"The Mirrors of Uqbar" for Viola da Gamba and live electronics. 
“The Mirrors of Uqbar” is a piece based on the metaphor of mirrors found in the short story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges. In this story, Uqbar was a fictional society where mirrors were feared in an allegory to hyperrealism, aka. a simulation that takes over reality. In the piece “The Mirrors of Uqbar”, the electronics reflect and modify the melodic acoustic materials creating a progressively independent world. 

This recording was made on the 1st of March 2020 at the Old Cabell Hall, UVA of the University of Virginia, with support from the Virginia Center for Computer Music at the UVA McIntire Dept of Music.

Music composed by Juan Carlos Vasquez using Ableton Live and Max 8
Viola da Gamba performed by Kivie Cahn-Lipman (Science Ficta ensemble)
Recording Engineer: Travis Thatcher 
Camera: Heather Mease (thanks for this!)
Mixing, Mastering, and Video Editing: Juan Carlos Vasquez 
Special thanks also to Becky Brown for helping putting together the event

"The Mirrors Of Uqbar"

Juan Carlos Vasquez is an award-winning composer, sound artist and researcher based in Helsinki, Finland. His work has been supported by the Nokia Research Center, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, the Arts Promotion Centre in Finland and the CW+ in partnership with the Royal College of Music in London, UK. His electroacoustic music works are performed constantly around the world and have been premiered in 26 countries of America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Vasquez received his education at Sibelius Academy and Aalto University in Finland, and has taken courses with Andy Farnell, Miller Puckette, Marco Stroppa, Steven Stucky and Jonty Harrison, among others.

In 2014 his critically acclaimed series of electroacoustic pieces inspired on classical composers, “Collages”, was released by american label Important Records / Cassauna, selling out shortly afterwards. “Collages Vol 2” is set to be released in 2017. Vasquez currently works as a Researcher and Lecturer at the Media Lab Helsinki, Aalto University.

"The Mirrors Of Uqbar"

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