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Kathy Raimey : It Is Always Now
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Featuring Kathy's heartfelt piano touch, this introspectively evocative collection includes dreamy electronica, neoclassic tenderness, and capricious mixes of unlikely elements. A CD Baby Editor's pick.
Genre: New Age: Ambient
Release Date: 2007
It Is Always Now
Kathy Raimey
Record Label: Spiral Soundcase
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Preview Song Name Time Buy
1. Sustainable Space 3:20 + MP3 $0.99
2. Many Hands Make Light the Load 2:14 + MP3 $0.99
3. Riverbend 4:19 + MP3 $0.99
4. Quiet Rain 3:29 + MP3 $0.99
5. Bear Dreams 5:22 + MP3 $0.99
6. Heart Murmurs 2:41 + MP3 $0.99
7. Illumination 5:05 + MP3 $0.99
8. Break of Dawn 3:13 + MP3 $0.99
9. African Pearl 4:06 + MP3 $0.99
10. Soliloquy 6:08 + MP3 $0.99
11. It Is Always Now 4:32 + MP3 $0.99
12. Sustainable Space Two 5:50 + MP3 $0.99
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Album Notes

"It Is Always Now" ranked in the New Age Top 50 Airplay Chart of 2008! Peaking at #11 in April, it charted for six months and settled in at #47 for the year.

"It Is Always Now" returns to the #1 spot on Music Choice', "Soundscapes" digital cable TV channel in August 2008, after hitting #1 in June and #7 in July."

"It Is Always Now" hits #11 on the April 2008 New Age Reporter Top 100 Chart!

"Delightfully different...Raimey expertly merges her electronica/ambient side with her softly melancholic New Age side...solidly recommended." - Bill Binkelman, New Age Reporter

"...quietly beautiful, soulful and always emotional." - RJ Lannan, New Age Reporter

(for complete texts of these reviews please scroll down to review section).

Chosen as an Editor's Pick in the New Age: Progressive Alternative category, Kathy Raimey's October 2007 release, "It Is Always Now", blends atmospheric ambient soundscapes with works for piano and strings, piano and udu, improvisational solo piano, and, electronica with voice, to create a uniquely mesmerizing and uplifting listening experience.

Spanning the gamut from dreamy imaginative electronica, neoclassic cinematic tenderness, and quirky mixes of unlikely elements, she takes us on a journey through interior landscapes that both soothe and energize.

Used within the healing arts of massage therapy and acupuncture, it has also garnered appreciation as excellent headphone music in corporate cubicles, and for stress reduction while driving (not using headphones!). Others simply like to listen to it!

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Airplay News

As of April 2008, "It Is Always Now" has been added to the following radio playlists:

"Soundscapes", Music Choice - Digital Cable TV, New York, NY
"Global Groove", WFIT-AM, New York, NY
"SkyFm", Solo Piano Channel - www.skyfm.com, New York, NY
"A Ultima Fronteira Radio", Pontevedra, SPAIN
"Landscapes", WLOQ, Orlando, Florida
"NightLight", "Spirit Sounds", KUAC, Fairbanks, AK
"La Otra Orilla", Radio Despi, Barcelona, SPAIN
"Shades of Classics", CKUW, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA
Galaxie CBC, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
"Instrumental / New Age", Galaxie CBC, Ontario, CANADA
"InnerVisions" (Syndicated), KRSC, Tulsa, OK
"Cheezmuzik", WTUL Radio, New Orleans, LA
"Starlit Skies", KSER, Seattle, WA
"Afterglow", WMUH, Nazareth, PA
"Night Sounds", KACU, Abilene, TX
"Music from the Cosmic Wheel", WSCS, New London, NH
"Secret Music", WVKR, Fishkill, NY
"New Frontiers", WXDU, Durham, NC
"Acoustic Resonance/Fantasy Realm", WWSP, Stevens Point, WI
"Playlist International", KIPO, Honolulu, HI
"Audiosyncracy", KTEP, La Porte, TX
"Planetary Prismatic Psonics", WKNH, Gilsum, NH
"Alpha Rhythms", WYSO, Yellow Springs, OH
"InewAge.com", Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
"Cocoland Sunrise Radio Show", KEAO-MANAO RADIO, Wailuku, Maui, HI
"Music of the Spheres",Radio Mir, Minsk, BELARUS
"The Pit", WYBF, Radnor, PA
"Whole Wheat Radio", Talkeetna, AK
"Wings", WFCF, St. Augustine, FL
"The Night Traveller", KRCB, Rohnert Park, CA
"Soon...Comes the Night", Radio SLOR, THE NETHERLANDS
"Celestial Reasonings", Syndicated Show, CA
"Night Tides", KCUR, Kansas City, MO
"Murphy's Magic Mess", KZUM, Lincoln, NE
"Oasis", Montana Public Radio, Missoula, MT
"Journeys to the Infinite", RFI Romania, Bucharest, ROMANIA
"Music from Beyond the Lakes", WDBX, Carbondale, IL
"Stroke the Goddess", WMHB, Solon, ME
"Instrumental Saturdays", WMSE, Milwaukee, WI
"The Morning Fog", WVUD, Newark, DE
"Iridium Radio", KZYX/KZYZ, Mendocino County, CA

