Empires In Orbit unveils new track "Deja Vu"

Empires In Orbit, the electronic project multi-instrumentalist Gary Mann began in 2015, shared a new track called "Deja Vu" on August 13, premiering with Under the Radar ahead of the release of the band's new album, Audiodrome, the following day. Mann's project has evolved into a duo since 2023's pair of Notes From the Ether albums, with the addition of German vocalist Fe Malefiz.

"Deja Vu" pulls back from the chaotic, industrial edges of the duo's recent singles "Mother!" and "Cat Eyes," instead built around placid piano tones and Malefiz's vocals, which Under the Radar described as a crystalline counterpoint to the murky production surrounding them. Rather than following a typical verse-chorus structure, the song sinks steadily deeper into darker territory before settling into an ambient mantra in its final seconds, with Malefiz repeating its single verse: "As my head is underwater, I can see my ears are covered, there's no breath for me to breathe."

Malefiz called the track the most emotional and sorrowful on the new record, describing it as dealing with lost love and the way heartbreak distorts sight, sound and thought, adding that it "took me 5 minutes to write" once the concept clicked. Mann said the song was paired with an animated video, a first for the project, after he found animator Dedi Suseno, whose simple style matched the song; Suseno took the band's lyrics, melodies and reference photos of Malefiz and built what Mann called a "heart wrenching storyline."

Mann said the band held off giving "Deja Vu" a spotlight through two earlier, harder-edged singles before deciding it deserved its own moment, calling the choice to lean into sorrow rather than a bigger single "throwing the listeners sorrow a bag of bricks in a sinking ship" rather than shooting them out of a cannon.

Audiodrome, the first Empires In Orbit album made as a duo, is due out August 14 and now sits on the release calendar, drawing on a wider range of influences than past releases, including ambient, industrial, indie pop and black metal.