We hosted Lili Refrain back in 2022, right around the time her last full-length album landed. That release – Mana – and her bewitching stage show catapulted her into support slots all over the globe. In fact, if you’re looking for an imperfect but still pretty accurate sonic spectrum to place Lili’s music on, you could do worse than to look at two of the biggest tours she has done: The Cult and Heilung.
Lili’s use of loops, electronics, and hypnotic rhythms paired with her elastic and impressive vocals creates a distinct, primal sound; the electrifying meets the organic. Based in Rome, Italy, Lili transcends geographical relevance and eschews genre boundaries, absorbing elements of folk, psych, metal and opera along the way. With a new album slated for 2026, we’re preparing to help welcome a new era of Lili Refrain. Until the first slivers of that album are revealed, we’ll keep our lips sealed, but one listen had us hooked and we promptly issued the invitation for a return visit to Roadburn.
– Becky Laverty
