#091
Sens01 – Sweet smell of success
Denn die Menschen konnten die Augen zumachen vor der Größe, vor dem Schrecklichen, vor der Schönheit und die Ohren verschließen vor Melodien oder betörenden Worten. Aber sie konnten sich nicht dem Duft entziehen. Denn der Duft war ein Bruder des Atems. Mit ihm ging er in die Menschen ein, sie konnten sich seiner nicht erwehren, wenn sie leben wollten. Und mitten in sie hinein ging der Duft, direkt ans Herz, und unterschied dort kategorisch über Zuneigung und Verachtung, Ekel und Lust, Liebe und Hass. Wer die Gerüche beherrschte, der beherrschte die Herzen der Menschen.
Patrick Süskind – Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders
Um dia li algures Brian Eno a dizer que fazia mais sentido um musico ter um Nez du Vin à mão do que muitos instrumentos. “My interest in smells comes from when I was young and fascinated by one smell in particular: motorcycle oil. My dad owned motorbikes, and we used to go to Snetterton in Norfolk to see the racing. The smell of the high-octane fuel just haunted me as I grew older, so I got a little bottle of it, and after that I started collecting other smells. I now have about a thousand or so”.
A decisão de fazer uma selecção musical dedicada a aromas, cheiros e outras coisas pencudas não é por isso coisa estranha. Neste primeiro de um tríptico sensorial escolhi muita coisa discretamente nariguda enquanto que outras de protuberância nasal comprovada e até mesmo atestada por certos rinoplastas. Puf, puf, duas escolhas em honra do atomizador usado “antigamente” nos perfumes, Pump Me Up pela belíssima Caroline Munro (que havia visto pela primeira vez em The Golden Voyage of Sinbad e que depois iria seguir para bingo em inúmeras sexploitations série B até ser Naomi, uma das melhores Bond Girls contracenando com Roger Moore em The Spy Who Loved Me) e Lanza Perfume, versão feita para o resto do mercado sul americano por Rita Lee “y su muchacho” Roberto, canção que é realmente sobre o velhinho frasco de poppers (cherinlóló aqui no burgo), cheirinhos da classe dos nitritos (de amilo, pentilo, hexilo, propilo ou até mesmo uma mistura de tudo isto, imagine-se a ressaca).
Os mais que inevitáveis Miss Perfumado da diva dos pés descalços Cesária Évora e Summer Breeze dos Isley Brothers estão aqui incluídos mas fui nebulizando esta selecção com notas, harmonias e accords (a coisa vai ficando mais freaky conforme se vai percebendo como as terminologias da música e da perfumaria se misturam e repartem honras). She Smells So Nice, retirado do album L.A. Woman dos Doors mostra-nos um Jim a meio caminho entre xamã e prince charmant e em plena desenvoltura na sua transformação de gourmet em gourmand. Como um Epoisses a sério, de leite não pasteurizado, com certeza o que Marcel Amont meteu num naco de baguette para gravar Les Nez, canção escrita por Charles Aznavour em 1965. Ou o JP Simões, em 2000 a gravar The Perfume of The Stars no segundo disco dos Belle Chase Hotel. E o já clássico Smelly Cat Medley que faz a rábula de pôr Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan a cantarolar com Chrissie Hynde no episódio The One with the Baby on the Bus, sexto da segunda temporada da sitcom Friends.
My nose isn’t big. I just happen to have a very small head.
Jimmy Durante
Algumas das canções selecionadas só pelo titulo já nos transportam por sensações olfactivas: Hatis Noit com Aura, gravado no disco com o mesmo nome para a Erased Tapes londrina agora que a cantora japonesa decidiu trocar Hokkaido pela velha Albion; Surrounded by Love da violinista Annasara Lundgren mostra como é que se “arranja e conduz” a mudança de deixar de ser músico de uma orquestra de câmara para pautar uma carreira mais “neoclássica” como performer das suas próprias composições. L is for lust / O is for obsession / V is for the vast way you envelop my soul / This is crazy, this is crazy / I could die from the Pheromone, Prince tinha de aqui estar com esta canção gravada em 1993 no album Come, o seu décimo quinto e ultimo editado pela Warner mais concretamente na altura em que o senhor Roger Nelson decidiu intitular-se The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. De um quadrante diametralmente oposto mas no entanto pleno de fac-símile gramatical peguei ainda nos valencianos Última Emoción e a faixa Sentir Tu Cuerpo editada em cassete em 1981 quando ainda achavam que a banda se podia chamar Europa.