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Top Twenty News!

April 2008 Top Twenty:
KTEP, "Audiosyncracy", #2
Montana Public Radio, "Oasis" #2
WDBX, "Music from Beyond the Lakes", #2
KCUR, "Night Tides", #4
KUAC, "NightLight", #5
WMSE, "Instrumental Saturdays", #5
WXDU, "New Frontiers" , #8
WVUD, "The Morning Fog", #9
SLOR, "Soon...Comes the Night", #10
KZUM, "Murphy's Magic Mess" #11
Radio Mir, "Music of Spheres", #13
WMHB, "Stroke the Goddess", #13
WVKR, "Secret Music", #13
Celestial Reasonings, "Celestial Reasonings" #14
WWSP, "Ambient Aether/Space Continuum", #15
CKUW, "Shades of Classics", #17
RFI Romania, "Journeys to the Infinite", #17
Galaxie CBC, "Instrumental/New Age", #18
WKNH, "Planetary Prismatic Psonics", #18
KRCB, "The Night Traveler", #19
WYBF, "The Pit", #19

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Tracks

1) Sustainable Space (3:16)
(Imagine magic)

Sustained Suspense. Alive, grounded and conscious in a chaotic world.

Modulating Balinese-styled bells ring hypnotically over a bed of moody swelling strings. A soundscape of intense feeling vs. numbness - the slow-motion grace that lives between the points of chaos and surrender.

2) Many Hands Make Light the Load (2:12)
(Dream together)

A Song of Hope. Poignant neoclassic tenderness featuring piano and strings.

3) Riverbend (4:16)
(Music springs a water song)

Spacey sine-wave keys and drums take a relaxing sonic journey. Chill.

4) Quiet Rain (3:25)
(Silent rain of peace)

A peacefully contemplative duo for piano and udu.

5) Bear Dreams (5:18)
(A soothing lullaby for times of hibernation)

For Piano and Low Strings.

6) Heart Murmurs (2:37)
(Ambient amusements)

Featuring frame drum, fretless bass, metallic percussive elements, and a mid-section surprise human element.

7) Illumination (5:01)
(A soundscape for courage)

An electronic tone poem for the mystic within.

8) Break of Dawn (3:12)
(Improv 5:35 a.m., 21 Mar 06)

Piano Solo Improvisation.

9) African Pearl (4:03)
(Remember Africa)

A duo for udu and piano. Solo piano communes with the intricately expressive rhythms of the African udu hand drum.

10) Soliloquy (6:04)
(Unspoken reflections)

A hauntingly sparse solo piano line plaintively reverberates over an undulating and hypnotically seductive analog synth groove.

11) It Is Always Now (4:27)
(A mantra piece)

Female vocals chant dreamily above electronica percussion tracks and a brief string quartet appearance.

12) Sustainable Space Two (5:50)
(Imagine magic. Extended version)

Sustained Suspense. Alive, grounded and conscious in a chaotic world.

