Flutronix - Flutronix | Album review

“Our record is not a concept album, but part of the through-story of Flutronix,” Nathalie Joachim tells us via e-mail. As one half of the Brooklyn-based flute duo, the Juilliard grad views the pair’s self-titled debut more as initiation than culmination. Alongside Chicago native Allison Loggins-Hull, Joachim is on a sonic sortie to augment the existing flute rep with Flutronix’s absorbing species of electro-acoustic explorations.

This music goes down easy, a characteristic that will no doubt cause consternation in some new-music circles. Digestibility is not the final word in artistic worth, though, and the nine cuts here comprise a compelling inroad for new-music newbies, and some deftly crafted beats may command second and third listens by skeptics. “Crazy” opens with an ominous, minimal wave-style synth hook, inviting in an alternately anxious and lyrical multi-tracked duet by Joachim atop a schizophrenic hi-hat. If Flutronix ever shared a stage with Daft Punk, “Run-On” would be the likely tune of choice, the buoyant tenor synth line lurking like a shadow of one of the Tron interludes.

With Flutronix’s flitting rhythmic cells and looped counterpoint, both found throughout the album, comparisons to Steve Reich are inevitable. But Joachim and Loggins-Hull’s success here lies in the duo’s impressive timbral coordination of acoustic flute with the inherent polish of synthetic sounds—no simple achievement. As the overture to the Flutronix through-story, it has us looking forward to the next chapter.