Futuristic torch-song expert Doe Paoro first captured our attention by combining cutting-edge experimental R&B with a striking, stylized visual aesthetic right out of the gate. She was “Born Whole,” but her sound has continually evolved since then, as demonstrated by the spacey EP she recorded with S. Carey at Justin Vernon’s woodland Wisconsin studio. Paoro’s latest stage finds her alongside new friends burnishing yet another update on her sound. She’s signed to Anti- Records, label home of Tom Waits and Neko Case, Dr. Dog and Calexico, Title Fight and Saintseneca, and will release a new LP later this year. In the meantime we get “Traveling,” a dumbfoundingly beautiful lovelorn ballad built from nothing but Paoro’s voice and Entrance Band frontman Guy Blakeslee’s guitar accompaniment. The chorus on this one is a killer: “I wanted solitude, and that’s what I got/ Now I’m a living island with only one thought/ ‘Maybe I was wrong.'” Dan Huiting directed the video, which you can watch below.

Doe Paoro’s Anti- Records debut will be out later this year.

[Photo by Neil Krug.]