In the pre-dawn stillness of her studio, Karen Salicath sits before an 80-year-old Steinway grand piano, her fingers hovering over keys that have become portals to the divine. Her latest album, Dreams of Angels, emerged from these sacred morning hours, when the boundary between earthly and celestial realms grows thin enough to pierce with melody.

A decade ago, Karen Salicath was known primarily as a visual artist. Then came 2012’s near-death experience – a cosmic reset that transformed her relationship with creativity. The piano, an instrument she had never mastered, suddenly became her medium for translating otherworldly encounters into earthly sounds.

Dreams of Angels captures these translations in their purest form. Each of the album’s 16 tracks flows unedited, recorded in single takes as morning light creeps across the piano’s worn brass strings. Using only a Roland recorder and Neumann microphone, Salicath preserves every organic nuance of her communion with the unseen.

The resulting collection defies conventional categorization. Yes, there are meditative qualities in pieces like “Angel Sandalphon,” but calling this meditation music feels reductive. When “Angel Michael” builds to its thunderous climax, or “White Angel” traces its delicate path through loss and redemption, we’re hearing something more akin to spiritual autobiography in musical form.

Most remarkable is Salicath’s willingness to embrace imperfection. Unlike the meticulously edited productions dominating today’s classical and new-age genres, these pieces breathe with human vulnerability. Each hesitation and unexpected harmony serves the greater purpose of authenticity.

Dreams of Angels arrives at a moment when many seek connection beyond the material world. Salicath offers no easy answers or manufactured transcendence – instead, she shares her own raw encounters with the ineffable, inviting listeners to explore their own relationship with the divine. In doing so, she’s created something rare: an album that functions as both artistic expression and spiritual practice, each listens revealing new depths for those willing to dive deep.