MORENIKE – Nobody Knows My Name
Emerging Italo-Nigerian artist Morenike releases her debut EP Nobody Knows My Name, via cult French independent label Kwaidan Records (home to acclaimed band Nouvelle Vague).
The five-track collection features focus track “Horses”—a culmination of Morenike’s exploration of identity, belonging, and the realization that the search for self is not a destination but an ongoing journey.
Nobody Knows My Name is a five-track EP that mainly explores the concept of identity,” Morenike explains. “I wrote it during a moment in my life where the main question I kept asking myself was: where do I belong? The themes revolve around loneliness, self-discovery, the sense of belonging, and freedom. Sonically, the EP mirrors this journey by blending different influences, ranging from trip-hop to oriental music and R&B.”
Born in Ireland 24 years ago and raised in Rome, now based in Paris, Morenike Vincent’s artistic journey unfolds as a continuous search for desire, resonance, and belonging. Unable to find the musical space she was looking for in Italy, she relocated to Paris, where she developed this deeply personal project in collaboration with producer Marc Collins (founding member of Nouvelle Vague) at his legendary Alphaville Studios.
Music becomes, for Morenike, a fragile yet vital refuge where contradictions are allowed to coexist, and where identity is something fluid, intimate, and free.
The EP’s focus track “Horses” encapsulates the project’s central revelation. With the central line “I was never meant to belong—and there is no place to find,” the song represents the album’s core philosophy.
“In the end, the EP suggests that the search for identity is not really a destination to reach, but rather an ongoing exploration,” Morenike reflects.
“Horses” cements Morenike’s vision of music as storytelling, ritual, and transformation—a fitting conclusion to an EP that refuses easy answers in favor of profound questions.
Classically trained in piano for ten years and cello, with jazz vocal studies at conservatory, Morenike creates a culturally hybrid sound that weaves together folk, soul, jazz, grunge, trip-hop, and electronic elements. Her singular ability to hold together opposing forces—oriental and African percussion with raw grunge textures, the haunting depth of trip-hop, and the spiritual resonance of religious and folk chants—has drawn comparisons to FKA Twigs, Nina Simone, Ego Ella May, and Greentea Peng.
Her art refuses to be confined by genre, instead creating a sound that feels both ancient and urgently contemporary.
The path to Nobody Knows My Name began with the title track single (November 2025), which wove together folk, soul, jazz, and electronic elements into a deeply spiritual sound. Follow-up single “Mysterious and Wild” (January 2026) ventured into nocturnal territory, built around a grunge-inspired guitar riff combined with Indian-influenced percussion, tracing an emotional journey through the night.
Now, with the full EP, Morenike presents a complete vision—five tracks that mirror the emotional landscape of searching for belonging, discovering that perhaps the point was never to find a fixed place, but to embrace the journey itself.
Working with Marc Collins at Alphaville Studios, Morenike has crafted a debut that balances literary sophistication with sonic boldness. The EP represents an artist unafraid to explore cultural displacement, existential questions, and the uncomfortable truth that belonging might not mean what we think it does.
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