A couple of years ago, in late December at around half past seven in the morning, I was walking along the old village road, now a cycle path, on my way to work.  The street lamps were still on, but it was just beginning to get light.  It was cold, but not icy or damp – the air was still, and it was very quiet.

Suddenly, behind me, I heard the sound of tyres fast approaching.  I turned to make sure I wasn’t in the cyclist’s way – but there was no-one there.  What I was hearing I couldn’t see.  I couldn’t place the sound – a strange and unnerving uncanny moment.

Recently I was reading Robert Macfarlane’s excellent book Landmarks, and came across the term hummadruz – “a noise in the air that you can’t identify, or a sound in the landscape whose source is unlocatable”.  Just what I had experienced.  I love to come across a word like this, which collects and defines an otherwise hazy collection of perceptions.

Sound Waves

There’s a sound engineer and composer who uses the term as the title for his blog.  Pete writes on a variety of subjects relating to music and its technologies, and about strange sounds and their origins. Number Stations belong to this category.  They are weird, shortwave radio broadcasts where a brief (usually) musical introduction is followed by a series of number groups, read in an electronically distorted voice.   I’d never heard of these before, but they are really creepy to listen to.  I can understand why they’ve been the subject of conspiracy theories; the (unconfirmed) preferred explanation is that they are generated by various intelligence agencies to pass coded information to their spies.

Here’s what Pete says:  “The tinkly music box tune and the samples voice of a young girl are surely the stuff of radio nightmares.   One of the the most fascinating things about these Numbers Stations is that on a purely aural level they are evocative and intriguing” – and, I would add, uncanny.

A Radio 4 Documentary discusses the broadcasts in detail.  And have a look here – the 5 Creepiest Number Station Sounds Ever Recorded.  This is Pete’s blog.