WEST
OAKLAND
SOUND
SERIES
UPCOMING
SUN SEP 20 - MARGUERITE BROWN / DIANE GRUBBE: GLISSANDO FLUTE PROJECT
SPECIAL EVENT! - TUE SEP 22 - WENDY REID'S "AMBIENT BIRRD" @ LIVE OAK PARK
SPECIAL EVENT! - SAT SEP 26 - OAKLAND REDUCTIONIST ORCHESTRA @ JOAQUIN MILLER PARK
SUN OCT 4 - JAMES FEI / MATT DAVIGNON / LEAKING (KORBER + LONBERG-HOLM + PEDERSEN)
SUN OCT 11 - JAAP BLONK
SUN OCT 18 - JARED REDMOND PLAYS FELDMAN'S "TRIADIC MEMORIES" / OAK RDCT ORCH
SUN OCT 25 - OCHS + DAVIS + JOHNSTON + MEZZACAPPA / DJLL + HEGLIN + STACKPOLE
a weekly new music and experimental sound series every sunday
presented by new performance traditions and sfSound
DRESHER ENSEMBLE STUDIO
2201 poplar street :: oakland ca
ample parking! please park perpendicular when past the trees on poplar
$20 (FREE for students/underemployed)
cash & venmo accepted at door - order advance here
concerts start promptly at 7:30
:: late arrivals follow instructions on door to get buzzed in ::
SEPTEMBER 20 2026 7:30pm
$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online
(FREE for students/underemployed)
The Glissando Flute is a normal orchestral flute with Robert Dick’s invention, the “Glissando Headjoint®” (inspired by the electric guitar’s “whammy bar"), making the flute more flexible and liquid. Long-time sfSound flutist DIANE GRUBBE has asked six Bay Area composers to let their creative energy go wild with the possibilities of the instrument and her arsenal of extended flute techniques. These renowned Bay Area composer/improvisers are STEVE ADAMS, KYLE BRUCKMANN, MATT INGALLS, BRENT MILLER, WENDY REID and MONICA SCOTT. A group improv with Diane and all the composers will follow the premieres.
Composer/performer MARGUERITE BROWN, presents tuning to, a solo performance exploring the electric guitar as a celestial body using a curated set of planetary tuning forks, hardware, and unconventional performance techniques. The project seeks to explore the intersection of vibration, resonance, and cosmic frequencies as a means of expanding the electric guitar's sonic and conceptual possibilities.
September 22 2026 6pm
SPECIAL LOCATION: Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley
FREE!
WENDY REID'S Ambient Bird-Live Oak is in its fifth year of what is now an annual event on the fall equinox: a 44-minute interspecies sonic landscape which reflects an eco-centric philosophy of connecting with all living creatures and the environment.
The ensemble includes an African Grey parrot and experimental musicians working with the ambient sounds, specifically, the birds of Live Oak Park: Northern Mockingbirds, Downy Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, Bewick's Wrens, Western Bluebirds, Anna's Hummingbirds, Western Scrub-Jays, American Robins, Dark-eyed Juncos, Oak Titmice, Stone Pigeons, American Crows -all part of an event that is intended to bring everyone and everything together, and honor the park's indigenous inhabitants, the Ohlone People.
The structure of this work can be described as a musical process which attempts to reflect
nature’s manner of operations: a spatially notated score of sonic fragments transcribed from bird-human interactions and a Native American chant is interpreted and performed by the musicians within the ambient environment of Live Oak Park. Contextual in nature, the work allows performers to act according to unpredictable conditions and variables which arise within the musical continuity. In performance, an attempt is made at a spontaneous unforced growing of sound and silence in which emphasis is placed on formation rather than pre-established form, as in the building and shaping of cell-like units in living processes.
This site-specific piece, as with the first incantation, Ambient Bird 433, pays homage to JOHN CAGE’S composition, 4’33” (1952). At sunset, following the performance, BRENDA HUTCHINSON leads everyone in bell-ringing: dailybell, created by composer and sound artist Brenda Hutchinson in 2008, is an ongoing aspirational project based on the premise that something as inarguable as the movement of the Earth can be used as a point of unity and awareness among groups of people who might otherwise find it impossible to agree.
about the location: There is no formal seating: the audience sits on the stone steps or grass, stands, or wanders.
This performance is made possible with a grant from the City of Berkeley.
September 26 2026 3pm
SPECIAL LOCATION: Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland at this location
Join us as oakland reductionist orchestra performs with and within Joaquin Miller Park, not far from the Redwood Glen trailhead at this location.
Emergent Sound Practices is an outdoor sound performance series that offers an unconventional circumstance for artists to share emergent and experimental works in conversation with place. With an intent to tread lightly, all presented sound is generated either acoustically or through small, portable amplification. Through the assertion of process, and by embracing the unpredictable nature of outdoor environments, the artists of this series depict, in real time, how music is more than simply putting notes and sounds together – it is placing oneself in a specific moment and context, preparing mind and body to shape sound, in community with observers, players, and one’s surroundings. It’s a relationship.
October 4 2026 7:30pm
$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online
(FREE for students/underemployed)
JAMES FEI
MATT DAVIGNON
LEAKING
(JAY KORBER, FRED LONBERG-HOLM, BRIAN PEDERSEN)
JAMES FEI performs his The Nerve Meter, where microphones distributed in the performance space are connected to two Frequency Shifters and fed back through loudspeakers. During the course of the performance, the output of the Frequency Shifters increasingly modulate each other, creating inherently unstable patterns that are dependent on interactions of the electronics as well as the acoustics of the room.
MATT DAVIGNON performs on the Boss DR-770 drum machine—the core instrument behind most of his music over the past two decades. Davignon will exploit the device's internal sounds and tools to build complex ever-changing musical passages, without his usual pedal effects and looping devices.
What happens when three stalwarts of the Bay Area improvised/noise/jazz/rock/ experimental scene collide in real time? Find out when LEAKING'S atmospheric river of sound hits the Dresher studio. Members Jay Korber (drums), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and Brian Pedersen (sax) have worked with groups ranging from Nine Dog Dick, the Peter Brotzmann 10tet, Key West, Ettrick, Zeek Sheck, Fistortion, Burmese, The Flying Luttenbachers, Elf Ass. They’ve been playing as a trio for over a year now and so far… it’s been a blast.
October 11 2026 7:30pm
$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online
(FREE for students/underemployed)
JAAP BLONK performs his own compositions, improvisations, and historical sound poems. Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Netherlands) is a self-taught composer, performer, poet and visual artist. His unfinished studies in mathematics and musicology mainly created a penchant for activities in a Dada vein, as did several unsuccessful jobs in offices and other well-organized systems. In the early 1980s he discovered the power and flexibility of his voice, and set out on a long-term research of phonetics and the possibilities of the human voice. At present, he has developed into a specialist in the creation and performance of sound poetry and a unique vocal improviser, supported by a powerful and uninhibited stage presence. He has performed and taught around the world, on all continents. With the use of live electronics and sometimes projection of visuals the scope and range of his concerts has acquired a considerable extension.
Blonk’s recorded / published output comprises some 75 titles: CDs, vinyl, cassettes and books. From his sound poetry scores he developed an independent body of visual work, also supported by his renewed interest in mathematical procedures. It has been exhibited in various countries, and selections have been collected in books by publishers in North and South America and various European countries.
