The music of Los Angeles folk musician Jessica Pratt shimmers. The California native has released four albums in total, including the well-received Quiet Signs (2019). Her latest offering, nine-track LP Here In the Pitch, was released in May 2024 on Mexican Summers.
Los Angeles-based folk musician Jessica Pratt Photo: Samuel Hess
The album feels like a recontextualisation of psychedelic folk in a modern context. Delicate sonic textures submerge the audience in a haunting soundscape with a vintage flavour influenced by Pratt’s crooning, understated vocals. The result is a bristling tension that captures the listener in its world.
At times, Pratt’s charismatic strumming and lilting vocal melodies invoke Nick Drake’s Pink Moon (1972), while tracks such as ‘World on a String’ and ‘Empires Never Know’ call to mind the folk sensibilities of 1970s English folk-rock singer Vashti Bunyan.
Maggie Tweedie spoke to Pratt on Music 101 this week about Here In the Pitch and her upcoming Aotearoa tour.
Catch Pratt on tour this June:
June 9 – The Piano, Christchurch
June 10 – Meow Nui, Wellington
June 11 – Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna Auckland
