The Conet Project

The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four (later five) CD set of recordings of numbers stations and noise stations: shortwave (HF) radio stations of unknown origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with deployed spies. The collection is released by Britain's Irdial-Discs record label in 1997, based on the work of numbers station enthusiast Akin Fernandez.[1] The project's name comes from a mishearing of the Czech word konec, or "end", which marks the end of transmissions on the Czech numbers station. In keeping with its "free music philosophy",[2] the Irdial-Discs label made the entire collection available for free to download as a collection of MP3 files (along with a PDF version of the included booklet). Irdial-Discs discontinued the hosting of said files, but still provide links to alternative, active hosts.[3]

In creative works

The Conet Project has since become popular with musicians and filmmakers among, including Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, Melvins collaborator David Scott Stone, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Synthetrix, Manu Chao, The Besnard Lakes, Devendra Banhart, Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton, and director Cameron Crowe. Samples from the collection have been used in numerous films and albums, including Crowe's film Vanilla Sky, Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream album, J Church's One Mississippi album, We Were Promised Jetpacks' These Four Walls album, and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, the last of which was an issue of legal dispute; Jeff Tweedy did not seek permission to use the Conet sample and Irdial sued for copyright infringement. The incident sparked debate about who exactly owns copyright concerning recordings of numbers station transmissions, but Tweedy ultimately decided to avoid taking the matter to court, agreeing to pay Irdial royalties and reimburse its legal fees.[4] The Besnard Lakes have also used recordings from numbers stations throughout their album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse and frontman Jace Lasek is said to be a fan of The Conet Project. The post-hardcore band Silverstein sampled the recording "Czech Lady" in In A Place Of Solace, a song released on their album This Is How the Wind Shifts. Kronos Quartet incorporated live reception of the Conet numbers into "4Cast Unpredictable", a performed sound sculpture in collaboration with Trimpin. Ten years in the making, the piece was performed once only, at Montclair State University Performing Arts Center, New Jersey, in 2007.

Five-disc release

The Conet Project was rereleased in a five-disc 15th anniversary edition in April 2013 with a new booklet, featuring detailed photographs of a numbers station voice sample controller, a Sprach-Morse-Generator der HVA des MfS (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit der DDR) and one-time pad samples of the type used by the East German STASI. These are the first pieces of numbers station equipment to find their way into public hands. The entire fifth disc contains recordings of "noise stations", which are not the result of naturally occurring radio phenomena.

Recordings

Disc one
  1. The Swedish Rhapsody (4:18)
  2. Counting (3:34)
  3. Counting 'Control' (2:01)
  4. Phonetic Alphabet – NATO (4:36)
  5. 5 Dashes (3:30)
  6. The Lincolnshire Poacher (4:37)
  7. Gong Station/Chimes (3:29)
  8. DFD 21 (2:37)
  9. Ready Ready 15728 (2:04)
  10. Bugle (1:00)
  11. 5 Note Version 'Czech Lady' (1:38)
  12. Three Note Oddity (2:18)
  13. New Star Broadcasting (6:32)
  14. Counting Station (Spanish) (4:41)
  15. English Lady / 00000 ending (3:31)
  16. Attencion / 3 Finals (3:31)
  17. 4 Note Rising Scale (3:14)
  18. Ciocîrlia (5:16)
  19. Czech Lady (3:18)
  20. 2 Letter 'YS' (1:47)
  21. 2 Letter 'EL' (1:10)
  22. 5 Dashes (1:40)
  23. 2 Letter 'RK' (2:23)

Disc two
  1. NNN (2:56)
  2. 'Strich' (0:36)
  3. DFD21 / DFC37 (1:55)
  4. Drums & Trumpets (2:51)
  5. NNN (1:47)
  6. English Lady – 00000 ending (2:10)
  7. NNN (1:00)
  8. The Russian Man ('D-va' Northern Russian Voice) (1:34)
  9. Phonetic Alphabet – NATO (0:49)
  10. Spanish Lady (1:07)
  11. 'Strich' (0:30)
  12. 2 Letter 'NU' (1:12)
  13. 'Strich' (0:38)
  14. YT (3:35)
  15. 5 Dashes (1:40)
  16. German Man (1:45)
  17. English Man (4:58)
  18. English Man + German Lady (1:36)
  19. German Lady (1:43)
  20. Chinese Numbers (1:14)
  21. Spanish Lady (4:25)
  22. 2 Letter 'MD' (1:38)
  23. English Man (1:13)
  24. German Lady (0:47)
  25. Phonetic Alphabet – NATO (0:54)
  26. Phonetic Alphabet – NATO (2:24)
  27. Nancy Adam Susan (3:20)
  28. Counting 'Control' (1:18)
  29. Nancy Adam Susan (Male Voice) (2:44)
  30. Cherry Ripe (1:34)
  31. Russian Lady (1:57)
  32. Russian Man (0:37)
  33. NNN (1:54)
  34. Frank Young Peter (0:59)
  35. Cherta (1:05)
  36. Russian Counting Man (0:58)
  37. OLX (2:15)
  38. 6 Tones (0:57)
  39. High Pitch Polytone (2:02)
  40. High Pitch Polytone (0:31)
  41. High Pitch Polytone (1:17)
  42. High Pitch Polytone (1:00)
  43. Oriental Language (1:11)

