Friday September 4, 2026
7:30 PM
Leon Art Gallery: 1112 E 17th Ave, Denver, CO 80218
The Playground and Leon Gallery present an annual evening of experimental and improvised electronic music created and performed by Playground Ensemble composers. Interesting sounds in interesting spaces; interactive electronics, manipulated voice, uniquely created instruments, and more.
Doors at 7:00 PM, show at 7:30 PM.
Program
“You of the Cave Beneath the Sea” by Silen Wellington
This piece is a play on a witch chant to Grandmother Weaver, Old Fate Herself, who is said to knit our souls together beneath the sea. In it, Silen plays with morphing filters, granulation, vocoding and other effects to create an oceanic rocking prayer to Grandmother to weave good fates for us.
“the hanged man speaks” by David Farrell
John Brown (1800 - 1859) was an American abolitionist remembered for his attempt to incite armed insurrection among enslaved individuals in the American south at Harper's Ferry; he was later hung for this action. His legacy is tied to essential elements of American history - violence, religion, and race.
Odin is depicted as the head of the Aesir, a pantheon of gods in Norse myth. In one passage from the Poetic Edda, he is depicted as hanging himself from the great tree Yggdrasil in order to gain greater power and wisdom. Sometimes depicted as an older, bearded man, he is seen by some as a father of mortal men, and among his many associations are warfare and the dead.
The Hanged Man is the twelfth card in the tarot's Major Arcana. Its subject hangs by one foot from a living tree; Waite describes its associations as "Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy."
the hanged man speaks is a work for live two-channel electronics with live video. The images, text, and audio are drawn from a wide range of sources, frequently related to the above figures.
“Unnumbered Etude” by Ryan Fiegl
This music explores aleatoric and generative elements within a framework of metric structures and is created using analog and digital electronic hardware with a variety of input sources.
“Living Room Installation” (Leon Version) by Conrad Kehn
Living Room Installation brings together my recent summer creative projects into one culminating sonic experiment. I used these learning projects to set the foundation for future work but felt they needed their own outlet, even if underdeveloped.
Many days I would start with a quick piece of blackout poetry, almost as a warmup. These poems were recorded onto a cassette 4-track at various speeds (and directions).
This might be followed by manipulated turntable experiments, placing shards of broken records on top of other records to form disjointed loops ala Christian Marclay or Maria Chavez. Many days I ran these loops through a spectral resonator to create ambient textures from the often-aggressive record skips.
On another day I might be working with speakers reclaimed from thrift store toys, an Arduino, and a breadboard to program a series of blinks and bloops. This became a source of video feedback in the recorded version.
Some days I spent my time building kinetic motion ‘music robots’ (ala Petr Valek and others I’m sure) using Katie Taft’s bunnies and chemonauts placed inside my piano. I often picked flowers from my yard to add even more color and texture to the process.
Tonight’s version will include excerpted selections from the above list with an opportunity for the audience to create and record their own blackout poetry, which I will manipulate as part of the piece.
“sobasabo” by Michiko Theurer & Iddo Aharony
"Saba" is the Hebrew word for grandfather, and "sobo" is the Japanese word for grandmother (when spoken of to another person). sobasabo is an imagined meeting point of ancestral connections. It stems from two sonic objects intimately linked to memories and stories, as well as our present lives: a koto (Japanese zither) that belonged to Michi's great grandmother and an archival reel-to-reel tape recording from the early 1950’s of Iddo's grandfather's singing voice.
Our performance unfolds through improvisation. The recording of Iddo’s grandfather’s voice flows in via time-stretching and live processing. Meanwhile, using a program she composed in Max/MSP and a gesture-based controller, Michi sculpts the physical resonance of her great grandmother's instrument. Together, we play it by ear as we scratch the surface of the in-between spaces shared by these intergenerational resonances.
Composers’ Bios
Silen Wellington (they/he) is a sculptor of sound, artist of people, storyteller, and genderqueer shapeshifter, among other things. Avidly interdisciplinary, they like to combine music with other art mediums, be that spoken word, visual art, ritual performance, loud and fiery eye contact, otherworldly and melting trysts, or something else entirely. They make art as an act of service, healing, disruption and magic, weaving together disciplines of poetry, acoustic sound, electronics, ritual, and performance art.
Besides composing and performing, Silen teaches classes in witchcraft and offers spiritual mentorship. You can learn more about their work at SilenWellington.com or on Instagram: @silen_creature.
David E. Farrell (b. 1982) is a composer based in Denver, CO. David’s music has been performed by ensembles across the United States, including the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra, North/South Chamber Orchestra, The Playground Ensemble, the Sam Houston State University Percussion Group, the University of Iowa Center for New Music Ensemble, and the University of Illinois Chamber Orchestra as winner of the University of Illinois Orchestra Composition Competition. His works have been featured at the SCI National Conference, The Electroacoustic Barn Dance, DomeFest West, The Playground Ensemble’s Colorado Composers Concert, Sam Houston State University Contemporary Music Festival, the Midwest Composers Symposium, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chamber Music Institute, and the University of Cincinnati’s Music07 Festival. His music can also be heard on Meerenai Shim’s album The Art of Noise, The Playground Ensemble’s 8-Bit X-Mas, and Patricia Surman’s New American, Vol. 1.
David studied at the University of Illinois and at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he earned a D.M. in Composition. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver and a longtime part of The Playground Ensemble.
Ryan Fiegl is a guitarist, composer, and educator who also creates electronic music - often under the name Severed Shadow.
His music is rooted in immersive soundscapes and minimalistic textures using a variety of analog and digital electronic hardware and often features conventional instrumentation.
Ryan is an active member of The Playground Ensemble, regularly collaborates with longtime friends and mentors William Hill and Conrad Kehn, has played in numerous rock/jazz/experimental groups in Denver, performs experimental electronic music with his partner Lanx Borealis, and currently serves as faculty at the University of Denver and Regis University.
Conrad Kehn is a composer, performer, educator, and an arts administrator. He is the founding Director of The Playground Ensemble.
An award-winning composer, Conrad’s output includes traditional and contemporary chamber music, experimental and multi-media works, and popular music.
As a vocalist, Conrad specializes in electronic music, improvisation, and contemporary chamber music. He gigs regularly with a quasi-improvised Ableton set that combines digitally manipulated live vocals and found content from older media formats. He participates regularly in low latency networked music performances, a process allowing performers in different locations to make music as if they are in the same room.
More info can be found at: conradkehn.com
Michiko Theurer weaves together sound, visuals, and movement in the service of ecological and social connection. She is drawn to wonder as a catalyst for collective movement. Recent installations have included a resonating sculptural pillow, an interactive network of ceramic bowls, and a permanent installation of giant felted wool flowers in the North Boulder Library children’s area. She has performed with Meredith Monk, Mazz Swift, Tyshawn Sorey, Claire Chase, eighth blackbird, the Playground Ensemble, and with experimental improv ensembles Treebird and fff. Michi love dogs, shared pots of tea, and spontaneous kitchen dance parties.
Iddo Aharony (who also goes by inbetween) is an experimental musician and listener. Continuously exploring the myriad intersections of sound, environment, culture, and technology, his body of work spans a wide variety of instrumentations, media, and interdisciplinary collaborations, from a fully-staged opera to various projects utilizing live electronics and environmental sound. His work is often created together with visual artists, theater creators, poets, and scientists, as well as other musicians and sound-makers. An Associate Professor of Music Technology at Colorado College, he currently lives in Colorado Springs, and feels proud to have kept most of his house plants mostly alive during the hot 2026 Colorado summer.