Casey MQ

A name that speaks volumes about rare quality: The fact that the ghostly art pop on ‘Later That Day, The Day Before, Or The Day Before That’ (2024) is being released by the tastemakers at Ghostly is one hell of a coincidence. In any case, Casey MQ’s second album – which was released last year – is a monument to contemporary pop music that combines the fragility of a tormented soul with the self-confidence of an artist inspired by Joni Mitchell as well as by Claude Debussy, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and the late great Arthur Russell. Eclectic in his sifting and dissection of stylistic influences, Casey MQ combines matte-shimmering art pop with ambient and alternative R&B renditions to create a sound that is entirely his own – like a sublime score to the gently surreal flashback sequences in contemporary dramas by Sofia Coppola or Todd Haynes, calm yet charged with emotion. It is thus only logical that Casey MQ composed his first soundtrack – ‘The Heirloom’ – this year.