The Artist: Jessica Pratt
Jessica Pratt was born in California, but she sounds like she's from another world entirely.
Armed with a nylon-string guitar, she self-released her first demos in 2012, catching the ear of White Fence’s Tim Presley. What followed wasn’t a breakout, but a quiet bloom.
Her voice is delicate and uncanny - like some long forgotten 78 rpm record. Her guitar style is intricate, fingerpicked, hypnotic. And though she’s often compared to folk icons like Vashti Bunyan or Karen Dalton, Pratt’s world is stranger, smaller, more dreamlike.
By the time Quiet Signs emerged, she’d already drifted beyond definition.
The Record: Quiet Signs (2019)
Quiet Signs doesn’t rush. It begins softly - with Opening Night, a short instrumental of shimmering keys, like curtains lifting on a forgotten stage.
From there, we slip into As the World Turns, Fare Thee Well, and Poly Blue - each one a hushed incantation, full of unresolved yearning and elliptical lyrics. The songs feel small and precise, but their emotional weight sneaks up on you.
Pratt’s voice sounds suspended in amber - high, tremulous, strangely childlike. Her guitar moves like clockwork, intricate and looping, always leaving space for silence to settle.
This is music that sits at the edge of reality. Where memory blurs, and things feel holy for no reason at all.
It's truly beautiful record.
And once you let it in, it stays.
Play Now:
🔊 Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Start With:
- Poly Blue - Gentle, aching, otherworldly
- Fare Thee Well - Fragile lullaby for endings
- This Time Around - Haunting and half-lit