Modulating Balinese-styled bells ring hypnotically over a bed of moody swelling strings.
A soundscape of intense feeling vs. numbness - the slow-motion grace that lives between the points of chaos and surrender.

For further details on individual tracks and media info, please visit http://www.kathyraimey.com/music.html.

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About Kathy Raimey

Composer, pianist, producer, Kathy Raimey (aka Kathy M. Gleim) has been making music since early childhood with compositions spanning various formats and styles including works for piano, video soundtrack, choral music, electroacoustic music, an odd assortment of unclassifiable work, and singer/songwriter material.

Her music reveals a rich and diverse palette influenced by; Steve Halpern, Patrick O'Hearn, Mark Isham, Paul Winter, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Palestrina, Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel, Bartok, Part, Pauline Oliveros, Joni Mitchell, Loreena McKennett, Enya, Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Steely Dan, Jean-Luc Ponty, and the Beatles.

Holding degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Furman University, with further study in Vienna, Austria, Kathy began playing professionally at the age of 13, and has worked as an educator and musician in Cincinnati, Ohio, Vienna, Austria, and Atlanta, Georgia.

As Director of Music at Midtown Spiritual Community in Atlanta from July 2001 to April 2004, Kathy attracted a loyal following of listeners with her live improvisations of contemplative music for meditation.

Released material includes "It Is Always Now" (2007), and the 2001 EP, "Flowers of Fire", a suite of five meditative piano improvisations which continues to receive airplay in 2008.

Currently based in Raleigh, NC, she works as a composer, producer, musician and educator.

Credits include promo/commercial cues at “the CW” TV network, and, Music Choice', "Soundscapes" Cable TV channel.

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REVIEWS

Timely Ambience
author: RJ Lannan - New Age Reporter
                            
"Composer and pianist Kathy Raimey offers not just a solo piano album, but a recording filled with ambient tracks that include electronica, voices and ethnic instruments. Put it all together and you get a sound that is out of the ordinary, inspiring and very entertaining. "It is Always Now " has music that is quietly beautiful, soulful and always emotional. I compare her to Suzanne Ciani or perhaps Doucet. I found the title of the album, "It Is Always Now", a bit ambivalent, but that is how my mind works. First I thought, yes... everything is urgent. Take care of it now. Then I realized that perhaps life could be enjoyed in the now. Now that makes more sense.



You can tell right away that this is an album of cryptic titles chock full of ambiguities. The recording opens with the track "Sustainable Space". It has a twinkling sound that washes over a string background. You feel that the space is right in the middle of your own mind and that with music such as this, dreams are possible. 



"Quiet Rain" is exactly what it says. An unexpected mild February day where the clouds turned to mottled gray blankets, the wind spoke like a hushed human presence and the rain came down like tears from the gods. They wept not from despair, but a peaceful joy for the coming of spring and all the promise that it holds for mortal man. Soon there would be life renewed. Green and spiritual. This is definitely my favorite on the CD.



One of the lightest tunes on the CD is called "Riverbend". I listened to this one several times until I realized that the song flows and sweetly whispers about the undiscovered that is about to be. Like the road less traveled, the unbeaten path or the surprise around the corner, it is the unexpected that keeps everything from being humdrum in our lives. One line from a William Faulkner story comes to mind, "It is time to say good-bye to the things you know and hello to the things you don’t know."



"Illumination" was surprisingly industrial in nature. It featured metallic thunks, Tibetan gong-like percussion and a wafting, high-pitched melody. If we think of something illuminated then it must be in the spotlight. Or is it enlightenment of a different color? The song to me was discordant at times, but it grew on me. You cannot find harmony without understanding discord. 



Kathy’s way of opening her heart to the music and to the listeners is called "Soliloquy". Her echoing piano is almost lugubrious as it sings the hopes for the successful marriage of life and music. 



Kathy’s voice introduces the title track with the refrain "It Is Always Now". Layers of echoing voice and a strong, urban beat fractures the lull in your head. The nightclub excitement is strong as is the repetition that the moment is at hand. It is certainly not my favorite cut, but the album has so much to offer that something atypical is considered refreshing. 



