About Unsound: Instruments

Chapman Stick - That big board with strings on it. See Stickwire.
Jim plays the bassline and chords of Chinatown on a Stick.
Jaw harp - Also known as Jew's harp. The essence of "boing." See the Jew's Harp Guild.
Shahnai - a very loud oboe-like instrument from India, similar to zurna and mizmar. Chandrakantha.com has some pictures and more information.
You can hear Jim play shahnai on Chinatown, but it's hard to tell the sound apart from Mikee's feedback.
Thumb Piano - A hand-held instrument with plucked metal keys and resonating rattles. Variations known by names such as kalimba and mbira can be found in several parts of Africa. Our friend Ray Ashley has a page on the mbira music of the Shona people.
Mikee has modified an old kalimba of unknown origin to add a contact mic and MIDI control knob. It makes some of the sounds you can hear in the Gate to Moon Base Alpha show.
Zurna - another loud double-reed instrument, from the Middle East. A Lark in the Morning has pictures, info and sounds.
You can hear Jim's zurna in the Whales Startup Sound.

Looping - a whole genre of music based on digital delays and tape loops. Looper's Delight is a mailing list devoted to looping.
Almost all the Unsound tracks you can hear on the recordings pages involve some looping.
Throat-singing - the music of Tuva and Tibetan monks. It involves singing 2 or more notes at once. Steve Sklar explains how to do it.
Shape-note tunes A traditional American style of vocal music with its own notation system. See fasola.org.