A List
6/22/09

New Music By SLU Prof Released On CD 'Grain'

CANTON - Grain, compositions by St. Lawrence University Associate Professor of Music Michael Farley, has been released on CD by Innova Music. Farley also performs on the disc.

"It's a love affair with the blues: a strange brew of landscape, found-sound, church-house moan, noise, grit and efflorescence," Farley says of the works on the disc. Included are:
- "No Eyes," by Farley, with text by David Meltzer; guitar, Richard Stephan; percussion, Timothy Hill; sax and voice, Farley
- "...after Motherwell"
- "Camellia," with Barbara Phillips-Farley on piano
- "Brown's Hymn," sax and voice by Farley

Innova states, "Farley is the real deal. His life and his art are one. His relatively few compositions are rare treasures of where his mind and body have traveled, connecting reflections of place that are as musically unconventional as the spirit they convey. Tape, analog electronics, sax and voice are the methods; love and tenderness abound even in the harshest noise."

In addition to his work as a composer, Farley conducts research in a number of areas, especially the role of "place" and music-making in the U.S. His analysis of regionalism and the blues was published in the two-volume Encyclopedia of the Blues (Routledge). A graduate of Central Missouri State, with a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, Farley performs regionally with the University Chorus, the Radio Bob Band, Love Insurgency, Flying Wedge and the Miner Street Band.

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More: Innova's Web site -- hear samples from Grain, by Michael Farley