Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre (Photo: Despina Veneti)©
Every now and then comes a new perfume brand that captivates mind and senses with its uncompromising quality, aesthetic coherence, and attention to every detail: that is the case of Senyokô Paris, one of the most beautiful fragrant discoveries of 2019, (thanks to Alex Musgrave’s (aka The Silver Fox) introductory piece for Çafleurebon); mightily impressed by the latter, I made it a point to get immediately familiar with the offerings of this new Fragrance House founded by Joseph and Églantine Berthion, whose creative visions are translated into scent by gifted Scottish perfumer Euan McCall (selected by Michelyn as the “2019 Rising Star in Perfumery”). Amongst the operatic grandeur of Madama Butterfly II, the intoxicating lyricism of Duo Des Fleurs and the unabashed carnality of La Tsarine, Migration de L’Arbre stands as the most reflective, soothing, deeply affecting creation in the Senyokô collection. A finalist in the 2019 Art and Olfaction Awards, Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre is a thoroughly pleasurable fragrance in which seemingly heterogeneous elements work together in divine harmony.
Friendship I: Tree and Bird (Digital Drawing/Collage inspired by Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre: Despina Veneti)©
The source of inspiration behind the fragrance is Nankichi Niimi’s 1930s short story “Last Year’s Tree”, a tale of friendship between a bird and a tree. The bird sings for the tree every day, until it has to migrate to the South to survive winter; it does so with a promise to return in spring, and sing for the tree again. Upon its return, the bird finds only a stump in the place of its dear friend. It eventually finds out that the tree has been cut, and turned into matchsticks, which have been used to light up a lantern. The original story ends with the bird staring at the flame inside the lantern, then singing a song to it, as it used to do for the tree. The flame trembles and flickers, as if it was thanking the bird in delight. After looking at the fire in the lamp once more, the bird flies away to an unknown destination.
Friendship II: Bird and Tree (Digital Drawing/Collage inspired by Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre: Despina Veneti)©
In Senyokô’s own fashion of imagining alternative endings for well-known stories, this tale goes on: “The bird flies away with the lantern and keeps it burning. Sensing the flame, the tree starts to grow back from the stump. Many saplings sprout from the tree’s roots and begin to pullulate throughout the glade, forming a new forest. After a few years, those saplings reach the bird and bring her back to the tree with their leaves. The bird passes away in the tree’s arms with a smile on her face and some beautiful memories of her friend and the forest.” This simple, yet touching, tale of friendship, loyalty and perpetuity is not a mere background, but runs through Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre like a vital force, imprinted in the scent’s own structure, development, and chosen ingredients. Thoroughly charmed by this brilliant fragrant jewel which transported me to landscapes that feel at once familiar and oneiric, I contacted perfumer Euan McCall of Jorum Laboratories.
Euan McCall of Jorum Laboratories (Photo: Alex Musgrave aka The Silver Fox)©
Mr. McCall proved to be as precise and expressive with words, as he is with fragrance notes. His insights on Migration de L’Arbre, and his work for Senyokô in general, were precious: “The average development for a Senyokô perfume formula is 18 months of near constant development. I send themes, and subsequent modifications, to the team, so they can assess them. I enjoy the mutual trust, the feeling that we are all working towards the same end goal – that is to create something new, possessing undisputed quality and an inherent, albeit surprising, beauty. In each Senyokô perfume we are presenting people, places, stories or ideas, trying to bring these subjects to life. In the case of Migration de L’Arbre, it was a story of a bird and a tree that needed to be presented within the perfume. To me this story was concerned with the perpetual motion of nature, beyond the mutual love and respect displayed by the two subjects.”
Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre (Digital Drawing/Collage: Despina Veneti)©
The perfumer further elaborated on his creative process: “Migration de L’Arbre was a very instinctual project: an early modification became the final. In essence the composition could be described as revolving around molecular ambergris and patchouli, but it goes beyond this. Patchouli provides a transparent structure to the formula – it is omnipresent however almost never truly there. To convey the aforementioned perpetual motion of Nature, I chose clary sage as a central theme. The various facets of this ingredient – herbaceous, floral, tobacco – are highlighted during the different stages of the fragrance’s evolution, ending with a naturalistic ambergris note based on Ambroxan (the latter being itself derived from clary sage). There is a sort of “closed loop” aspect, where one sensation or material evaporates, another similar takes its place, moving – or migrating – the profile along its journey, whilst still possessing the core theme until we move into the final phase of the profile which technically depends on the material featured in the initial impression for its existence. Furthermore, we created a textural accord to represent the bird without the use of animalic materials (like castoreum, civet, hyraceum or natural ambergris). Using seaweed absolute, cumin and a complex blend of grasses, herbs and molecules, we produced a sensation which resembled the plumage of the bird, soft, nuzzling, mineral-like.”
Bird and Tree (Watercolor Painting: Han In Wong Art)©
Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre is a formidable showcase of the perfumer’s technical skill and artistic sensibility. The fragrance opens with a blast of clary sage – in all its green, herbal, mind-clearing glory – infused with zesty, bright citruses (grapefruit, cédrat, yuzu). The overall sensation is that of walking barefoot through a serene forest glade right after the rain: an exhilarating feeling/smell of damp grass and earth, just when the sun beams are shyly re-emerging. The floral facets of clary sage are highlighted with apricot-tinged osmanthus and touches of luscious magnolia, shaping a floral heart that provides a more urbane vibe to the fragrance. Subsequently, the increasingly musky clary sage is mellowed by a warm wave of non-sugary sweetness, resulting from the synergy of coumarinic, hay-like tobacco, delicious pomegranate, some unexpected fruity accents (lemony elemi and grape-like nigella), as well as heavenly mastic (being Greek, my connection to this wonderful, still underused in perfumery, ingredient runs deep). The base of fresh-smelling patchouli and a plethora of aromatic woods is handled in the most ethereal manner; closing my eyes, I see a fantasy landscape where all sorts of magnificent citruses, fruits, flowers and resins are magically growing onto the trunks and branches of floating fir, oak and cedar trees. The drydown is mostly defined by the aromatic tobacco, and a mineral ambergris note with a salty undertone that vaguely evokes (the bird’s?) memories of the sea…
Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre (Photo: Despina Veneti)©
Balancing between a tangible organic feeling and an otherworldly aura, the woods of Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre are as intensely realistic as they are idealized. This supremely conceptual, deeply gratifying fragrance develops as smoothly as the flow of a crystal-clear stream, the graceful gliding of a bird through the air – or artful story-telling. All that with the apparent simplicity, and the emotional richness, of a fairy tale.
Notes: Clary Sage, Juniper, Cédrat, Grapefruit, Yuzu; Elemi, Mastic, Guaiac, Magnolia, Osmanthus, Pomegranate, Nigella Damascena; Ambergris, Tobacco, Seaweed, Vetiver, Cabreuva, Patchouli, Fir Balsam, Cedar, Oakwood, Deertongue.
Disclaimer: I’d like to thank Senyokô Paris for my bottle of Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre. The opinions are my own.
– Despina Veneti, Senior Editor
Details of Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre (Photos: Despina Veneti)©
Thanks to the generosity of Senyokô Paris we have a draw for a tester 50ml bottle of Senyokô Migration de L’Arbre (value: $215/185€) for one registered reader in EU or USA. You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what you enjoyed most about Despina’s review, what you learned from her interview with Euan McCall , if you have tried any Senyokô fragrances, and where you live. Draw closes 1/23/2020
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