Simply a few days earlier than arriving for her Tiny Desk, Oklou‘s Marylou Mayniel flew along with her five-month previous child from their Paris residence to New York, the place she met for the primary time with an eight-piece choir to rehearse fully reimagined variations of 4 songs. The purpose was to strip away the electronics and infrequently heavy autotune heard throughout Oklou’s beguiling debut album, Choke Sufficient, whereas preserving the sense of sonic journey.
By the point everybody received to D.C., they’d puzzled it out. The songs right here rely largely on piano, an acoustic guitar and a virtually seven-foot marimba. The choir supplies not solely backing vocals but additionally pad-like textures and results, together with crackling fireplace created with wads of bubble wrap and small sticks collected simply earlier than the efficiency.
Casey MQ, who organized the songs for this set, accompanies Oklou as they remodel tracks like “blade fowl” and “ict” from synth-heavy pop to deeply reflective, acoustic folks. The music “harvest sky” is slowed down and naked, with Oklou taking part in the primary melody on a recorder. Additionally they carry out a model of “what’s good,” a beforehand unreleased music due out on a deluxe model of Choke Sufficient.
SET LIST
- “ict”
- “blade fowl”
- “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/Collection Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Alanté Serene
- Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
- Manufacturing Assistant: Dora Levite
- Photographer: Maansi Srivastava
- Tiny Desk Staff: Kara Body, Ashley Pointer
- Collection Editor: Lars Gotrich
- Govt Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Govt Director: Sonali Mehta
- Collection Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton