The “house band” for sfSound’s WEST OAKLAND SOUND SERIES, the oakland reductionist orchestra is a new supergroup of Bay Area musicians with a predilection for lowercase, fricative, and reductionist improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic. The ensemble comes out of a rich tradition of "American reductionist" music that blossomed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Many of the members studied at Mills College, which has had an extraordinary and foundational influence on the Bay Area's new music scene, particularly in experimental, electronic and improvised music, and other forms of sound exploration.

This debut release west and east baying represents two sides of the ensemble’s output: a live concert recording documenting a performance at The Lab in San Francisco (West Bay) and an “only made in the studio” work recorded in a controlled environment in Berkeley (East Bay). Clocking in at over 20 minutes each, both tracks feature evolving long-form structures. Whereas the live performance is an organic exploration of sounds and textures gradually morphing into the next, the studio track treats the recorded instruments as source material for a work of "musique concrète" re-composed by the ensemble's founder and ringleader, matt ingalls. Since... more
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released October 17, 2025

monica scott: cello
danishta rivero: voice
cody putman: bassoon
kanoko nishi-smith: koto
lisa mezzacappa: bass
joshua marshall: tenor saxophone
kevin ck lo: violin, flute, piano, objects
cheryl e. leonard: natural-object instruments*
john ingle: alto saxophone, baritone saxophone
matt ingalls: clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass gardenhose
ron heglin: trombone, tuba, voice
diane grubbe: flute, bass flute
sarah grace graves: voice
jacob felix heule: percussion
tom djll: trumpet
kevin corcoran: percussion*
chris cooper: guitar, electronics
kyle bruckmann: oboe, english horn
(* track 1 only)