Calling Out of Context

One of the most fascinating audio documents from the last decade was no doubt The Conet Project: Recordings from Shortwave Numbers Stations, a four CD set of recordings from mysterious radio transmissions of unknown provenance believed to be secret government communications. They generally consist of male or female voices in varying languages reading streams of numbers, letters, or even morse code. (Wilco's popular album, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' takes its name from a sample of the set.) 'Shift Coordinate Points,' by Dutch composer Esther Venrooy, takes these transmissions as its material and inspiration. It will air November 21st, as one of four projects that make up Disturbance, 'a series of internet radio broadcasts' curated by Washington DC-based Niels Van Tomme. Every Wednesday in November a different composition is being broadcast around a sonic or psychological disturbance that affected the artist. All nightly transmissions are being transmitted from art@radio, an online radio station based in Baltimore, Maryland focusing on experimental sonic culture. Although Venrooy's is the only one to reference Numbers Stations, all of the projects function as personalized appropriations of this rigidly hermetic system. - David Michael Perez