Canadian-born violinist Lili Haydn, raised in the Los Angeles commune of Father Yod, started playing violin for the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Donovan, Hootie & The Blowfish, Porno For Pyros, No Doubt, Jimi Page and Robert Plant. She studied singing with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan amd played with the Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra. Soon, she began singing her own compositions, and her sunday show at the "Viper" became legendary, an austere mixture of classical, folk, jazz, pop, rock and pop.

While her talent is significant, Lili (Atlantic, 1997) is too confused a collection to take advantage of it. From the lullaby Baby to the psychedelic Real, from the middle-eastern Daddy to the funky Someday, from the radio-friendly Take Somebody Home to the rowdy Stranger, Haydn simply misses one opportunity after the other to open up her heart. Her compositional skills are best showcased in the instrumentals Salome and Wants Deep. Her songwriting is not only ineffective, it is counterproductive.

She continued to release albums while launching a career as a composer of film soundtracks: Light Blue Sun (2003), Place Between Places (2008), Lililand (2014), Evocations (2015).

She formed Opium Moon with santurist Hamid Saeidi, violinist Lili Haydn, percussionist MB Gordy and bass guitarist Itai Disraeli. They released Opium Moon (2018) and Night + Day (2021).

More Love (2021) was her first solo album in six years and contained both songs and film music.

Haydn scored the soundtracks to several films, including Horse Boy (2009), the trilogy of documentaries Zeitgeist (2007-11), Freida Mock's documentary Anita (2013), Henry Barrial's Driver X (2017), Johanna Demetrakas' documentary Feminists (2018) Lars von Trier's The House that Jack Built (2018), Freida Lee Mock's documentary Ruth (2019), and Michele Ohayon's documentary Strip Down Rise Up (2021).