Kat Reinhert Finds Beauty in Memory with "Once Upon a Time"
Kat Reinhert is never anything less than a great storyteller, and in Once Upon a Time, the title cut from her soon-to-be-released EP Normal, she seduces us into a realm where song and memory cannot be separated. The song, now out everywhere, is anything but your run-of-the-mill folk ballad—it's a musing, an agonizing over the way love and time re-shape themselves in the heart. Reinhert's rich, languorous voice sweeps the listener along on billows of recollection, every note hanging at just the right tension against strings which stretch and open in counterpoint.
The track arrives as both gift and admission. Drawn upon by Bon Iver's otherworldly timbre and Lizzy McAlpine's close-in storytelling, Reinhert mingles timelessness of violon and cello with what she calls "sonic fun"—unlike textures and timbres that shimmer on the edge of the song. The result is music that is intimate, as if negotiated over a hushed agreement at the breakfast table, and sweeping, like a remembered memory beneath an endless sky. It is the song that feels more a product of remembrance than listening.
What makes this release so attractive is that Reinhert is behind the console. For the first time, she truly took over as a producer, running the work from its earliest conception in her home studio to its eventual finishing in New York's Bunker Studios. Each moment of quiet, every swell of string and strum of guitar, is hers to call her own. Reinhert admits the process created doubt, but in taking the risk, she uncovered a new form of freedom: a sound that's completely hers. It's that intimacy—the sense of hearing an artist uncover not only her lyrics, but her artistic DNA—that makes Once Upon a Time special.
This new release is not an isolated triumph but the latest chapter in a career characterized by bravery and curiosity. Reinhert has been constructing a resist-categorization discography with every successive release, beginning with her rough-around-the-edges-but-somehow-fierce 2021 album Dead Reckoning and continuing with her run of 2024 singles. Offstage and in the recording studio, she tutors songwriting as a professor at Berklee College of Music and co-founded Songwriting for Music Educators, a pedagogical tool for educators and artists. New York City-based composer and singer Kat Reinhert continues to integrate art and education—serving as a reminder that music is not necessarily something we hear, but something we leave into our own stories.
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