Oklou

Oklou is the stage name of Marylou Mayniel, a French producer, vocalist and composer from Poitiers and Paris. Her work sits across alternative pop, ambient, ambient pop, art pop, chillwave, dream pop and alternative R&B, and she uses computers, drum machines, synthesizers and found sounds to build her tracks. Her music is also described as hazy R&B.

Releases and collaborations

She releases music on the London label NUXXE. Her EP The Rite of May appears in March 2018, followed by the stand-alone single Forever in October 2019. Further singles include SGSY, Toyota, which features Flavien Berger, and entertnmnt, which is produced with Mura Masa. She announces her debut mixtape Galore in 2020, with unearth me as the lead single and a video directed by Kevin Elamrani Lince.

Background and other work

Mayniel is born in 1993 and grows up in the French countryside before moving to Paris and later London. She has also issued some self-released material on home-dubbed cassette tapes. In addition to her solo releases, she composes an original soundtrack for the computer game Zone W/O People, made with Parisian artist Krampf, and performs it live with styling by Prada. She also appears as a DJ with the Paris-based all-female collective TGAF.

Influences

She names Frank Ocean, James Blake, Justin Bieber, SZA, the singer of Wu Lyf, Jhené Aiko, Drake and Palmistry among her vocal influences.