Lim Orion:

Video Premiere

London-based multidisciplinary artist Lim Orion shares “Pond”, the latest single and final preview from her forthcoming album ILK, due for release next month via Dragonfruit Records.

Following earlier singles “Story” and “Futon”, “Pond” is a curious, almost geometric love song that gradually expands into a sweeping orchestral world. Layered guitars and vocals overlap through tape machines, building into an atmospheric backdrop framed by Orion’s intricate vocal work.

“Pond” is a deeply personal piece for Orion, who describes it as her favourite track on the record; “We layered guitars and voices many, many times in unison through tape machines to create that vastness and space, opening out into the choruses. I knew I wanted the intricate vocals to be central - the instrumentation became more of a wide cinematic landscape around them. We almost didn't record it, struggling with the delicacy of the balance in the studio - we had to lean into how lo-fi and tender it truly was.”

Orion describes imagining herself as a creature shaped from water in a place where that element has vanished. “This song came from a deep place for me - writing myself as something aquatic, feeling like someone had taken all the water out of my environment but still wanted me to somehow stay. The story's release is finding a way to evolve into something new, to be free!” — an experience that will resonate with many who have felt out of place, and with the slow process of finding a way forward.

The accompanying video directed and produced by filmmaker Lois Stevenson and the set design by Roisin Martindale, extends those ideas into a surreal visual landscape. London is transformed into a dystopian, dream-like world where nature begins to force its way through the concrete, with overgrown weeds, neon-lit architecture and strange new creatures suggesting a city undergoing its own peculiar evolution.

Pond sits within the wider world of ILK, where storytelling and imagination become ways for Lim Orion to process difficult emotions and reconnect with her own voice. Written during lockdown in the aftermath of a break-up, the album moves beyond the raw minimalism of her debut Cosmic Salt, embracing a richer, more expansive palette. “As a project, the Lim Orion moniker gives me space to write more freely,” she explains, with each song becoming its own form of creative escape.

Working with producer Callum McGuiness, Orion allowed the music to grow organically, building each track around its own colours, imagery and influences. Strings, field recordings and layered vocals sit alongside traces of psych-folk, grunge, Ethiopian jazz and Gnawa, creating a record that shifts between intimacy and cinematic atmosphere. “The heart of the album is my imagination during a time where I felt like I couldn’t act,” she says. “Each song is a different fantastical escape from that.”

That idea of transformation runs through ILK, ultimately becoming a celebration of identity in all its contradictions. On closing track ‘OR’, Orion explores her mixed heritage and the different sides of her personality, arriving at the realisation that she doesn’t need to fit a single definition. “I’m not just one thing,” she says. “I am made up of a lot of things.” It’s a sentiment that gives ILK its title — an album about embracing complexity, finding freedom through imagination and learning to accept yourself on your own terms.

Album Preorder:

https://limorion.bandcamp.com/album/ilk-pre-order-3

Live:

Saturday 12th September - Folklore Rooms, Brighton
with Clementine Blue and Teenage Waitress
Wednesday 16th September - Tjili Pop, Copenhagen
Friday 18th September - Kulturhuset Islands Brygge, Copenhagen
Thursday 2nd October - Strongroom Bar, Shoreditch London
Full band
Saturday 10th October - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
with Jack Goldstein and Samantha Whates

Lim Orion

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