I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Well I took my spirit
And I crashed my mirrors
Now the whole world is here for me to see
— Jimi Hendrix, “Room Full of Mirrors”
Reflections is a work for violin and computer. The computer behaves like a mirror: it continuously records the violin and then plays those recordings back at later moments in the piece. These playbacks are precisely placed, not random, so lines the violinist has just played reappear in other places—sometimes creating a multiplicity of voices where it’s hard to tell live sound from playback (the sound is only rarely processed). At points the texture feels like an ensemble of violins. The effect relies on the performer’s accuracy and focus, as timing and clarity determine how the reflections align.
The idea resonates with the epigraph from Jimi Hendrix’s Room Full of Mirrors, where breaking the mirrors opens the world beyond the self. Here, the “mirror” listens and answers, turning one instrument into many and expanding the soloist’s line into a shifting, communal space.
An extraordinary video by Yoel Culiner accompanies the work, focusing with extreme close-ups on the violin and the hands of Yael Barolsky. The camera’s intimate movement mirrors the piece’s sonic reflections, drawing the viewer deep into the physical and visual detail of performance.
Reflections was released on Yael Barolsky’s CD Meanderings