The Human Quena Orchestra

The Human Quena Orchestra was a doom-influenced industrial-noise project that was initiated by Ryan Unks in 2004, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Lyrics, though often interpreted as nihilistic or apocalyptic, were primarily focused on anarchism, and power in science.

The name comes from a passage in Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: "Already you could see through the dust on the ponies' hides the painted chevrons and the hands and rising suns and birds and fish of every device like the shade of old work through sizing on a canvas and now too you could hear above the pounding of the unshod hooves the piping of the quena, flutes made from human bones, and some among the company had begun to saw back on their mounts and some to mill in confusion when up from the offside of those ponies there rose a fabled horde of mounted lancers and archers bearing shields bedight with bits of broken mirrorglass that cast a thousand unpieced suns against the eyes of their enemies."

Contributors included:
Nathan Berlinguette - guitar, synth, electronics (The Politics of the Irredeemable, live electronics)
Renata Castagna - guitar (A Natural History of Failure)
David Graham - electronics (A Natural History of Failure), live drums
Brandon Nickell - voice, synth (A Natural History of Failure)
Matthew H. Reis - electronics (A Natural History of Failure)
Ryan Unks - bass, drum programming, vocals, synth, electronics, guitar (All releases, live bass, vocals, and electronics)
Jason Zeh - tapes (A Natural History of Failure)