This article was initially written and published for CaFleureBon.
Untitled by Mahmoud Hamadani from the Odes collection. Treatment by @a_nose_knows for Classic Myrrh
If you take an eggplant and you measure its electromagnetic field with an infrared scanner, you get a series of vibration patterns that look, more or less, like a stack of wires. Slow down the vibrations until they enter the sound spectrum, and the image changes to look like one of Mahmoud Hamedani’s, brilliant-mathematician-turned-artist, mind-blowing infographic art pieces.
Truffle vibrations (still from "Empire of Scents"). Photo treatment by @a_nose_knows for Classic Myrrh
Plus, the eggplant starts to sing.
In fact, almost everything around us can thus reveal a sound signature, from low hums to the metallic, high trebles of the white truffle. By means of calchiation, the smell they carry, too, can associate to the meaning, and so we end up with… the visual representation of the way a smell sounds!
Kandinsky- Several Circles (detail)
Remains to be seen if whole compositions can be analized in such a precise manner- we’d need time, the raw ingredients, and a stacked graphic model not unlike, say, the layered grills in an oven. Not of any apparent value- but, in theory, it can be done.
(Documentarists, myself included, maintain that understanding the technical aspects of a Kandinsky piece is simply understanding the technical aspects of a Kandinsky piece and won’t bring anyone any closer to producing a Kandinsky piece themselves; therefore art, of which perfumery is only now starting to partake as a full creative mean, is better discussed by concept, rather than by execution).
Untitled by Mahmoud Hamadani from the Traces collection. Photo treatment by @a_nose_knows for Classic Myrrh
Classic Myrrh, in concept, is rather simple, and thus meditative- the myrrh presents almost raw, with a very realistic construction of the radiant, cristalline, cassant compound. The opening is warm and liquid, slightly herbaceous with sweet patchouli and tannic opoponax; thin smoke veils an honest incense and the effect is comforting and familiar from the start.
As it sets, dusty elements surface with the only (slight) presentation of texture: occasional citruses, velvety (and vague) florals, and a raspy vetiver appear for context and support, breaking the fluidity with a temporary—and needed—hum of dry undertones.
The base goes simply back into a cristalline state, where dendrils of creaminess sit suspended like a leaf in amber, rendering the result introspective, luminous, and as substantial as the drawing of a sound.
Self-portrait with Classic Myrrh. Photo and treatment by @a_nose_knows for Von Eusersdorff
Official notes: incense, vetiver, cedar, petit grain, guaiac wood, violet, sandalwood, patchouli, labdanum.
Other perceived notes: myrrh, opoponax, benzoin, musk, pepper, dust, hot copper, cola, grape juice, pine.
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