In the 1980’s Michael V. Farley combined spoken word and guitar in his electronic music. During the 90’s he collaborated extensively with poets and dancers and wrote incidental music for theater productions, and began a long term association with the Jim Sande Ensemble.
Since 2000, Michael has been appropriating, recycling, and manipulating pre-existing sound, field recordings, and outmoded genres of recorded music as raw material for new compositions under the name the Beige Channel.
In 2001 he won the "4X4" prize from the Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts with the composition, “Dining On Shortwaves, which was released on CD with works by Si-cut.db/BitTonic, Evan Parker, and Sneaker Pimps.
Michael has performed in a number of venues in upstate New York and New York City, often with the New York Phonographers, and has contributed to a variety of online Web sites for electronic music. His work has been included in broadcasts and exhibits of sound art in the UK and Europe.
His CD, Plain Vanilla (2004) was described as “fascinating… hypnotic… an absorbing experiment,” by The Wire magazine. Autumn Rain in the Yard (2006) was called “an excellent work of careful micro-sounding crackles, static hiss and all sorts of granular synthesis… a highly fine work,” by Vital, and “strange, haunting…intriguing stuff,” by Paris Transatlantic.
Solo and group appearances have included:
International Computer Music Conference.
Arts Center of the Capital Region - Troy, NY.
Saratoga County Arts Council - Saratoga Springs, NY.
106BLDG30 - Brooklyn Navy Yard.
RPI Chapel and Cultural Center - Troy, NY
Make Music NY - New York City.
The Wave Farm - Acra, NY.
Issue Project Room - Brooklyn, NY.
Brick Elephant - Valley Falls, NY.
BPM - Brooklyn, NY.
Diapason - New York City.
The Tank - New York City.
Engine 27 - New York City.
No Compression Festival - Syracuse, NY.
