Hailing from L.A., the eight-member musical project The Nick Valentini Collective has been earning international raves as an experimental band that fuses indie rock, jazz, and soul with a psychedelic spin. The collective
is made up of Nick Valentini (vocals, keyboards, lead songwriter), Erik Shibowski (bass), Hugo Shibowski (tenor sax), Nate Schwartz (guitar), Nicolo Scolieri (flute), Nick Velez (drums), Gabriel Wheaton (string orchestration), and Tyler Wennstrom (keyboards, percussion).

Although the group formed only several months ago, The Nick Valentini Collective has a strong and assured genre-blending sound that can be found on its single “Carousel”. This song begins with airy, soulful vocals from Valentini and delicately pressed piano notes. The steady drum beat soon kicks in with shuffling percussion and guitar accompaniment that is later bolstered by the addition of strings. A heady, Radiohead-like swirl of instrumentation builds up in intensity with Valentini exclaiming that the “lovers’ carousel” keeps going around.

The Nick Valentini Collective will announce the release date of its upcoming debut album. Valentini states, “The upcoming album is inspired by the beauty of experimentation and the eagerness to explore endless possibilities through voice and music. There is opportunity to grow as people and individuals by simply trying new things.”
The visually inventive live-action and animated video for “Carousel” was directed by Nynne Steen Mors. The video at first displays a gray-toned world where a darkly attired man has the ability to move heavy stones around with his mind. As those stones start to whirl and crack open, the man performs an artful, slow-motion dance, pulling out pieces of colorful puffed fabric from his body. The video, with its “Fibers” animation, only gets more vibrant from there and deserves a long look.

Jen Dan