Oklou — Marylou Mayniel — trained classically on piano and cello growing up in the French countryside near Poitiers, a background that shows up in how melodically precise her electronic production is compared to most of her SoundCloud-era peers. Early EPs like Avril and The Rite of May circulated quietly through underground electronic circles in the mid-2010s before she'd built any wider profile.
Galore, her acclaimed 2020 mixtape, established her as a real name in alternative pop and electronic music, and choke enough, her debut album proper, arrived in February 2025 — a decade-long path from classical training to dreamy, R&B-inflected synth-pop that took its time rather than chasing an early breakout.