Picking up the acoustic guitar and incorporating it into her electronica soundscape wasn't part of the original plan when Los Angeles-based singer Chloe Day started out playing music more than five years ago.

"I've always loved electronic music and it never occurred to me that playing a natural-sounding instrument like the guitar would ever be an option," Day said, calling from her home in Venice Beach, Calif.

"I wasn't expecting to veer in that direction. Normally you don't get acoustic performers doing electronica, ambient-type music." But playing with both sounds felt natural to her, Day said.

Her music, an eclectic mix of abstract sounds meshed with soft and sensual undertones, is modern yet surrealistic. It's a blend of pulsing electronics and dark acoustics.

Day said it wasn't until a roommate of hers brought home a guitar that she felt compelled to introduce acoustics into her multilayered, echo-of-heavy-delays sonic palette.

"I'd always wanted to learn it but had never thought about it seriously," she said. "My background was in piano and I had taken years of lessons growing up. But I'm more of a listen-by-ear kind of person, and seeing my roommate play songs and actually do it made me stop and realize that this was a viable instrument to hone and use in my music.

"And that's how I've written most of my songs. It's rare that I'll get the urge to go to the piano and play a melody. It's usually me sitting down with my guitar and working on a hook or lyric that's popped in my mind, that needs to be stretched and worked through."

Day's breadth and depth of textures in her offbeat pop/psychedelia arrangements, which blend influences of trip-hop, rock, folk and jazz, have uncovered a niche for the songwriter.

Already making some waves on modern rock radio across the country, stations in Los Angeles, Austin and Phoenix have been spinning her songs on tastemaker shows. KPNT in her hometown of St. Louis aired the acoustic-driven song "With You With Me" from her 2004 full-length album "Pixie Runway," while last year, 104.7 The Edge in Albuquerque picked up the synth contender "Dirty Little Secret" and played it on its specialty show "Underplayed."

Day also performs at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, at Santa Fe Brewing Company, 27 Fire Place, Santa Fe. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Chloe Day WHEN: 10 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 7

WHERE: Atomic Cantina, 315 Gold SW
HOW MUCH: Free.
For more information, call 242-2200 or visit www.atomiccantina.com. All ages