© Lodovica Di Bernardo
Lili Refrain is a multi-instrumentalist...
...composer and performer based in Rome, Italy. Born in 2007, the solo project “Lili Refrain” operates with electric guitar, voice, percussion and synthesizers, overlaying them in real time through loop stations. The atmosphere she evokes covers a wide sonic range that combines minimalist, folk, psychedelic, blues, metal and opera textures, without using any computers or pre-recorded tracks.
Her songs are embedded with ritual energies and her live performances are a cathartic experience capable of leading the listener into an unforgettable act beyond the boundaries of any genre.
She marked since her early days with an innovative act, with a sound that is certainly not mainstream nor "repeatedly electronic".
Instead, she finds herself among the few acts that rely on massive use of loops over an "analog" project. As these usually looks elsewhere with their musical approach, she is often mentioned by other musicians on interviews and reviews as a source of inspiration with her way of using the magic of repetition.
The response from the audience ...
...is positive and the live performances manage to reach very deep levels of engagement, showing expressive strength and capability to gather attention and curiosity.
On the top of it, not using semantic verbal language leads her to have no linguistic boundaries and allowed the sound not to have any geographical limits or conditioning.
Her first works "LILI REFRAIN - 2007", "9 - 2009" and "KAWAX - 2013" are very focused guitar and voice, remaining outside any genres and enveloping, at the same time, a multitude of styles in her sound.
All these rich references and imagery are a prelude to an artistic journey that will cross very different territories over the years, walking the same shoes to the creation of an increasingly assertive expressive range: an endemic example of growth and development of a musical identity.
“Early Lili Refrain and I are not that different people: even tho 15 years have passed and a great deal of experience and changes in between, I have never abandoned my roots.
I know where I come from and what brought me here."
Lili Refrain
© Violetta Ellisdottir
In 2020, ULU was released
...(again sealing the ironclad alliance with SubSound Records): a 22-minute EP split in three acts.
The album presents itself as a sort of bridge: together with the guitars, Lili Refrain's favorite instrument, a gradual integration of floor tom and synth is engaged.
These are the first steps towards the creation of Mana, all always accompanied by the 6 "original" strings and the hypnotic power of notes repeated endlessly, reflected and refracted on overlapping structures.
"Mana" (Subsound Records)
...is released in April 2022 and produced in collaboration with Stefano Morabito, sound engineer at the 16th Cellar Studio in Rome, is a totally different work from the previous ones.
If in the first 4 albums guitars and voices have always been in the center, in this latest work Refrain explores lower frequencies and instruments that allow her to delve into the low-end realm, introducing synthesizers and percussion like Taiko: a Japanese percussion that combines two of her greatest passions, music and martial arts.
The use of various types of percussion and the deep drones of the synth also allowed her to expand her vocal techniques, from throat singing to opera, leaving her more freedom to move melodies and harmonies.
© Lasse Norlemann Mathiesen
Considered by many to be a true revelation...
...she has played and left her mark at many international festivals as Roadburn (Netherlands), Hellfest (France), Desertfest (Belgium), Motocultor (France), Inferno Fest (Norway), Mystic Fest (Poland), Dunk Fest (Belgium), Midgardsblot (Norway), Kilkim Zaibu (Lituania), AmFest (Spain), Fekete Zaj (Hungary), Ascension Festival (Iceland), Sonic RItes (Finland), Extramuralhas (Portugal), to name a few.
In the beginning of 2023, a three-month tour begun with Lili travelling throughout Europe and the UK as support act for the mighty HEILUNG, which fell in love with her and her live performances.
Immediately after, she followed the legendary THE CULT as a support act on their European and UK tour and in November she joined Death Cult for their UK/Ireland 40 years commemorative tour.
Lili Refrain has released 5 albums, and is currently on tour to promote her latest album: “MANA” (2022 – Subsound Records).
The list of her collaborations is very long, as are the bands and musicians with whom she shared the stage, some of the most relevant are: Heilung, The Cult, Meshuggah, Ben Frost, Steve Vai, Current 93, Sieben, Cannibals Corps, Megadeath, Napalm Death, Anna Von Hausswolff, Lingua Ignota, Author and Punisher, Alcest, Oranssi Pazuzu, Testament, Gojira, Godflesh...