Logo no princípio mencionei o Nez du Vin, um “ajudante” de escanção lançado em 1980 por Jean Lenoir com empurrão criativo do artista plástico Daniel Spoerri. Se não conhecem acho que deviam visitar https://www.lenez.com. Foi por estas e por outras que a Comme des Garçons fez os perfumes que conhecemos hoje e o Frederic Malle produziu Angéliques Sous La Pluie, que parece um banho de Gin tónico para a pele. Odores saídos de ambientes circundantes acabam por nos ser mais chegados, mais envolventes pela proximidade do reconhecimento. Talvez por isso começo com Blind Boy Fuller e What’s That Smells Like Fish, lá pelo meio, puf, puf, o cheiro de erva fresca inalado por Tom Waits em Green Grass e para acabar a minha escolha recaiu em The Scent of Sandalwood, composição editada nos meados dos 70s pela Boosey & Hawkes, grandes artilheiros de salvas mestras na guerra da library music e escrito por Trevor Duncan, pen name de Leonard Charles Trebilco, compositor autodidata dos estúdios da BBC onde trabalhava como engenheiro de som. Acabar com esta fragrância a sândalo tão análoga à minha infância, o meu olfacto relacionando os seus óleos voláteis às madeiras torneadas de mobilias da minha mãe. Aromas antigos que me invocam imagens e sensações de conforto. Tal e qual o que me acontece com certas músicas.
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory –
Odours, when sweet violets sicken
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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“For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn’t escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn’t defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”
Patrick Süskind – Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
One day I read Brian Eno saying that it made more sense for a musician to have a Nez du Vin at hand than many instruments. “My interest in smells comes from when I was young and fascinated by one smell in particular: motorcycle oil. My dad owned motorbikes, and we used to go to Snetterton in Norfolk to see the racing. The smell of the high-octane fuel just haunted me as I grew older, so I got a little bottle of it, and after that I started collecting other smells. I now have about a thousand or so”.
The decision to make a musical selection dedicated to aromas, smells and other nosy things is therefore not strange. In this first of a sensory triptych I chose a lot of things with a discreet proboscis, while others will have a proven nasal protuberance certified by certain rhinologists. Puff, puff, two sprays in honor of the atomiser used “in the old days” in perfumery, Pump Me Up by the beautiful Caroline Munro (whom I saw for the first time in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and who would later go on to bingo in countless B series sexploitation flicks until getting the role of Naomi, one of the best Bond Girls opposite Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me) and Lanza Perfume, version made for the rest of the South American market by Rita Lee “y su muchacho” Roberto, a song that is really about old flasks of poppers (cherinlóló in my youthful slang), smells of the nitrite class (amyl, pentyl, hexyl, propyl or even a mixture of all these, imagine the hangover).
The more than inevitable Miss Perfumado by the Barefoot diva Cesária Évora and Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers are included here but I misted this selection with notes, harmonies and accords (things get more freaky as one realizes how the terminologies of music and perfumery mingle and share honours). She Smells So Nice, taken from the album L.A. Woman by the Doors shows us a Jim halfway between shaman and prince charming and in full bloom in his transformation from gourmet to gourmand. Like a real Epoisses, made of unpasteurised milk, certainly what Marcel Amont put in a piece of baguette to record Les Nez, a song written by Charles Aznavour in 1965. Or JP Simões, recording in 2000 The Perfume of The Stars on the second album by Belle Chase Hotel. And the already classic Smelly Cat Medley, which does the trick of putting Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan humming with Chrissie Hynde in the episode The One with the Baby on the Bus, sixth of the second season of the sitcom Friends.
My nose isn’t big. I just happen to have a very small head.
