A Self-Regulating Virtual Radio Station

PDradio, transmitting computed sounds in Pure Data format. The definition of streaming ‘radio’ involves a fundamental difference with respect to traditional radio, that is, the possibility to organize a deterritorialized and computable flow of sound data. The PDradio project, by Winfried Ritsch and Georg Holzmann, makes this possibility concrete. This radio station transmits Pure Data files uploaded by the audience and selected by a software-dj compiled in the code. This artificial entity also announces the pieces using voice synthesizing functionalities, telling the file name and the associated metadata, sprinkled with impromptu communications. If a user shows his appreciation for a piece, the dj will generate a personalized playlist. PDradio runs on a Linux server with the programs Zope and Plone and the calculated music follows the composition scheme, that is, the rules of this ductile tool, aesthetically reflecting them in the loops used in its compositions. It’s pure electronic music with a wide range of styles, but which can’t detach itself from machinic frequencies. If we may talk of ‘genre’, it abstracts the usual musical style categories to trascend into a style of composition, recursively widening its concept. [via neural.it]