The Conet Project

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four- (later five-) CD set of recordings of numbers stations and noise stations released by Irdial-Discs beginning in 1997. Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with deployed spies. The collection of recordings is primarily the work of Irdial-Discs founder Akin Fernandez, who began recording the transmissions of numbers stations in 1992. [1] The original 4 CD set was released in 1997 and reissued in 2013 with an additional 5th CD. [2]

Contents

The recordings have been sampled in various artistic projects, most famously in the 2001 film Vanilla Sky and Wilco’s 2001 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot . In keeping with its “free music” policy, the 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). [3] Irdial-Discs has since discontinued the hosting of said files, but still provides links to alternative active hosts. [4]

Legacy and sampling

Samples from the collection have been used in numerous films and albums, including Cameron Crowe's 2001 film Vanilla Sky , Porcupine Tree's album Stupid Dream , J Church's album One Mississippi, and We Were Promised Jetpacks' album These Four Walls . 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.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , a 2001 album released by the alternative rock band Wilco, was the subject of controversy after Irdial-Discs sued for copyright infringement. The track “Poor Places” samples track 4 of disc 1, “Phonetic Alphabet Nato” (the album’s title is also a reference to this recording) without the permission of founder Akin Fernandez.

The lawsuit sparked a debate about the ownership of the recordings. Because Fernandez had recorded the track, he argued that the copyright belonged to him. Critics felt that merely recording the broadcast was not transformative enough to justify the suit. [5] According to attorney Jason Schultz,

"Copyright requires some amount of creativity by an author ... Simply pressing the record button on your radio receiver hardly qualifies to me". [5]

Others doubted the basis for the lawsuit, because whether or not Fernandez actually recorded the track was in dispute. Simon Mason, who contributed recordings to the project, claimed that he had recorded the sampled transmission, but did not pursue legal action. [5] Tweedy and Fernandez ultimately settled out of court in an agreement with undisclosed terms, other than that Irdial-Discs would receive a “share of the sound recording royalty” on “Poor Places”. [6]

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.[ citation needed ] The entire fifth disc contains recordings of "noise stations", which are not the result of naturally occurring radio phenomena.

Track listing

Recordings Of Shortwave Numbers Stations

Disc one
No.TitleLength
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."Ciocârlia"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
No.TitleLength
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
No.TitleLength
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 Sieben 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
No.TitleLength
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 (2013 15th Anniversary Edition)
No.TitleLength
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" 

See also

Notes

The Tyrolean Music Station played several songs by Bavarian yodeler Franzl Lang followed by a Play-It-Yourself Music box playing The Internationale, the first national anthem of the Soviet Union.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilco</span> American alternative rock band

Wilco is an American rock band based in Chicago. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo after singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently during its first decade, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. Since early 2004 the lineup has been unchanged, consisting of Tweedy, Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, keyboard player Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released thirteen studio albums, a live double album, and four collaborations: three with Billy Bragg and one with the Minus 5.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim O'Rourke (musician)</span> American musician

Jim O'Rourke is an American musician, instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his numerous solo and collaborative music projects, many of which are instrumental, and has been acclaimed for his music that spans varied genres, including avant-garde styles such as ambient, noise and minimalism, and styles of rock like indie rock and post-rock. He has been associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene, as well as with New York City when he relocated to it in 2000 for his tenure as a member of American indie rock band Sonic Youth. He subsequently moved to Japan and has since been a Japanese resident.

A numbers station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. Most identified stations use speech synthesis to vocalize numbers, although digital modes such as phase-shift keying and frequency-shift keying, as well as Morse code transmissions, are not uncommon. Most stations have set time schedules, or schedule patterns; however, some appear to have no discernible pattern and broadcast at random times. Stations may have set frequencies in the high-frequency band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Album</span> Collection of audio recordings

An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape, or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records (78s) collected in a bound book resembling a photo album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33+13 rpm.

<i>Yankee Hotel Foxtrot</i> 2001 studio album by Wilco

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Wilco, released on April 23, 2002. Recording sessions for the album began in late 2000. These sessions, which were documented for the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, were marred by conflicts including a switch in drummers and disagreements among the band members and engineers about songs. Despite this, the album would be mostly completed in early 2001. The album showcased a more atmospheric and experimental sound than the band's previous work, and has been described as art rock and indie rock by music critics. It was the band's first album with drummer Glenn Kotche, and last with multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Jay Bennett.

<i>A Ghost Is Born</i> 2004 studio album by Wilco

A Ghost Is Born is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Wilco, released on June 22, 2004, by Nonesuch Records. It features singer Jeff Tweedy on lead guitar more than any previous Wilco album. The band streamed the album online free, and offered a five-song EP to purchasers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Tweedy</span> American musician (born 1967)

Jeffrey Scot Tweedy is an American musician, singer songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, began his music career in high school with his band The Plebes along with Jay Farrar, also in the band. It became the alternative country band Uncle Tupelo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Fogarty</span>

James Fogarty is an English multi-media artist. Concentrating mainly on music crossing over between metal and sampled based music, his projects past and present are In the Woods..., The Blacksmoke Organisation, The Bombs Of Enduring Freedom, Ewigkeit, Jaldaboath and producing occasional releases for Death To Music productions. He also contributed artwork to the CNPD in the book Stamps Of Mass Destruction Vol 2 (ISBN 1-871894-97-2), printed in 2005.

