This past week I had the privilege of spending Earth Day with French electronic pop artist Oklou (“okay-lou”) at the Mission Ballroom in Denver. Last year as music director, I fondly remember the amount of times we highlighted “choke enough” on our Weekly Gems show, as the 2025 album quickly garnered love for its ethereal vocals and upbeat trance stylings. Marylou Mayniel has performed under the Oklou stage name since her 2015 self-titled EP that introduced her developing styles of arrangement, consisting of more downtempo pop tracks with electronic influences.

From my view over the balcony, I watched the multicolored sea of bobbing heads that matched the EDM-infused club beat oozing from the souped-up speakers. The opener for the night was art-pop singer Vickie Cherie, a fellow burgeoning French artist. A great number of her songs from the night were from her aptly named 2025 album “Cherie on top”. Her performance was semi-curtained by a thin screen, with Cherie singing behind projections of mannequins and moody abstract sparks. Her airy French vocals and avant-pop sound effortlessly set the tone for the main event.

Oklou’s performance revisited a number of her albums, though a majority were pulled from “choke enough”. Her first numbers included the trumpet-infused flickering dance track “ict” with a smooth transition into “thank you for recording”, an intricate and dramatic arpeggio-laden track. Her keen understanding of harmonics and microtones with chameleon synths made for a fascinating listening experience. Following up with a couple more hits from her 2025 album, “obvious” brought up the reflective crowd’s energy. A personal favorite moment from the concert included the introduction to “plague dogs”, a track that begins with helicopter sound effects. During the introduction, the lights on the stage were cut and Oklou roamed the stage with an industrial flash light, scanning the audience with the accompanying sounds of an airborne manhunt.

She next introduced the track “take me by the hand”, which features Swedish rapper Bladee. For the concert, she was joined by frequent collaborator and tourmate Casey MQ on vocals and accompanying synths.
Classical elements shone through “galore” from her 2020 album of the same name. The effects of Mayniel’s classical training from her childhood education in cello and piano is often through her work’s symphonic phrasings. Her conservatory background lends a polyphonic, almost baroque edge to her already experimental pop sound. The midway point of the concert was marked by a cover of Casey MQ’s own “The Make Believe”, during which Oklou stepped back and a spotlight focused on him. The set design and cinematic lighting on the stage were perfectly representative of the ambient, electronic sound of “choke enough”. Sheer curtains and hanging fluorescent lights swung, drowning the performers in a dramatic chiaroscuro alternating eerie blue or sienna orange for the shifting moods.

The undisputed climax of the night was the crowd favorite “harvest sky”, a song that is equal parts gentle delicate pop and rousing trance electronica. Perhaps a bit biased, a song about Oklou’s memories of rural French festivals that sounds like a spiritual successor to “Kernkraft 400” is somehow my most beloved of the record. Mayniel closed the concert with the title track “choke enough” with its signature cozy and warm ambient tones. Following a short reprise of “ict” from earlier, the crew exited the stage then re-entered to an pop-infused “Happy Birthday”. As I learned that Mayniel’s birthday was on the 23rd, she was presented with a bouquet and the ballroom celebrated the new day in France.