The 40-Year Mystery of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

Throughout history, countless literary works have been written, songs and melodies composed, and films produced. While some remain accessible, the vast majority have either vanished into the dusty corners of time or kept their secrets hidden for decades. Yet, some believe that the internet—the invention of the century—and the people it brings together, might just be able to solve these mysteries, no matter how much time has passed. In this piece, we’re diving into the 40-year saga of one of the internet’s greatest enigmas: a track known to its listeners as “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet” and “Like The Wind.”

What is Lostwave?

Lostwave is, in short, a general term for songs where crucial information—such as the title, the artists behind it, or the recording and release date—is either barely known or completely unknown. These tracks have brought together thousands of people determined to uncover their origins. “Like The Wind” is the pioneer of this genre, and the search for it effectively launched the Lostwave movement. Thanks to this community, the origins of dozens of lost tracks like “La Cancion de Alicia,” “Everyone Knows That,” and “Zoltan” have been found, and those drawn to the movement have also contributed to other lost media hunts, such as “Celebrity Number Six.”

The Emergence of the Song and the Start of the Hunt

Most likely, on an autumn day in 1984, the song was broadcast live on the German radio station Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). Darius, a young German listener and DJ at the time, loved the track and recorded it onto one of the cassette tapes he used to archive music from the radio. [1] [2] The tape sat gathering dust for 20 years until 2004, when Darius decided to digitize the songs he loved but couldn’t identify—including “Like The Wind”—and uploaded them to a website his sister had given him as a birthday gift. [3] In 2007, under the pseudonym “Anton Riedel,” Lydia officially kicked off the search on various forums and websites, posting a 1 minute 14 second clip of the song to avoid potential copyright issues. Lydia explained her decision, saying: “Searching for the lyrics passively on the internet for years wasn’t yielding any results, so I figured it was time to be more active and reach out to a larger community.” [1]

The Early Years and 2019

In the early years, dozens of people searched for every possible clue, leaving no stone unturned. They debated songs with similar lyrics, vocals, or melodies; contacted specific individuals; and combed through archives and records—but to no avail. There were even skeptics who claimed the song wasn’t real, suggesting Darius and Lydia had made it up to trick the internet. The search largely remained at a standstill until 2019.

That year, Gabriel Pelenson, who had heard the song on YouTube, joined the hunt. Pelenson shared the internet version of the track across more than 30 subreddits on Reddit and uploaded it to YouTube, causing the search to go viral. Later, in June 2019, Pelenson launched the r/TheMysteriousSong subreddit to provide a central hub for the investigation. In July 2019, the YouTube channel “Justin Whang” featured the song and the search in his “Tales from the Internet” series. By 2021, Justin had produced four more videos on the topic. These videos garnered hundreds of thousands of views, bringing hundreds of new people into the fold. Also in July, a Reddit user named u/johnnymetoo learned of the search and uploaded the full version of the song to the internet. Johnny had requested the full track from Lydia via email in the early days of the search, downloaded it, and kept it ever since. Lydia had deleted her original upload shortly after Johnny downloaded it, fearing copyright complications. [1] Pelenson uploaded the full version to his own YouTube channel, where it reached millions of views, introducing thousands to the Lostwave movement. In August, the German radio station “Radio Eins” played the song on air. Darius heard the broadcast and became aware of the search.

Darius recounted those moments in an interview: “I came home around 2:15 PM on August 20, 2019, and turned on the radio—which isn’t something I do every day. If I had arrived a little later or decided to listen to something else, I likely wouldn’t have known about the search until much later…

…They were talking about a song on the program whose artist couldn’t be identified. I thought to myself, ‘Ha, I know that problem all too well!’ After the interview, they started playing the song, and I nearly fainted. This couldn’t be real! The song I’ve been looking for for over 30 years! On the radio! It’s unbelievable that someone else is looking for it too! Could they have recorded the same program as I did?

