The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four-CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 set of recordings of numbers station

Numbers station

A numbers station is a shortwave radio station of uncertain origin. In the 1950s, Time magazine reported that the numbers stations first appeared shortly after World War II and were using a format that had been used to send weather data during that war.Numbers stations generally broadcast...

s, mysterious shortwave

Shortwave

Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...

 radio stations of uncertain origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with spies

SPY

SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...

 "in the field". The collection was released by England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

's Irdial-Discs record label in 1997, based on the work of numbers station enthusiast Akin Fernandez.

The Conet Project has since become somewhat of a cult sensation and counts many musicians and filmmakers among its fans, including Wilco

Wilco

Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...

 frontman Jeff Tweedy

Jeff Tweedy

Jeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...

, Melvins collaborator David Scott Stone

David Scott Stone

David Scott Stone is a musician who has recorded and toured with artists like The Melvins, Unwound, Fantômas, The Locust, Jello Biafra, Keiji Haino, Mike Patton, Adam Jones , Merzbow, Masonna, Big Business, No Age, Joe Lally and others. He is currently a member of LCD Soundsystem...

, Boards of Canada

Boards of Canada

Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin...

, The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Formed in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, two of their three albums have been nominated for the Polaris Music Prize.-History:...

, Devendra Banhart

Devendra Banhart

Devendra Obi Banhart is a singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San...

, former Faith No More

Faith No More

Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed originally as Faith No Man in 1981 by bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist Wade Worthington, vocalist Michael Morris and drummer Mike Bordin. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike...

 vocalist Mike Patton

Mike Patton

Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...

, and director Cameron Crowe

Cameron Crowe

Cameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes....

. Samples

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 from the collection have been used in numerous films and albums, including Crowe's film Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los ojos , the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil...

, Porcupine Tree

Porcupine Tree

Porcupine Tree is a progressive rock band formed by Steven Wilson in 1987 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Their music is difficult to categorise, being associated with both psychedelic rock and progressive rock, yet having been influenced by trance, krautrock and ambient due to Steven...

's Stupid Dream

Stupid Dream

Stupid Dream is the fifth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in March 1999. It became the band's best selling album up to the time of its release....

album, We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks is an indie rock band from Edinburgh, Scotland, comprising Adam Thompson , Michael Palmer , Sean Smith and Darren Lackie...

' These Four Walls

These Four Walls (We Were Promised Jetpacks album)

These Four Walls is the debut studio album by Scottish indie rock band We Were Promised Jetpacks, released on 15 June 2009 in the UK, and on 7 July 2009 in the US by Fat Cat Records. The band recorded the album at Earth Studios in Odiham, Hampshire, England with producers Ken Thomas, Joylon Thomas,...

album, and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the fourth album by Chicago-based rock band Wilco. The album was completed in 2001, but Reprise Records, a Warner Music Group label, refused to release it. Wilco acquired the rights to the album when they left the label. In September 2001, Wilco streamed the entire album...

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

Copyright infringement

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...

. 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. The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Formed in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, two of their three albums have been nominated for the Polaris Music Prize.-History:...

 have also used recordings from numbers stations throughout their album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse

The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse

The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse is the second studio album by the Canadian rock band The Besnard Lakes, released in 2007 . The album was The Besnard Lakes' first release on indie label Jagjaguwar and was self-produced by bandleaders Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas...

and frontman Jace Lasek

Jace Lasek

Jace Lasek is a Canadian musician and producer living in Montreal. He and his wife Olga Goreas are the principal songwriters for the Montreal-based indie rock band The Besnard Lakes. Lasek plays guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. He is also the band's lead vocalist.Furthermore, Lasek runs...

 is said to be a fan of The Conet Project. Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...

 incorporated live reception of the Conet numbers into "4Cast Unpredictable", a performed sound sculpture in collaboration with Trimpin

Trimpin

Trimpin is a Seattle, Washington-based kinetic sculptor, sound artist, musician, and composer, most of whose pieces integrate both sculpture and music in some way, and many of which make use of computers to play these instruments...

. Ten years in the making, the piece was performed once only, at Montclair State University Performing Arts Center, New Jersey, in 2007.

In keeping with its 'Free Music Philosophy', the Irdial-Discs label has made the entire collection available for download in MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 form (along with a PDF version of the included booklet) on its website completely free of charge and encourages fans to freely distribute it on file sharing

File sharing

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...

 networks.

The project's name comes from a mishearing of the Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

 word konec, or "end," which marks the end of transmissions on the Czech numbers station.

Recordings

External links

• Irdial-Discs A212 Version 2 - Free and legal MP3 download of the entire four-disc collection
• IRD059 - The Archive.org mirror of the same.
• The Conet Project on SoundCloud
  SoundCloud
  SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform which allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings.-History:SoundCloud was originally started in Stockholm, Sweden, but was established in Berlin, Germany in August, 2007 by sound designer Alex Ljung and artist Eric Wahlforss...
  
  - The streaming and embedable version of the project
• Music by the 'Numbers Stations' - NPR story about Akin Fernandez and the Conet Project.
• 8-3-11 Viral Website - A popular website using an apparent record of these collections.