Elainie Lillios - Among Fireflies

 Elainie Lillios - Among Fireflies

Among Fireflies sets up an implied musical story within the first minute, and not following through is a disadvantage to the work as a whole.

Elainie Lillios’ Among Fireflies for alto flute and live electronics begins with an unsettling flurry of air noises. The entirety of the work is comprised of alternating sections, the first of which is the loud, noisy opening, and the second is a gentle, mysterious melody which floats in around the 01:45 mark of the video. Lillios spends the rest of the piece slowly combining these two timbral ideas, as the electronics continue to invade the sounds of the flute. It is interesting how Lillios is able to create multiple countermelodies underneath the solo flute, especially the low quasi-bassline. 


Some of the electronics seem random and unrelated to the music. There are multiple sound effects, such as bird calls, which simply do not always fit. Among Fireflies sets up an implied musical story within the first minute, and not following through is a disadvantage to the work as a whole. The ending whistle tones in the alto flute combine very well with the live electronics, resulting in a compound instrument sounding similar to an analog synthesizer.


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© 2022 Brutal New Music Reviews
originally written and published 31 January 2022

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