After getting over the initial shock, I listened to the full broadcast, started researching, and found many other videos…

…In one of the videos, someone named ‘Anton Riedel’ was listed as the original uploader. That name triggered something in my subconscious. A quick check confirmed my suspicion: ‘Anton Riedel’ was one of the pseudonyms my sister used. She was active on many internet forums and frequently used such aliases because she wasn’t taken seriously for being a woman. It gradually became clearer that not only was I the owner and original source of this story, but all the versions of this song on the internet were derived from the cassette I recorded 35 years ago.” [3]

Following this, Darius’s sister, Lydia, joined Reddit and confirmed she was the one who first uploaded the song, providing further details and context.

Also in 2019, it was confirmed with near certainty that the recording was made between 1983 and 1984. Previously, it was thought to have been recorded anytime between 1981 and 1984, as the oldest songs on Darius’s tape were from 1981 and the newest were from 1984. The synth sounds in the track were specific to the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, which was released in 1983. A Reddit user named u/Hornaz_69 shared a video confirming this detail, narrowing the recording window to 1983–1984.

In 2021, while going through their tapes, Lydia found another cassette where the song was recorded in much higher quality and uploaded it to the internet.

These developments gave the search immense momentum. The investigation became more centralized, with thousands of people helping through various methods. However, this mystery wasn’t going to be solved by simply searching for similar-sounding tracks or listening to every band of that era. It required more concrete and actionable clues.

The Most Promising Lead in 17 Years: NDR Hörfest.

In July 2024, Reddit user u/Successful-Bread-347 found a massive clue. NDR, the radio station where the song was played, used to host an annual music competition in the autumn called “Hörfest” to promote lesser-known German bands and musicians. The top performers would win prizes, including cash. Furthermore, the timing of Hörfest 1984 was very close to the estimated date the song was played on NDR. As the most promising lead in 17 years, the hunt for information on this competition began immediately.

Unfortunately, there was no comprehensive list of the bands and musicians who participated in 1984, but the Lostwave community quickly gathered important source materials like posters, newspaper clippings, and official documents from that year. One user even contacted a band that had participated in the 1984 competition and gained access to a list of all the participants. For the next four months, thousands of people worked day and night, scouring hundreds of pages of Hörfest documents from 1983–1985 for the key to the mystery. Until that day…

The Mystery is Solved!

In October 2024, Reddit user u/marijn1412 found an old newspaper clipping in the Nordwest Zeitung archive that mentioned a band called FEX. The clipping noted that the band had won a talent competition in Bremen in September 1984. Investigating the band further, the user discovered that they had participated in the 1985 Hörfest and that one of the members, Michael Hädrich, had played in a band called Phret during the 1983 Hörfest. The user reached out to Michael and asked if he had any material left from his old bands. Michael sent over a few songs he had recorded with FEX and Phret. And there it was: FEX – Subways Of Your Mind.

The song title matched the lyrics, and the user immediately recognized it as the song that had been sought for so long. They replied to Michael, explaining that the track had been a long-standing mystery and had become quite famous. Michael asked them to keep the discovery quiet until he could speak with the other band members. On November 4, 2024, the user posted the full story on the subreddit, and after a 17-year hunt, the mystery was officially solved.

In addition to the 1983 studio tape provided to u/marijn1412, a live performance recording from 1985 also exists. The specific cassette that Darius recorded from the radio has yet to be located as of the time of writing. Michael also mentioned that they plan to re-record the song in the future.

The internet is full of mysteries that have gone unsolved for years and lost media waiting to be found. But with a bit of time, plenty of patience, and the determination of thousands of people, even 40-year-old enigmas can be put to rest. Perhaps for the internet, there is no such thing as an “unsolvable mystery”—only mysteries that haven’t been solved *yet*.

Update: Between the writing and publishing of this article, there was a major development! On January 13, 2025, the original cassette recorded from the radio was found. For detailed information, you can check out the relevant page on Reddit!

References and Further Reading

Originally published in Turkish at Doğa Filozofu.