Oklou and FKA twigs Find Movement in Stillness on “viscus”

Pregnancy reshaped Oklou’s world—her thoughts as much as her body. “I feel like my consciousness has naturally, without me even trying, gotten rid of any source of stress and anxiety,” she told FKA twigs in a recent Highsnobiety conversation. On “viscus,” a new track from the forthcoming deluxe edition of her debut album choke enough, the French electronic artist seems to meet one of her greatest influences somewhere between dream and dance floor. The song begins like the delicate vignettes that defined her debut, but soon the brittle percussion, vaporwave synths, and chamber-like strings click together into something more intricate—an iridescent exoskeleton of sound.

Oklou has described her creative process as a solitary one: long, nocturnal sessions in Logic, surrounded by silence. “viscus” aches to trade that solitude for physical connection. “I get lost so deep inside me,” she sings—a cryptic line that recalls the chronic stomachaches she and twigs once bonded over. “The body is a temple/Am I worshipping too hard?” When twigs’ voice enters, it feels like a transmission from another realm, coaxing Oklou’s introspection toward motion, from misty reverie to rhythm. Oklou has admitted she doesn’t dance as much as she once did, but on “viscus,” you can almost feel her body remembering how.