Canadian singer/multi-instrumentalist MorMor appeared seemingly out of nowhere in 2018 with the mysterious and dreamy single "Heaven's Only Wishful." In a series of self-produced tracks, the artist drew on the fragility of the singer/songwriter, the dreamy distance of indie rock, and the psychedelic twists of R&B. He continued to leak new songs over the course of the next few months, culminating in the 2019 EP Some Place Else. Following additional singles, MorMor made his full-length debut in 2022 with Semblance.

Toronto-based musician Seth Nyquist found himself interested in more experimental takes on pop music from an early age, listening to artists like Burial, James Blake, and Radiohead as a teenager. After time spent playing with friends in band formations, he took up the MorMor moniker in the late 2010s for his solo music. His first song, "Heaven's Only Wishful," was passed around in music-industry circles by his friend and fellow Toronto R&B experimenter Daniel Caesar. The melancholy track was a muted cross-pollination of indie dourness and R&B falsettos that built into tormented screams. An exciting song, it caught listeners off guard and became a hit shortly after its official release in 2018. From there, MorMor followed with "Whatever Comes to Mind" and "Waiting on the Warmth," later expanding them into a five-song EP (also titled Heaven's Only Wishful) with the addition of two extra tracks. In 2019, he followed a similar path, releasing a few new songs before bundling them with unreleased material in the synthy Some Place Else EP. Apart from 2020's "Don't Cry," MorMor's output slowed over the next couple of years while he completed work on his debut album. In 2022, songs like "Seasons Change" and "Chasing Ghosts" paved the way for his first LP, Semblance, released that November. ~ Fred Thomas