The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four CD set of recordings of numbers stations and noise stations: shortwave 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. 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", the Irdial-Discs label made the entire collection available for free to download as a collection of MP3 files. Irdial-Discs discontinued the hosting of said files, but still provide links to alternative, active hosts.
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. 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 UniversityPerforming 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 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.
