FRESH WIND SESSION No. 16
Lauren Helene Green
Recording Date: 16 June 2023
KNCE 93.5 FM Premiere: 18 June 2023
Substack Premiere: 20 February 2025
Lauren Helene Green’s Fresh Wind Session was recorded a few hours before the only solo concert that she’s played in Taos during her decade plus tenure as a local here. The previous winter, she’d been snowed in at her home during a particularly heavy storm and spontaneously composed eight songs in a flash of inspiration. Those compositions, which include some field recordings looped in, saw release on the Oakland-based-label Royal Oakie as her first solo record under her birth name, Outer Highway Realms.
When describing her vast spread of creative work, Green told me: “I’m a Gemini, so I have many projects.” She originally moved to Taos to study as part of the woodworking program at UNM. A Texas native, Green had intended to move back to Austin (or Marfa) after the woodworking program, but ended up sticking around like many of us do.
Green originally moved to Taos with Mirror Travel, a band she had started in Austin. After that group dis-banded, she briefly released some music under the name LRN GRN before connecting with her creative and life partner Marissa Macias. Together, Green and Macias ran a gallery in town called Psychic Sink that held multimedia exhibitions. At a few of the exhibitions, the two musicians sometimes played instrumental pieces or made loops to accompany the visual art. When they started setting lyrics to their compositions, the group Tan Cologne was born.
The five songs that Green performs during her Fresh Wind Session (“Peak Morning,” “Canyon Loop,” “Wind Full of Spring,” “Dim Sunset Drive,” and “Walk At Dusk”) are performed as a kind of medley, or suite. Each of the pieces have different motifs, but there is a hazy and relaxing flow that all of them share. I would describe it as the most mellow release I’ve heard from Green throughout her career. Whereas the Tan Cologne project tends to evoke deeper mysteries, or certain kinds of mystical quests, there is something more contemplative to be found in this solo material.
This session with Green was memorable in a number of ways. It was the first session I recorded in the larger Heartbreak Hotel studio in my house, and also the first session to feature a rainbow jump shot. In the weeks before recording with Green, I had been contemplating selling my fitness trampoline (a Covid lockdown purchase). But, after she asked to do a jump shot with it, a new tradition was born. Since the session with her in the summer of 2023, over 20 other individuals have followed in her lifted footsteps.
Since recording this session with Green two years ago, her and Marissa Macias have become good friends of mine in Taos. Last fall, they let me borrow their drum set for a recording project I was working on (forthcoming in a few months!). This has fortuitously led to them asking me to drum for Tan Cologne on a few upcoming shows in March. I’m happy to share that I’ll be playing with them on March 11th in Albuquerque at Sister Bar, and March 13th in Denver at Globe Hall. Both shows feature Tan Cologne opening for Rose City Band. If you’re in the area, come out and say hey!
Since recording this session, Tan Cologne has continued to be Green’s primary musical concern. As of now, a second solo release is not in the works, but the third record from Tan Cologne is forthcoming later this year on Labrador Records. As someone who has already heard the new collection of songs, I’m happy to share that you’re in for a treat! Stay tuned with their musical journey on Instagram at @tancologne.
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