RosaLi

Rosali crafts songs that balance quiet nuance with striking force, channeling fragile feelings into folk-rock textures colored by D.I.Y. experimental leanings. Her recordings steadily gained polish while retaining traces of rawness, reaching fresh refinement once she began collaborating with backing band Mowed Sound on the 2021 album No Medium and on her first Merge Records project, the 2024 release Bite Down.

Rosali Middleman spent her childhood in Michigan surrounded by a musical household before establishing herself as a solo performer in Philadelphia’s noisy rock underground. Her first album, Out of Love, appeared in 2016 on Siltbreeze; its roots-oriented material stood apart from the more abrasive noise acts for which the label was known. An exploratory impulse nevertheless ran through her solo recordings, leading her to pursue looser instincts in the garage punk trio the Long Hots and in Monocot, the spare psychedelic rock duo she formed with drummer Jayson Gerycz. Her second album, Trouble Anyway, arrived in 2018 and included contributions from associates in Philadelphia’s tight-knit experimental indie community—members of Purling Hiss, the War on Drugs, and ambient harpist Mary Lattimore. Around the time of Trouble Anyway, Rosali started reaching broader listeners by regularly touring with acts such as Destroyer, the Weather Station, and Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis.

No Medium marked Rosali’s initial outing with Mowed Sound, whose core players comprised drummer Kevin Donahue, bassist David Nance, and guitarist/producer James Schroeder. After moving to North Carolina she joined the Merge Records roster for her fourth album, Bite Down. That record was again captured with Mowed Sound, now expanded by keyboardist Ted Bois, and appeared in March 2024.