ROBOT ORCHESTRA (May, 1954)
ROBOT ORCHESTRA
ONE of the world’s most unique orchestras—made up entirely of robots—plays nightly at the Robot Club in Antwerp, Belgium. Designed and constructed by the club owner, Zenon Specht, the electrically-controlled musicians can play anything from tangoes to bop, changing their expressions to suit the mood. The customer is provided with three songs for a nickel and then the robots sit down. When another nickel is fed to them, the boys get up and swing out three more numbers. Their motion is controlled by perforated tapes looking like player piano rolls.
And I thought those guys at Chuck E. Cheese were scary!!!
Comment by Trey — August 10, 2006 @ 11:48 am
Actually I have one that looks a lot like Chuck E. Cheese. I’ll see if I can find it, it was quite scary.
Comment by Charlie — August 10, 2006 @ 12:43 pm
[...] ROBOT ORCHESTRA ONE of the world’s most unique orchestras—made up entirely of robots—plays nightly at the Robot Club in Antwerp, Belgium. Designed and constructed by the club owner, Zenon Specht, the electrically-controlled musicians can play anything from tangoes to bop, changing their expressions to suit the mood. The customer is provided with three songs for a nickel and then the robots sit down. When another nickel is fed to them, the boys get up and swing out three more numbers. Their motion is controlled by perforated tapes looking like player piano rolls. [...]
Pingback by Los Premios Lanark | Orquesta Robot — August 11, 2006 @ 12:52 pm
Hello, from about the same time, but in France, “Les Robots-Music” were devised in the 1950’s by engineer R. M. Diomgar and a group of ex-prisoners of war, they toured French fairs in support of their association from the 50’s to the 80’s, and thus have fascinated a whole generation of French.
On my site, their history and how they may or may not have influenced and been saved by Kraftwerk : http://vivonzeureux.fr/Pages/p.....twerk.html
A collection of documents and testimonies, including a link to a recent performance in a Berlin museum : http://vivonzeureux.fr/Pages/r.....redor.html
There were four lps by Les Robots-Music released in the 1970s.
Comment by Pol Dodu — May 8, 2008 @ 11:09 pm