Any given electroacoustic piece can range from almost completely electronic to almost completely acoustic. Jim O’Rourke’s Rules of reduction is one of the latter. Very few (no?) electronic noises, and very little done to the sounds themselves, of crowds, of traffic, of cars honking, of guitars, of squeaky swings, of seagulls, of children playing, of a piano playing a sultry bar tune. (If I were a better person, or had paid more attention to my parents’ music instead of haring off after Brahms and Tchaikovsky at a young age, I’m sure I’d be able to put a name to that tune, too.)

The ice cream truck in Rules of reduction plays the same tune as the live one that goes past every day here in Portland. The illusion is complete.