Disc three
  1. Ready Ready (2:02)
  2. Iran / Iraq Jamming Efficacy Testing (1:00)
  3. English Lady (1:16)
  4. English Lady (0:34)
  5. English Man Version 1 (0:34)
  6. English Man Version 3 (0:48)
  7. English Man (0:58)
  8. Magnetic Fields (3:49)
  9. Magnetic Fields (1:30)
  10. Oblique (1:24)
  11. NNN (0:35)
  12. 5 Dashes (4:17)
  13. 2 Letter 'KG' (1:49)
  14. 4 Figure Counting (10 Rough Tones) (2:36)
  15. 2 Voices in one transmission (3:29)
  16. Tyrolean Music Station (7:18)
  17. 3 Note I.S. (0:46)
  18. 10 Rough Tones (1:33)
  19. Achtung! (0:29)
  20. 'A' (1:23)
  21. Voice Sample (1-10) (0:12)
  22. Rapid Dots (0:59)
  23. 'Strich' (1:06)
  24. Hier ist DFC Seben und Dreizig (3:20)
  25. 2 Letter 'PN' (2:34)
  26. Sample Count (0:18)
  27. 2 Letter 'VO' (2:10)
  28. 2 Letter 'HK' (0:41)
  29. 2 Letter 'DM' (4:01)
  30. 8 Note Rising Scale (1:11)
  31. Spruchnummer 1 (0:55)
  32. Spruchnummer 4 (0:48)
  33. Random Pop (1:05)
  34. Nomer 101 (2:52)
  35. Okno Okno Okno (0:35)
  36. Nomer 198 (3:22)
  37. 723 Papaqui (1:23)
  38. 298 (1:54)
  39. 815 (1:24)
  40. 167 (1:53)
  41. Moscow Coup Attempt (0:20)

Disc four
  1. Russian Man Complete (3:37)
  2. YT Counting in Croatian/Serbian (2:50)
  3. 555 Konec (0:33)
  4. Preska (0:25)
  5. Cherta (0:26)
  6. Count in Russian (0:40)
  7. Count in Russian (2:03)
  8. 1-10 Announcement (1:03)
  9. 1-10 Announcement (0:50)
  10. Counting in Polish (1:12)
  11. Konec Konec (2:43)
  12. Pozor (0:48)
  13. Russian Lady test count and message (2:15)
  14. Russian Man (4:10)
  15. Spanish Lady (2 Finals) (1:48)
  16. Spanish Counting (0:22)
  17. Spanish Counting (0:24)
  18. Spanish Man (2:19)
  19. Spanish Lady (1:17)
  20. Spanish Lady (2:27)
  21. Eastern Music Station (6:40)
  22. Eastern Music Station (1:42)
  23. Unidentified Chinese Station (0:42)
  24. NNN (1:27)
  25. NNN (0:59)
  26. Whiskey Tango Viente Y Uno (6:14)
  27. The Crackle (2:33)
  28. The Backwards Music Station (2:30)
  29. Faders (1:14)
  30. Workshop (2:52)
  31. The Pip (0:50)
  32. The Buzzer (2:40)
  33. M1 (197) (0:52)
  34. M1b (463) (4:49)
  35. M2 (712) (3:11)
  36. M3 (0:33)
  37. M3 (0:20)
  38. M3 (0:27)
  39. M3 (0:17)
  40. M3 (0:15)
  41. M3 (0:15)
  42. M3a (0:22)
  43. M3b (0:50)

Disc five
  1. Data Bursts 5.201 kHz (USB and AM)
  2. Exotic Cipher 6.215 kHz AM October 5, 2008 1927 GMT
  3. Descending Jammer 7969 kHz USB
  4. Drone 17964 kHz
  5. Odd Clacking 4.039 kHz (USB and AM) April 29, 1998
  6. Bizarre Data Noise
  7. Chiming
  8. Chopper
  9. Coarse Rushing Air
  10. Oscillating 5.178 kHz March 12, 1997
  11. 348-10-13-36-19-21 11.573 kHz 1917GMT
  12. Creeping
  13. Rapid Descending Tri-tone
  14. Engine Room Drone
  15. Pinking
  16. Rushing Air Sound 11492 kHz
  17. 'Snundering'
  18. Down Up Tone
  19. Choking
  20. Galactic
  21. Sweeping Noise 9330 kHz USB
  22. Strange Echoing Pips 11216 kHz USB
  23. Bubble Jammer
  24. Deep Nuclear Drone
  25. Drone B
  26. Insane 7.074 kHz AM December 8, 1820 GMT
gollark: Technically not all of the orbital lasers may have *originally* been mine, but they run osmarks.tk firmware now and it's not like someone can go up there and reflash them.
gollark: Well, have osmarks.tk orbital laser network, will orbitally lase.
gollark: Idea: switch the incentives to make politicians build more environmentally-friendly power plants by orbital-lasing all heavily polluting power plants!
gollark: Other people who might be on Mars will only be allowed to use this by posting comments and getting replies back from Earth.
gollark: Don't worry though, osmarks.tk will still function even with me on Mars, using our (not)patented™ wormhole projection technology to maintain low-latency network links.

See also

References
  1. Segal, David (August 3, 2004). "The Shortwave And the Calling". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  2. "The Free Music Philosophy as adopted by Irdial~Discs". Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  3. "The Irdial-Discs Catalogue Freed!". irdial.com. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  4. Shachtman, Noah (June 23, 2004). "Wilco Pays Up for Spycasts". Wired. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
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