This is a compilation album based around the theme of Numbers Stations samples.

Number Stations if you are unfamiliar are shortwave radio stations that broadcast strange and cryptic content, often ordered or seemingly random series of numbers repeated over and over again. Other stations played weird music, and other still just repeated tones over an over. They were all the rage back in the Coldwar era and are often thought to have been spying agencies means of communication.

Probably the most famous Number Station sample is from the Wilco album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, partly due to the album being named after it but maybe more so because it lead to complex legal wrangles over who “owned” the recording, eventually settled out of court.

The most authoritative collection of Numbers Stations recordings is the Conet Project by Irdial Records, who make available the entire collection under their Free Music Philosophy. There are also plenty of other places online to find other samples that can be used in recordings as samples.

The challenge was issued to an international assortment of artists, with genres ranging from Ambient, to Dub Step to Interpretive. This compilation of tracks is the result. We hope you enjoy.

Curated by Jon Sykes for PublicSpaces Lab
Release Art by Rita Monteiro @ PublicSpaces Lab
Photo by Album by Slightly North available via Creative Commons @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slightlynorth/3182447072/

Mastering and encoding by Jordi @ PublicSpaces Lab

Available for download in mp3 and FLAC from the Internet Archive

Label note: We see this as a full work and that is the reason why we are only making the full EP available for download in ZIP format. For specific tracks download (for promotion) please go to the Internet Archive where you can find the individual mp3 files.