JUDGES

ABOUT

JUDGES is a science-fiction audio drama by Rafał Ryterski. It premiered on 16 August 2025 at Sanatorium Sonorum in Pěčice, Czechia. Its first draft was created during an artistic residency in Pěčice, from October to December 2024. Organised by Studio Hrdinů, the festival is an international presentation of sonic arts and projects developed through artistic residencies. JUDGES may also be performed live by the composer, using the recorded voice of Kuba Golla.

The story unfolds in the future, on a devastated Earth abandoned by humankind. Three post-humans - Theseus, Anna and Bruno - arrive to investigate an unknown life form that has spread through the planet’s toxic environment. What initially appears to be a fungal organism capable of surviving amid the ruins of a former civilisation gradually reveals itself as an entity that remembers the life of Earth and seeks contact. Their encounter brings back emotions, desire, fear, tenderness and pain - everything their post-human society has learned to suppress. At the centre of the narrative is the intimate relationship between Theseus and Bruno, put to the test by an encounter with the unknown.

The music drives the narrative and creates its dreamlike, unsettling space. Minimalist structures and sonic landscapes give way to dense noise textures and heavier beats. Drawing on ambient and noise, the sound world is shaped primarily from synthetic sound, using the Digitone II and SOMA Pulsar synthesizers, as well as the Synplant plug-in by Sonic Charge.