Dust began as a solo piano album by Grammy®-nominated artist Romain Collin, recorded in a single evening on an upright piano. Intimate and unvarnished, the music evokes visions of campfires under a starry sky, of solitude in vast landscapes, and connection in remote, off-the-grid communities. This sense of isolation and belonging led Collin and filmmaker Matthew Palmer to embark on a road trip through California’s deserts with a piano strapped to the back of a pickup truck.
Collaborating with cinematographer Jasper Poore, they created a series of films capturing Collin’s performances amid the stark beauty of Joshua Tree and Bombay Beach. These visuals frame the music within the elemental and the ephemeral, blurring the lines between art and nature.
The films were later part of an immersive installation that invited guests to inhabit the world they created - a shared exploration of nature’s quiet beauty in sound and images. The exhibition, presented at The Fourth Wall Contemporary Art Gallery in Oakland, CA, explored a journey of openness and joyful creativity, guided by a spirit of discovery and improvisation.
