Lionlimb - Limbo (Transparent Orange Vinyl)

Through his project Lionlimb, New York-based singer/songwriter/producer Stewart Bronaugh crafts unfurling soundscapes that feel mysterious and otherworldly, yet timeless and nostalgic at the same time. He presents his most ambitious vision of these inner vistas on his new album, Limbo, arriving May 24th on Bayonet Records. Inspired by a palette of ‘70s Italian film soundtracks, ‘60s girl group music, and funk and soul ballads, Bronaugh brings these influences together to invent an immersive sound all his own—with help from close collaborator Joshua Jaeger, whose live drums bring a rawness to Limbo’s meticulously layered production. 

Led by the smoldering single “Dream of You,” featuring Angel Olsen, Limbo taps into universal themes of romance, longing, and loss, while still offering a hazy escape from our present reality. Bronaugh penned the songs with “classic” songwriting in mind, transforming his personal struggles with grief and addiction into love songs. Using images inspired by nature (like the sun, moonlight, hurricanes, and deep water), he expresses being overtaken by a force greater than himself, as the psychedelic production evokes a sense of being plunged into this vast landscape.

Bronaugh wrote Limbo while stuck in his Brooklyn apartment during the pandemic, a time of both deep introspection and escapism. As an artist who always “felt out of time” with the current world, he careened down musical wormholes online, seeking out old, obscure cuts—from ‘70s soul singer Gloria Ann Taylor to Italian film composer Alessandro Alessandroni—that ended up informing the sepia tone feel of the album. Limbo benefits from its eclectic influences, as Bronaugh overlays sitar-sounding guitar on top of funky basslines, melodramatic string arrangements, and fuzzed out guitar, making for music that could easily belong on Twin Peaks just as much as a Western cowboy film. 

An album of duets, Limbo features a host of female vocalists—Angel Olsen, Ewa Synowiec, Justine Orrall, Bri Abram, Zoey Huynh, and Taylor Belle—who each add a textural counterpoint to Bronaugh’s understated vocal performance. “I think about vocals as just another instrument,” he explains. “When we first tried to have someone else sing, I liked it, because I felt more akin to a producer than a songwriter.” There’s a dreamy quality to how these singers trade off with Bronaugh, both parties expressing his inner emotions.

Limbo is a culmination of Bronaugh’s years of production experience, as he composed, produced, and mixed the project almost entirely by himself, with additional recording from Robin Eaton. Growing up in Nashville, he started playing piano, guitar, and fooled around with a Roland digital multitrack recorder as a high schooler. The Lionlimb project took shape in college, where he met Joshua Jaeger, and the two soon released their 2016 debut LP Shoo and 2018’s Tape Recorder. Always inspired to make bold and experimental choices that capture his instincts in the moment, Bronaugh’s production style is informed by “wanting to do the weird thing that engineers wouldn’t approve of,” as he describes it. “My favorite part of making music is the mistakes.”