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.

The Conet Project has since become popular with musicians and filmmakers among, including Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, Melvins collaborator David Scott Stone, 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. 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.

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