Just a couple of days before arriving for her Tiny Desk, Oklou's Marylou Mayniel flew with her five-month old baby from their Paris home to New York, where she met for the first time with an eight-piece choir to rehearse completely reimagined versions of four songs. The goal was to strip away the electronics and often heavy autotune heard across Oklou's beguiling debut album, Choke Enough, while preserving the sense of sonic adventure.
By the time everyone got to D.C., they'd puzzled it out. The songs here rely largely on piano, an acoustic guitar and a nearly seven-foot marimba. The choir provides not only backing vocals but also pad-like textures and effects, including crackling fire created with wads of bubble wrap and small sticks collected just before the performance.
Casey MQ, who arranged the songs for this set, accompanies Oklou as they transform tracks like "blade bird" and "ict" from synth-heavy pop to deeply reflective, acoustic folk. The song "harvest sky" is slowed down and bare, with Oklou playing the main melody on a recorder. They also perform a version of "what's good," a previously unreleased song due out on a deluxe version of Choke Enough.
SET LIST
- "ict"
- "blade bird"
- "what's good"
- "harvest sky"
MUSICIANS
- Oklou: vocals, marimba, guitar, piano, recorder
- Casey MQ: keys, guitar, piano, electronics, background vocals
- Gileann Tan: background vocals
- Rachel Liss: background vocals
- Emily Ostrom: background vocals
- Maria Christina Jasmin Kopp: background vocals
- Cristóbal Arias: background vocals
- James Ozaki: background vocals
- Jack Schmieg: background vocals
- Max Parsons: background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Robin Hilton
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Alanté Serene
- Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
- Production Assistant: Dora Levite
- Photographer: Maansi Srivastava
- Tiny Desk Team: Kara Frame, Ashley Pointer
- Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
- Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
- Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
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