perfmormed in theater plays Das Schloss and Amerika by Theater Bremen (Germany). New CD The Trial will be released in autumn 2023.