Album Review: Tiny Lights from Romain Collin

Album:  Tiny Lights
Artist:  Romain Collin
Label:  XM Records
Website:  www.romaincollin.com

Keyboardist Romain Collin produces cinematic-size soundscapes on his latest release Tiny Lights from XM Records.  Track after track demonstrates his skills as a master creator and artistic manipulator of soundwaves.  Fusing power rock style guitar riffs with expressive jazz piano improvisations and electro-pop laden soundscapes, Collin's synthesis of diverse types of music comes together into a cohesive collective of eloquent phrasing and humanistic expressions.

The dialogue transposed between the synth-textured notes and pumping beats in "Overflow" give the track an electro-pop-rock vibe, shifting to a haunting tone in "There Will Be Blood" as the heavy timbre notes loop into one another.  The psychedelic rock tremors of "Follow" form kaleidoscopic beams, putting the soundscapes in a state of flux.  Moving on, "Reprise" paints dramatic streaks in the keys, flowing in an imaginative phrasing, while the crests and falls driving "Red Snow" travel at a natural pace, keeping in time to the rhythm of the listener.

The detailing in the fluctuations of the piano keys, the articulation of the rambling notes and the nimble movements glinting across the sparkling ivories in "Dark Matter" are mesmerizing.  The lamenting tone of the keys is moving, expressing a sorrowful mood.  Comparatively, the melodic patterns strewn along "Los Angeles" form a continuously changing matrix of sound streams that dazzle the listener's mind.  The recording closes with the sparsely layered keys in "Repeat and Fade," forming sounds that blossom and spread, putting the image of a serene meadow coming alive in the listener's mind.

A genuine visionary, Romain Collin's imagination is limber and agile, continuously working to create and sculpt soundscapes.  His skill as a designer of soundscapes puts him on par with the best of them.  As a pianist, the emotional attachment he shows to the patterns he forms project a humanistic approach to the music.   A student of improvisational jazz, Collin has shown to be an ardent craftsman for it.

Musicians:
Romain Collin - piano, Moog Taurus, vocal effects
Matthew Stevens - electric guitar
Obed Calvaire - acoustic & electronic drums