From the ashes of a Berlin-based Internet arts project arises a unique online radio station.
The Open Radio Archive Network Group lets users venture into the audio underground of Europe's avant-garde capital and build their own adventurous playlists. Instead of the usual stream of DJ's choice of songs, users select music from a 17-day archive of audio files at ORANG. The music streams back in RealAudio and in the order the user chooses.
Users can find electronic beats, lectures, and everyday soundscapes recorded in the streets of other cities, such as Bangkok, Thailand, and Calcutta, India. Music is divided into quirky categories like "trash tekkno," "plastic pop," "evergreen," and "strange creatures."
ORANG's first project -- RIS, or Radio Internationale Stadt -- began as the radio station for Internationale Stadt, an art project that ran from 1994 through 1997. Internationale Stadt was an sought to create an electronic, Utopian Berlin. It was founded on the idea that a contemporary city is defined more by its information system than by its physical architecture.
This week, ORANG's founder, programmer Thomax Kaulmann, is set to install software at the Backspace art site in London, giving Backspace a role in ORANG's distributed audio network. The English installation follows closely on the heels of another, Re-LAB in Riga, Lithuania. Using Kaulmann's software, both sites will add to and draw from the Berlin material.
Despite its growing reach, the network's identity seems inextricably linked to Berlin, and one of the site's big attractions is the vitality of its roots.
ORANG has sparked a renewed interest in '80s Berlin bands. Live streams of concerts by infamous Berlin noisemakers Einstuerzende Neubauten are a big-name draw.
Anyone can listen to the sounds on ORANG and build a personal playlist, but to contribute music to the site one must apply and be approved by Kaulmann. Both Riga and London will remain essentially autonomous, setting their own contributor's requirements. A scattered group of volunteers form the heart of the RIS network, according to spokesman Frank Kunkel. They contribute to the site by uploading audio files, broadcasting live events, and acting as DJs by assembling automated playlists from material in the archives.
A glance at their email addresses confirms that most of the 73 RIS music contributors are German. But the listeners, as revealed by site logs, come from all over.
Asked about the network's greater goals, Kunkel said, "It would be great if this system would contribute to users' consciousness and responsible handling of the [Internet] medium."
While users might love being their own DJs, the idea of being able to play a specific song on demand has long been one of the music industry's chief Internet fears. If users can get specific songs whenever they want them, why should they buy them?
Kunkel said making sure all the music is legit is a "nightmare." Each contributor has to click a button labeled "I have the right to publish this material" to add content to the archive. When the information is previewed, the contributor must click the "I am responsible" button.
Kunkel admitted he is unsure how this system would stand up in court, should it came to that. Even so, most of the work on RIS is from the artists themselves or from bands grateful for the exposure and unlikely to sue.
For the moment, ORANG is a great stew of sound that could come from nowhere other than Berlin. The site strikes a balance between global and local -- and it sounds good.
