Essie Quoi is an emerging musician and multidisciplinary artist whose work defies easy categorization, weaving together sound, story, and emotion into an immersive tapestry of experience. As much an alchemist as an artist, Essie fuses the realms of music, visual art, and performance to create a unique and evocative language that speaks directly to the heart. Currently based in New York, Essie is the visionary behind Esther's Laboratory (composer, producer, performer) and The Narcotix (co-composer, instrumentalist, vocalist), with the latter having garnered attention from major publications such as NPR, Pitchfork, Earmilk and Bandcamp Daily.

 

Essie’s artistic mission is to push the boundaries of creative expression through fearless experimentation and raw vulnerability. Rooted in West African rhythms, global folk traditions, and the avant-garde textures of musique concrète, her soundscapes are both deeply personal and universally resonant. Each piece is an invitation to explore the depths of emotion, memory, and identity, often blurring the lines between the organic and the synthetic, the real and the imagined.

 

Born to immigrants from Côte d'Ivoire, Essie was raised in small town Virginia where the vastness of the inner world often provided more solace than the external one. From an early age, she was captivated by the power of storytelling—whether through the folktales shared by her mother or the melodies that seemed to arise from the natural world itself. This early exposure to narrative and sound has blossomed into a lifelong passion for using music as a vessel for deeper exploration and expression.

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Despite a background that once leaned heavily on the security of conventional paths, Essie has fully embraced the unpredictable and the unknown, diving headfirst into a life dedicated to art and self-discovery. Each creation is a step towards understanding the intricate patterns of human experience, a journey of healing, and, ultimately, an expression of unconditional love.

 

In every performance, Essie invites the audience to join her in this journey—a shared exploration of sound, story, and the uncharted territories of the soul.