From Eritrea to London via the world, Rimon’s journey has only just begun
Rimon is in a constant state of evolution. Through beautifully graded visuals and experimental sounds, the Eritrean-born, Netherlands-raised artist exhibits the thoughts that flood her inner-world. I was first introduced to Rimon during a routine spiral into the abyss of YouTube suggestions and somewhere in between Sunni Colón and Ama Lou, there she was with the boldly titled 16-minute video ‘What They Called Me’. In collaboration with the Brussels-based collective Bleunuit, the short film is built around Rimon’s sophomore EP ‘I Shine, U Shine’, with each track a guiding force behind the narrative. Through fits of rebellion, slow dancing and masked robberies, she surrenders to moments of self-unfoldment that eventually leads her into a state of acceptance. The project arrived in 2020 and in our conversation Rimon reflects on how she still moves with the belief that “your identity is something that you are constantly discovering, that’s the beautiful thing about life.”
Following ‘I Shine, U Shine’, Rimon continued her ascent as a refined storyteller, creative director and artist when she welcomed in her conceptual EP ‘Digital Tears’, set against the backdrop of lockdown restrictions. On here she continues to nurture her distinct sound that floats between neo-soul and electro R&B with the occasional hip hop influence. As the title suggests, the sonics of ‘Digital Tears’ experiment with more crunchy electronic textures as she documents her observations of the digital world at a time where physical interactions were limited to none at all.
After a number of personal and global transitions including relocating to London from Amsterdam, a massive social media break, getting her phone stolen and watching the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, Rimon began reflecting on the future state of our society in the hands of technological advances. “It's a topic that I discuss all the time with my friends, we talk about technology, AI, crypto, NFT - that whole space,” she says. “But also, how is this world going to move and how are people going to move in the next 10, 20 or 30 years? How are these Twitter and Instagram spaces affecting us?”
Distorted vocal effects deliver prose-like lyrics as a reminder to not allow our perception of reality to be contorted by the hours spent online. While leaning into these online spaces allowed us to stay close to friends and family during lockdown, it was an experience fraught with misinformation. “Sometimes I end up on threads and someone’s like ‘That person is cancelled’ and then you’d ask why, and they reply with ‘Oh I don’t know I just heard that…’ You heard what? Think for yourself! I just hope people would take a lesson out of it and reflect on their behaviour on the internet.”
Rimon opens the EP with the track ‘iClout’ featuring Earthgang and together they deliver a crisp vocal performance over an R&B backdrop. The song landed with a live session-style video capturing Rimon performing on a rooftop set against the cityscape of Addis Ababa. This open-armed embrace of her Ethiopian-Eritrean roots wasn’t something she allowed herself to explore growing up. “I was always rebelling against everything that was normal in our culture, almost to the point where I didn’t want to affiliate myself with it. But that’s a part of being a teenager and now that I’m older I have a different perspective on these small habits, rituals and values. I want to know more and implement that in my life, and that’s going to show up in my music and art.” Her ancestral roots run deep, so through her work she wants to show that “there are some dope Ethiopian and Eritrean artists out here that are actually creating and doing things.”
Rimon’s latest arrival is a short film that accompanies the closing track on ‘Digital Tears’ titled ‘20/20’. For this one she reconnects with Bleunuit for another cinematic and symbolic return to Ethiopia. The unhurried film allows us to gently observe different generations admiring the bounty of their land and the vast oceans. It's an intimate moment of sankofa for Rimon as in the closing shots she’s cradled in the arms of an elder while other members of the community surround them in the water. A common thread in Rimon’s narrative-based visuals is her unique translations of beauty. “For me it's a process so when I make a song there’s a visual aspect to it straight away while I’m writing or recording.”
“Your identity is something that you are constantly discovering, that’s the beautiful thing about life”
Our conversation often spirals around the idea of home. Born into a land that is her own, Rimon spent her childhood years first in refugee camps filled with families of different cultures, and then onto Germany before settling in the Netherlands. These experiences, while challenging to her sense of identity, certainly sharpened her wide-ranging tastes in music. With her native home now a common thread in her art, I close our conversation intrigued to know how she stays connected. “It's just a journey that I’m on right now. Home is where you are but I do associate home with a sense of familiarity. Amsterdam is my home because all my friends and family are there. Eritrea and Ethiopia are my ancestral homes, so when I’m there I feel like I belong. I look around and everyone looks like me and speaks the same language as me. I’m not the only Black kid around.”