FRESH WIND SESSION No. 17
Natalie Day (fka Sunny)
Recording Date: 17 June 2023
KNCE 93.5 FM Premiere: 18 June 2023
Substack Premiere: 13 February 2025
I was first introduced to the music of Natalie Day via my friend Áine McCarthy. In the spring of 2023, McCarthy would send me a new video every few weeks from the audience of one of Day’s shows in Albuquerque . These videos featured tantalizing windows into Day’s musical world, and often included psychedelically lit rooms and intensely focused audiences in thrall to the music. What I heard in those videos brought to mind the music of Alice Damon, whose obscure “Waterfall Winds” track I had been listening to on repeat for a year or two at that point. So, when I started booking shows at Taos’ Ennui Gallery, Day was at the top of my list of acts to bring up from ABQ.
At the time, Day was performing under the name Sunny - a moniker derived from a nickname a regular customer had given her at a coffee shop she had worked at a few years prior. In June of 2023, I was able to put together a triple bill show pairing Day with two local Taos artists: Lauren Helene Green (of Tan Cologne) and Diatom Deli. The three acts ended up making for a perfect combination - and, it was one of my favorite shows I produced at Ennui Gallery before its closure in 2024.
The day after the concert at Ennui, I was lucky enough to record this Fresh Wind session with Day at my home studio. It was a fascinating experience to watch her assemble her table of assorted musical instruments: featuring keyboards, sampler, loop station, and assorted bells and trinkets. There was a devotional nature to the elaborate setup process, and it gave me the sense of someone setting up an altar for a ritual rather than a musical performance. During the session, Day recorded two longer performances - each of which featured two of her songs (“Venus By Surprise/Sunny Song” and “My Heart/The Ocean”).
This session was recorded just a few weeks after Day had traveled to California to work with longtime collaborator Briana Marela on would become her debut solo album, Blooming As In The Sun. In her early to mid 20s, Day had performed as part of Marela’s band on tours that brought her across the United States and Europe many times. At the end of that journey, Day had landed in Albuquerque - seeing it as a place where she might develop her own music amongst kindred spirits. The songs on this session, and the debut record, were developed slowly over her first 7 years in New Mexico.
Though Blooming As In The Sun features a kind of clarity absent from the recordings on this Fresh Wind session, I have ended up returning to the extended (and more ritualistic) performances on this session more often than the versions available on streaming services (and cassette), in much the same way that I more often find myself returning to the longer live versions of Arthur Russell’s “World of Echo” compositions than I do listening to the actual record. I’m so glad to be finally sharing these versions here with my Substack audience, as this is the first time they have been widely available.
Since the release of her debut album in the fall of 2023, Day has moved back to the Pacific Northwest - settling into the town of Bellingham, WA. I have spoken to her sporadically over the past year, during virtual meetings of a tarot club that our mutual friend Áine (mentioned above) organizes. I’m happy to share that Day is at work on new music - primarily composing on the piano these days. As ever, her birthing process is slow and ritualistic. I’m sure that you’ll also be keenly anticipating her sharing this new music with the world after listening to this Fresh Wind session of hers.
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