Marylou Mayniel has been making music for over a decade, releasing work under various monikers – including Loumar and avril23 – before settling on Oklou in 2015. While she steadily built a cult following as a relatively underground electronic artist, a new wave of listeners were pulled into the French alt-pop musician’s orbit with the release of her 2025 breakout album, Choke Enough.

In that time, the singer-songwriter has teamed up with a world of collaborators, from her go-to producer Casey MQ, to figures across the experimental pop spectrum, including FKA twigs, Danny L Harle, and A. G. Cook. An honourable mention goes out to the 2021 performance of Caroline Polachek and Oklou covering Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” on a spinning platform, which resurfaces online through a grainy video clip every so often.

For our spring 2026 cover story, we tapped Oklou’s relationship with another of alt-pop’s leading voices, PinkPantheress. Here, the pair hopped on a video call to discuss their shared love of Auto-Tune, the pool of producers they both draw from, and, of course, their own collaboration (more on that later). Below, we rank some of her most iconic creative partnerships to date.

5. “GIRL LIKE ME + OKLOU” - PINKPANTHERESS, OKLOU

Speaking of Pink-lou, we had to include their collaboration on “Girl Like Me + Oklou”. Taking the originally high-energy, dancefloor-driven track, Oklou somehow makes the Basement Jaxx sample feel yearning and emotionally suspended, singing “Let it all go” over PinkPantheress’s echoing, voice-note-like vocals. As she drags the club-ready track into the sobering hours of afters, even the “Oklou, Oklou, Oklou” tag hits hard.

4. “VISCUS” - OKLOU, FKA TWIGS

“The body is a temple / Am I worshipping too hard?” calls Oklou on the confessional experimental track “viscus.” Here she recruits FKA twigs to create an atmospheric experimental pop track built around sparse production and intimate, breathy vocals. It’s a natural match, with both artists’ critically acclaimed recent albums exploring very human themes through intensely digital production. In the accompanying video, the pair stalk around an apartment as they search for a shiny red recorder (it somehow works).

3. “HARVEST SKY” - OKLOU, UNDERSCORES

Oklou recruits new prog pop artist underscores to lend her glitchy 8-bit vocals to this dance track, which one YouTube commenter called “the soundtrack of a rave in Animal Crossing.” With production by Casey MQ and Danny L Harle, it’s a godly team-up that a crowd goes crazy for (this is fact-checked: I saw an arena erupt in euphoria when this track played at Dekmantel last year).

2. “GIRL ON MY THRONE - TOO LATE FOR SUMMER REMIX ” – OKLOU, CASEY MQ

Dare we say the perfect alt-pop song? Released as a Galore anniversary edition celebration, this glittery track features long-time producer Casey MQ. Its bubbling synths and chiming melodies host Oklou’s signature ethereal vocals, as the track circles around the artist's recurring theme of emotional connection in a digital world. As the mix suggests, it’s the perfect track to see out the end of a slow-burning summer.

1. “TAKE ME BY THE HAND” - OKLOU, BLADEE

Taking the top spot is this trance-pop track, featuring Drain Gang’s Bladee. Here, the two team up for the electronic-pop collaboration of the ages, uniting sadboys and their sadgirl counterparts everywhere. Bladee’s cloud-rap cadence is married to slow-burning, synth-heavy percussion as the track pulls listeners into themes of reality and fantasy, accompanied by an equally surreal music video in which Bladee appears through a flashing portal. Big day for the terminally online.