Romain Collin – “Dust”
French pianist Romain Collin, a graduate of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, has released his first solo album last month. Entitled “Dust”, the album came out on the UK-based Edition Records, where Romain already released two wonderful albums with singer Sachal Vasandani and which is one of the most reliable and interesting labels around. “Solo piano is the purest form of storytelling; it’s where the instrument disappears, leaving only the story behind. The upright brought an unexpected intimacy to these pieces, like sitting around a campfire with the ghosts of the great songwriters who taught me how to listen”, says Romain about his 13-song collection with six original pieces and seven covers thrown in. The opening title track sets the tone: brilliant single notes and single note lines, which are weaved together to construct beautiful little soundscapes and stories.
One of my personal highlights on the album is “Great Ocean Road” with its lush textures and a cinematic approach which seems to actually really tell a story of a vast, all-embracing trip. There are two pieces here which appeared on the five-paw reviewed trio album “Americana” by Romain, Grégoire Maret, and Bill Frisell, released on ACT Music in 2020. Bill’s own “Small Town” is told briefly and concise in a no-frills way. And Romain’s own “San Luis Obispo”, in a similar vein as the aforementioned “Great Ocean Road”, celebrates the best of what Americana is all about, with its melange of folk, country, indie, jazz, and blues. It is beauty in perfection. The overall mood here is contemplative and introspective, but not in a gloomy way, but rather hopeful and bittersweet, like on “All Of The Stars” or “Us”.
Romain chose two Ryuichi Sakamoto pieces for his album: “Andata – Bibo No Aozora”, from Ryuichi’s 2017 album “async”, and “The Revenant” from the soundtrack of the 2015 movie of the same name. Both songs are full of heavy, gigantic longing and are especially powerful because of their intimate and intense mood. Romain comes up here with some sort of slouching progressions which demand your full attention. And even worn out pieces like Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound Of Silence” come to life again in this simple and effective solo setting. “Fake Plastic Trees” is from the 1995 Radiohead album “The Bends”. It never sounded so vulnerable and caressing. And “Freight Train”, written by blues and folk singer, songwriter, and musician Elizabeth Cotton when she was 13, has to be elevated into standard repertoire. We also get a beautiful song by Icelandic pianist and composer Jón Nordal, sort of a Traditional piece, and another Romain original, the very engaging and emotional “One Last Try”. No wonder that Romain is hailed as a “visionary composer”. The album is also out on vinyl, by the way.
