Seattle’s Jesy Fortino has performed under the name Tiny
Vipers since her teen years. Honing her craft in punk houses
and squats, Fortino’s haunting folk elegies are as sparse as
they are dense. People and times past wander through her
songs like ghosts looking for a home, appearing and then
vanishing into deft guitar playing that is reminiscent of John
Fahey and Ry Cooder. Her first two full-length records,
Hands Across the Void and Life On Earth (Sub Pop, 2007
and 2009, respectively) were masterworks of delicate,
deliberate composition and instrumentation. Rarely has
music this minimal made such a massive statement.
Years of touring and critical acclaim brought Tiny Vipers a cult following. Despite this, she
largely operates outside of the world of mainstream music. A series of incendiary
experimental releases preceded her third LP Laughter (Ba Da Bing!, 2017). A collection of
electronic tracks buried beneath a pane of frosted-glass tape hiss, Laughter shone a light
on yet another facet of Fortino’s prismatic musical identity. 2021’s American Prayer EP saw
a return to the acoustic music of her early releases, its three tracks setting an outstanding
groundwork for her next full-length record.
While Tiny Vipers has shared a stage with the likes of Patti Smith and Damo Suzuki, and
has collaborated with Liz Harris (Grouper) as Mirrorring (releasing Foreign Body on Kranky
Records in 2012), her artistic identity has remained as elusive and mysterious as her music.
It is seldom that we encounter an artist as unique and singular as Tiny Vipers. Her
upcoming full-length record is scheduled for release in 2025