Version 0.3.2 of Orecchiette is now working its way up to extras-devel. This version now registers itself as a "media player" in Maemo using the "libplayback" api. Among other things, this allows it to continue playing audio (using any audio playback mechanism) even when the phone is in "silent mode".

The amount of documentation for libplayback is underwhelming, and the api itself is a bit cumbersome. So, while I think I got everything right, and my testing looks good, I can't say with 100% certainty that everything will work perfectly for you. If you do have problems with the app, please let me know! Thanks.