It’s not easy to forgive, but Sonia Kreitzer is asking us to give it a shot on the biggest stage. “We’re all witnessing so much horror in the world, and I’ve learned from my own experience that forgiveness can be a powerful way out of the incomprehensibility of darkness,” says Kreitzer, who records as Doe Paoro. “Part of what it’s going to take for us to evolve out of this place is some sort of radical forgiveness practice, which also includes what we’ve inherited from those before us and what we’ve contributed.”
A New York native and former Los Angeles resident now based Costa Rica, Kreitzer has embraced music as a multifaceted balm for what ails us. She’s traveled worldwide, offering sound baths and teaching workshops at retreats and festivals. As Doe Paoro, she is off to an impressive start, with two very different albums on the Anti- label. Members of Bon Iver’s creative circle contributed to the cushiony electro-R&B of After, her 2015 debut. She followed that up with 2018’s retro-soul-leaning Soft Power, produced by Amy Winehouse collaborator Jimmy Hogarth.
Available September 19, Living Through Collapse (Queen Of Wands) draws on Kreitzer’s considerable experience as a sound healer, aiming to sooth and transcend with help from an eclectic roster of producers that includes Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty), Chris Sholar (Esperanza Spalding, Solange), Liam Fletcher (Danit), Devin Gati and Latin American folk modernist Lagartijeando. The album was partly recorded in Costa Rica with local musicians, though its all-encompassing earthiness is firmly rooted in pristine pop craftsmanship, extracting light from even the darkest moments. (“The Language Of Past Lives” deals head-on with miscarriage.)
In Doe Paoro’s world, anything seems possible—even that elephant in the room Kreitzer addresses in her latest single. “Forgiveness is such a high frequency to seek counsel from,” she says.
We’re proud to premiere Doe Paoro’s “Forgiveness Is.”
—Hobart Rowland; photo by Shane McCauley
