chilling.
nothing more or less.
just gives hard chills.

i love it. <3

That flute is so hauntingly beautiful, absolutely amazing song all around

I'm not a fan of the delay on the flute in the intro. It just sounds kind of squeaky. Personally, I don't like seeing extended lengths of background ambience in music either (I also think the ambience could benefit from being farther back in the mix).

Overall, a well made song as usual. These are just some minor tweaks I'd make.

The Celtic flute at the beginning is absolutely haunting, and the reverberant atmosphere and warm strings help give this an adventuresome and profound aura. I love the string swells, like at :47. The mix is perhaps a tad quiet, but very well-balanced and clean. The contour of the flute melody gets a tad repetitive at around 1:20, so I’m glad you decided to break it up a bit with the piano bridge at 1:33. The texture is pretty minimal for most of the piece, but the reverb and well-balanced frequencies help keep me engaged. The energetic, ascending string line at 2:26 is really nice, and captures the tension of the piece well going into 2:54 nicely. The vocals and the way the piano rejoins there makes for a fairly subtle yet very effective final climax. The callback to the flute and strings works nicely too. The emotional appeal of the string solo during the outro is top-notch. Overall, what can I say? You did it again, Lordant. Despite my nitpicks, this is a fantastic piece all around. Congratulations on your success in this competition. It’s been an absolute pleasure hearing so much of your work these past 5 months. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
9.25/10

This is simply beyond my ability to criticize, if there is anything wrong with this, I can't find it. I don't know how you can write music like this so quickly, it boggles my mind. Despite the time crunch, I noticed that you managed to put in a ton of very subtle instrument effects that really give it an organic, natural feel. The little flutter on the strings at 2:15 is incredible attention to detail that I would never have thought of.