The Only One My Arms Will Ever Hold (Blue Moon) is a sound object made for John Abram to put sound into. The piece is a fragmented free-improvisation which now and then resembles a tune you think you remember, and once in a blue moon, you recognize the tune.
Presented with a big blue plasticine blob, Abram features an arrangement of Harold Arlen’s “Blue Moon” for vibraphone, piano, bass and drums using the following process: every 7th note was selected regardless of which instrument that note belonged to repeating this process six times for seven fragments, one for each speaker in the ball. Using repetitions and loop lengths, the individual fragments “come together” every hour in theory, though this proved impossible with the technology in practice.
Exhibition History: 2009 Electric Eclectic Festival (Meaford, Canada); 2004 Owen’s Art Gallery (Sackville, Canada); 2003 Art Gallery of Calgary (Canada)
Publication: Falvey, Emily. “Spinning Wheels.” Collyer, Hlady, Wheppler & Mahovsky. Owens Art Gallery, 2004, pp. 9-15.