muzons [laboratorija]

The Conet Project is an encyclopedic document of the mysterious and uncanny broadcasts from numbers stations. A number station anonymously transmits synthesized voices reading sets of phonetic letters and/or numbers. While there is no organization that has yet claimed responsibility for these transmissions, it is assumed that the CIA, MI6 (British Secret Intelligence Service), MOSSAD (Israeli Intelligence Service), and the renamed KGB are among those who operate the numbers stations. It is also assumed that these transmissions are encoded with a "one time pad" cryptosystem which uses a string of random numbers for both encryption and decryption. Assumption and innuendo surround these transmissions, but the conspiracy theories alone do not do justice to the aural terror that these transmissions invoke. The lo-fi shortwave radio hiss, the calculated recital of German numbers by a Swedish girl, the music box which punctuates the beginnings and ends of these transmissions, and the incomprehensibility of "the Buzzer" (a mechanized pulse which buzzes 24 hours a day shifting in frequency at the top of every hour) have all of the makings for a Throbbing Gristle track, yet it is precisely the lack of intent in creating aural terror that gives these recordings substance. The breadth of this anthology provides the alternate listening experience of the texture, as the incessant rhythms of these voices in conjunction with the monochromatic shortwave radio hiss combines for a beautiful yet abject drone that may work within Brian Eno's late 70's definition of ambient (albeit a subliminally suggestive one). Warning! This record is certainly not for everybody.