The album is a bit of an emotional or perhaps, a musical roller coaster. The variety is a tribute to not only Raimey's compositional talents, but to her production prowess. The blends of subjects and instruments make the album stand out against many other piano works that are truly homogenous." 
     

(Reviewed by RJ Lannan at The Sounding Board - New Age Reporter on 2/17/2008)

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..."delightfully different."
author: Bill Binkelman, New Age Reporter
                            
"It’s not easy coming up with a unique enough blend of musical styles so that someone as well-traveled as yours truly is struck by the album’s individuality. It’s this quality which makes piano/keyboard player Kathy Raimey’s It Is Always Now so special, though. Dexterously traversing from the opening ambient/spacemusic synth washes and twinkling starpoints of “Sustainable Space” to the later plaintive piano accented with udu drum rhythms of “African Pearl” (as well as many other songs), Raimey displays an uncommon ability in navigating through the disparate waters. While new age music fans may balk at the relative lack of overt continuity, it’s a moot point from my perspective because the artist’s “fingerprints” are easily discerned throughout the CD. Nothing here strays that far afield from the quiet reflective nature of the release (i.e. there are no techno numbers on the disc).



“Many Hands Make Light the Load” gently walks down the road amidst soft piano and a just-right application of synth strings and is followed by the electronica “lite” of “Riverbend” which blends classic new age music bell tones with pulsing electronic beats and flowing synth pads. “Quiet Rain,” the next track, is a gem, with minimal mournful piano, set against sampled udu drum rhythms (as in “African Pearl”); it’s a highly evocative piece, perfect to accompany a late afternoon rain shower outside. While “Bear Dreams” (described in the liner notes by the artist as “A soothing lullaby for times of hibernation”) is quiet and serene enough to fall asleep to, it’d be a shame to do so because the melancholic song is suffused with deep feeling. The CD’s next unexpected/atypical twist occurs on the next song, “Heart Murmurs,” which is a subdued mixture of fretless bass beats, subtle thumping bass drum rhythm, and quirky electronic effects. Despite its obvious difference from other songs here, the song is subdued enough that it doesn’t derail the album’s overall mood. The trait the artist exhibits here is what I referred to in the opening paragraph about her “fingerprints” being a unifying factor throughout It Is Always Now. 



Other tracks on the CD include an amalgamation of ambient textures and new age melodicism (“Illumination”), a pensive solo piano number (“Break of Dawn”), another exploration of piano mixed in with electronica textural rhythms (“Soliloquy”), and the title track, a vocal mantra (the mantra is the song’s title) set against a background of assorted chugging crackling electronic rhythms. While Raimey is in fine voice (she reminds me a bit of Claire Hamill circa Voices), the song itself is probably the weakest one on the album, although this judgment is colored by how good everything else here is. The mantra’s downside is its length (four and half-minutes of “It Is Always Now” multi-tracked gets a bit much) as well as the electronics employed which lack a sense of melody supplying only textures and beats. 



The album closes with a reprise of the opening track, this time titled “Sustainable Space Two” and nearly double in duration (close to six minutes long versus the first song’s three minute running time). It’s a smart move on the artist’s part as this is easily one of the CD’s best cuts.



The mantra piece notwithstanding, It Is Always Now can be summed up with the words “delightfully different.” The CD is not different in that the music itself is distractingly unique or too “out there” (although there is little here I’d refer to as cliché or derivative). It’s different in how Kathy Raimey expertly merges her electronica/ambient side with her softly melancholic new age side. The resulting music reveals an artist to keep a close eye on to see what she does next. Based on this album, it will be both worthwhile and unexpected. It Is Always Now is solidly recommended by this jaded music critic."



(Reviewed by Bill Binkelman at Binkelman's Corner - New Age Reporter on 3/25/2008)

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A timely piece!
author: Wendy
                            
Captivating, soulful and evocative! This CD will ease you through a stressful day and spark the creativity that lies within us all, to dream - to Imagine Magic!

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