Audio Wanderer

In which the Cold War never ended and secrets are broadcast.

Episode 6: 49N 15E [ 33:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This episode was inspired by numbers stations, and by extension the Cold War and where it crosses over into the modern era of military cybersecurity. I could go on and on about how fascinating and disturbing these spy radio stations are, but hopefully I’ve conveyed that in the podcast so I won’t.

The cover art was once again provided by Tansy Undercrypt, my amazing wife and (among other things) producer of Precarious Audio Theater.

Song titles for Episode 6 (using the term “song” rather loosely):

1. AW6 (Intro)
2. Perimeter
3. UVB-76
4. Hostiles
5. BE
6. Crypto
7. 7426
8. The Source of the Glow
9. Worm
10. The Petrov Alternative

If you enjoy this sort of thing, I also recommend checking these out:

The Conet Project: The definitive collection of raw numbers stations recordings and certified nightmare fuel.

Number Stations: Released by PublicStations Lab in 2010, this is a collection of various artists interpreting and incorporating numbers station material.

Number Stations part II: Released by PublicStations Lab this March, along the same lines and just as good.

Dark Ambient #33: All of the Dark Ambient podcasts are good; this is the Numbers episode.

I’ve noticed that of the episodes so far, Vault of the Bone Thief continues to get the most downloads. Why is that, I wonder? If anyone would like to share what they like about that episode in particular, that’d be great.

When I’ve got Episode 6 up (which is on schedule for next week), I’ll be revisiting the Vault to put together a (hopefully much) better mix, and I’ll also get it out on Bandcamp for high quality downloads.

Meanwhile, back to the cold war and numbers stations for me.

This was originally one of the songs for the next episode, but since it turned out more “melancholy piano” than “military cybernetics” I’m putting it up as a free download over at Bandcamp instead.

ATTENTION

047 047 047

69182 02433 12681 97667 85882

02808 05771 55064 05242 18453

52732 91124 21262 58504 46189

26504 76957 17629 98219 98921

END

In which the search for a stray camel reveals something wondrous.

Episode 5: The City of Pillars [ 28:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This episode was strongly inspired by the Arabian Nights in general and one story in particular: The City of Many-Columned Iram.

The cover art for this episode was provided by the lovely and talented Tansy Undercrypt, creator of Precarious Audio Theater (among other things).

Song Titles for Episode 5:

1. Desert Night
2. Empty City
3. Caliph
4. Building Paradise
5. A Mighty Rushing
6. Shaddad’s Tomb

So I said to myself, “Doubtless this is the Paradise promised for the world to come.” Then I loaded me with the jewels of its gravel and the musk of its dust as much as I could carry, and returned to my own country, where I told the folk what I had seen.

Here’s what I’m planning for this year’s podcasts:

1. Longer episodes. I’d like to see the 3-4 song average go up to a 5-6 song average (for a very liberal definition of “song”).
2. Higher quality. I’m working on getting a better-sounding mix.
3. More updates. I released 5 episodes last year, and I’d like to at least double that for 2011.
4. EP release. I’ll be breaking down each episode into individual tracks and releasing them separately in addition to the podcast.

Onward!