<i>Kicking Television: Live in Chicago</i> 2005 live album by Wilco

Kicking Television: Live in Chicago is a live album by Chicago alternative rock band Wilco, released on November 15, 2005, by Nonesuch Records. The album consists of material from four live shows at Chicago's Vic Theater recorded May 4, 2005 to May 7, 2005. Although the band filmed the concerts, they decided not to release the footage as a DVD. It was the band's first album with an expanded lineup featuring Nels Cline and Pat Sansone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Kotche</span> American drummer and composer (born 1970)

Glenn Kotche is an American drummer and composer, best known for his involvement in the band Wilco. He was named the 40th greatest drummer of all time by Gigwise in 2008.

<i>I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco</i> 2002 American film

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco is a 2002 black-and-white documentary film by director/photographer Sam Jones, following the American alt-country rock band Wilco through the creation and distribution of their fourth studio album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The film, distributed to theaters in the United States through Cowboy Pictures, was released on July 26, 2002, three months after the album's retail release.

Loose Fur was an American rock supergroup comprising Wilco members Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche, along with Wilco collaborator and Sonic Youth's multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke. The trio first convened in May 2000 in preparation for a Tweedy performance at a festival in Chicago. Tweedy was offered the opportunity to collaborate with an artist of his choosing, and he decided to work with O'Rourke. O'Rourke brought Kotche to a rehearsal session, and the trio recorded an album's worth of songs. The trio have since released two albums, 2003's Loose Fur and 2006's Born Again in the USA, for Drag City. The band has only toured once.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tape-beatles</span> American multi-media group

The Tape-beatles are a multi-media group that formed in Iowa City in December 1986. Its members have included Lloyd Dunn, John Heck, Ralph Johnson, Paul Neff, and Linda Morgan Brown. Beginning with analog tape recorders, and later expanding to include digital technology and film media, the group has used collage techniques to create works that challenge the notion of intellectual property. Their works make extensive use of materials appropriated from various sources through a process they call "Plagiarism®". The Tape-beatles' body of work consists mainly of noise music and audio art recordings, expanded and performed cinema performances, videos, printed publications, as well as works in other media. They produce and release work under an umbrella organization called Public Works Productions.

<i>Sky Blue Sky</i> 2007 studio album by Wilco

Sky Blue Sky is the sixth studio album by the American rock band Wilco, released on May 15, 2007 by Nonesuch Records. Originally announced on January 17, 2007 at a show in Nashville, Tennessee, it was the band's first studio album with guitarist Nels Cline and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone. Before its release, the band streamed the entire album on its official website and offered a free download of "What Light".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Besnard Lakes</span> Canadian indie rock band

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, the band also includes Kevin Laing (drums), Richard White (guitar), Sheenah Ko (keyboards) and Robbie MacArthur (guitar).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ours to Destroy</span>

Ours To Destroy is a Canadian folk rock band from Calgary. The current line-up is David Morley, Steven Dodd, and Roland Griffith. The band's name is taken from Jeff Tweedy's reference to their music "We made it, it's ours to destroy" in the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart on the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilco discography</span>

The discography of the American alternative rock group Wilco, consists of thirteen studio albums, five extended plays (EPs), three live albums, twelve singles and four videos. As of 2012 they had sold in excess of two million albums worldwide.

<i>Wilco Live: Ashes of American Flags</i> 2009 video by Wilco

Wilco Live: Ashes of American Flags is a live performance DVD by the American alternative rock band Wilco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Bennett</span> American songwriter (1963–2009)

Jay Walter Bennett was an American multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer, and singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the band Wilco from 1994 to 2001.

<i>Life Is People</i> 2012 studio album by Bill Fay

Life Is People is the fourth studio album by English singer, pianist and songwriter Bill Fay, released by Dead Oceans in August 2012. Fay had been without a record label after being dropped by Deram Records following the release of his second album, Time of the Last Persecution in 1971, and could not secure a release for his third album Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow. To support himself, Fay took various jobs outside of the music industry, while continuing to record music at home. In 1998, Fay's first two albums were reissued on compact disc by British record label See for Miles Records, prompting a revival of interest in his work, and Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow was finally released in 2005.

References

  1. Segal, David (August 3, 2004). "The Shortwave And the Calling". The Washington Post . Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  2. "The Conet Project Shortwave Recordings, Made Famous by Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Reissued". Pitchfork. 2012-11-09. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  3. "The Free Music Philosophy as adopted by Irdial~Discs". Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  4. "The Irdial-Discs Catalogue Freed!". irdial.com. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  5. 1 2 3 Shachtman, Noah (23 June 2004). "Wilco pays up for spycasts". Wired. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  6. Devenish, Colin (2004-06-23). "Wilco settle sample suit". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 2021-10-20.