Jimmy Durante
Some of the songs selected just for their title already carry us through olfactory sensations: Hatis Noit with Aura, recorded on the album with the same name for London’s Erased Tapes now that the Japanese singer has decided to swap Hokkaido for the old Albion; Surrounded by Love by violinist Annasara Lundgren shows how to conduct and orchestrate the change from being a musician in a chamber orchestra to a more “neoclassical” career as a performer of her own compositions. L is for lust / O is for obsession / V is for the vast way you envelop my soul / This is crazy, this is crazy / I could die from the Pheromone, Prince had to be here with this song recorded in 1993 on the album Come, his fifteenth and last published by Warner more specifically at the time when Sir Roger Nelson decided to call himself The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. From a quadrant diametrically placed but nevertheless full of grammatical facsimile I also took Valencian group Ultima Emoción and the track Sentir Tu Cuerpo, released on cassette in 1981 when they still thought they could be called Europe.
Right at the beginning I mentioned the Nez du Vin, a sommelier’s “helper” launched in 1980 by Jean Lenoir with creative impetus from visual artist Daniel Spoerri. If you don’t know it I think you should visit https://www.lenez.com. It was for these and other reasons that Comme des Garçons made the perfumes we know today and Frederic Malle produced Angéliques Sous La Pluie, which feels like a gin & tonic bath for the skin. Odours coming from surrounding environments end up being closer to us, more involving by the proximity of recognition. Maybe that’s why I start with Blind Boy Fuller and What’s That Smells Like Fish, somewhere in the middle, puff, puff, the smell of fresh grass inhaled by Tom Waits in Green Grass and to end my choice fell on The Scent of Sandalwood, composition from the mid-70s by Boosey & Hawkes, great scorers of master salvoes in the library music war and written by Trevor Duncan, pen name of Leonard Charles Trebilco, self-taught composer at the BBC studios where he worked as a sound engineer. Ending with this sandalwood fragrance so particular to my childhood, my sense of smell relating its volatile oils to the woodwork of my mother’s furniture. Ancient aromas that evoke images and sensations of comfort. And that’s exactly what happens to me with certain songs.
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory –
Odours, when sweet violets sicken
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Blind Boy Fuller – What’s That Smells Like Fish
Eddie Floyd – Under My Nose
Rita Lee y Roberto – Lanza Perfume
The Doors – She Smells So Nice
Fela Kuti & Ginger Baker – Ye Ye De Smell (Edit By Mr. K)
Prince – Pheromone
Folamour – Parfums D’Aurore
Southwest F.O.B. – Smell of Incense
Elton John – Stinker
Marcel Amont – Les Nez
Eddie Russ – Poko Nose
The Isley Brothers – Summer Breeze
Belle Chase Hotel – The Perfume of The Stars
Caroline Munro – Pump Me Up
I Profumi di Capri – Numero Uno Cologne Advertisement
Johnny Crawford – Your Nose Is Gonna Grow
The RAH Band – Perfumed Garden (Atjazz Remix)
Hatis Noit – Aura
annasara – Surrounded By love
Maria Dimitriadi – Mirizi O Kosmos Giasemi
Holger Czukay – Ode to Perfume
Parliament – Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk (Pay Attention – B3M)
Tom Waits – Green Grass
Django Reinhardt – Parfum
The Byrds – Take A Whiff (On Me)
René Costy – Right On The Nose
Frank Zappa – Stink Foot
Lena Platonos – Rosalia Perfume
Gianna Nannini – Profumo
Giancarlo Barigozzi Group – Rose Nose
Última Emoción – Sentir Tu Cuerpo
Matthew Dear – You Put A Smell On Me (Breakbot Remix)
Phoebe Buffay and The Hairballs ft. The Pretenders – Smelly Cat Medley
Pierre Gabaye – Bouquet de Printemps
Cesária Evora – Miss Perfumado
Go Home Productions – Smells Like Rockin’ Robin
Ringo Starr – Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses
Cheap Perfume – Ordinary Girls
Alexia Bomtempo – Banho de Cheiro
Trevor Duncan – The Scent of Sandalwood