
Essie Quoi
Essie Quoi is an emerging musician and multidisciplinary artist whose work transcends easy classification, blending sound, story, and emotion into a deeply immersive experience. A true alchemist of creativity, Essie unites music, visual art, and performance to craft a singular language that speaks directly to the heart. Currently based in New York, she is the driving force behind Esther’s Laboratory—a space where she thrives as a composer, producer, and performer—and The Narcotix, where she co-composes, performs, and experiments with boundary-pushing soundscapes. The latter has captured the attention of prestigious outlets such as NPR, Pitchfork, Earmilk, and Bandcamp Daily.
Essie’s art is a fearless exploration of expression, drawing from a rich tapestry of influences, including West African rhythms, global folk traditions, and the avant-garde textures of musique concrète. Her soundscapes are both profoundly personal and universally resonant, inviting listeners to traverse the realms of memory, emotion, and identity. Her work often dissolves the lines between organic and synthetic, reality and imagination, creating a world where vulnerability becomes a form of strength.
Born to Ivorian immigrants and raised in small-town Virginia, Essie grew up surrounded by the magic of storytelling. Her mother’s folktales and the melodies of the natural world ignited a passion for narrative that would later become the cornerstone of her artistic identity. The solitude of her upbringing fostered an expansive inner world, one that now fuels her art and inspires others to explore their own depths.
Eschewing conventional paths, Essie has embraced a life of artistic discovery, channeling her experiences into works that heal, question, and connect. Her music is a vessel for introspection and transformation, a place where raw emotion is given form and shared as an act of unconditional love.
On stage, Essie creates more than performances—she crafts shared journeys into uncharted emotional and creative landscapes. Each piece is an invitation to join her in a voyage of sound, story, and self-discovery, leaving audiences with a profound sense of connection to the human experience.