The Mystery Of "Numbers Stations" - In The Matter Of Fernandez vs Tweedy

"In a cluttered home office in the World's End section of London, Akin Fernandez is trolling the dial of his newly acquired shortwave radio. It's December 1992 and it's late at night, when the city is quiet and the mad-scientist squawks of international broadcasts have an otherworldly tone. Fernandez, the owner and sole employee of an indie music label, is about to trip across a mystery that will take over his life."

If you are familiar with the Wilco album, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot', then you've unknowingly heard a sample from Fernandez' Conet Project at the end of the song 'Poor People Tonight'. Fading in and out at the end is a mysterious female voice repeating the eponymous words which generated a firestorm of acrimony and legal wrangling between Jeff Tweedy and Fernandez and ultimately provided a windfall that allowed Fernandez to release a second pressing of his coveted, out of print 4 disc opus, which is now available for free downloading online. Although Irdial, Fernandez' record label espouses what is referred to as 'The Free Music Philosophy', "the idea that creating, copying, and distributing music must be as unrestricted as breathing air, plucking a blade of grass, or basking in the rays of the sun", apparently it was the uncredited nature of the appropriated clip that chafed Irdial's hinder and led to the lawsuit. Hypocritical perhaps, but even in the shadowy world of archiving "Numbers Stations", I guess you have to draw the line somewhere. (The word "conet" by the way, means "end" in Czech).

Shortwave Numbers Stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication. Spies located anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available, and unmodified Shortwave receivers. The encryption system used by Numbers Stations, known as a “one time pad” is unbreakable. Combine this with the fact that it is almost impossible to track down the message recipients once they are inserted into the enemy country, it becomes clear just how powerful the Numbers Station system is. With it's repetitive drone of numbers and phonetic letters interspersed with tinny music box music, ticking atomic clocks and other strange sound effects, The Conet Project certainly makes for a compelling and enigmatic listening experience.