Art Meets Art Lilac Wine collage J.
Perfume and music share many traits, both are time-based performances that play out for our senses; perfume dances on your skin and teases your nose, while music makes your body move, while both create moments and feelings for us to treasure.
The French house Art Meets Art blends these two worlds together, playing scented notes to hypnotise us in a strange delight and do it in style. When I consider the success of a perfume, I think of it in the same way I do art or music. How does it make me feel, what was the intent or concept and how was it done? Art Meets Art delivers everything I’m looking for and more. Each of their perfumes captures the sensation of their chosen music, not only that, but something of the performances as well. Sexual Healing drips with warm honeyed tones, while both versions of Like a Virgin give you two very different takes on Madonna and her classic hit, one more innocent than the other, you can tell they’re working with some world-class perfumers and people who love both perfume and music. For now I’m lost in a misty light of Art Meets Art Lilac Wine, a classic Fougère that’s sung in a new way.
Eartha Kitt and her album cover for ‘That Bad Eartha” collage via wiki
Lilac Wine the song, like the fougere, has been covered many times before. The lyrics yearn with heartache while taking solace from wine made from a lilac tree, focusing on the blissful oblivion achieved by becoming intoxicated by this delight. I have a soft spot for the Nina Simone version which bubbles with more of a lover’s rage, yet ends tender and close to tears. While researching I found many more that have done versions, Elke Brooks even had a chart hit. One of my new favourites is Eartha Kitt’s version, recorded back in 1953 for herThat Bad Eartha LP. She purrs the lyrics in her usual seductive kitty-kat way, giving the song a different direction, more of the lover still in chase of the recently lost.
Frank Voelkl of Firmenich courtesy of the perfumer
Art Meets Art Lilac Wine focuses on Jeff Buckley’s version of the song, from the 1994 album Grace. Perfumer Frank Voelkl captures more than the songs notes, in Lilac Wine he conjures the pared back, minimal feel and space of Jeff Buckley’s version of the song, in such a beautiful way. It wears like the controlled power of Jeff Buckley’s voice, letting the main aromatic melody sing through and shine while being supported by luxurious woody musks that slowly envelop you, as you fall for this heady golden lilac fougere aromatic delight.
Jeff Buckley opened my eyes to many new kinds of music with his amazing live covers, please go listen to the extended Live at Sin-É or his Live À L’Olympia album for Lilac Wine and if you can find them other live bootlegs. He made other’s songs his, adding his style and musicality to them in a similar way to how perfumers take traditional style, chypre, floral, amber and fougere in this case, giving them a twist and new take, making them their own. In fact a lot of language of music and perfumery are shared, Frank Voelkl the perfumer talks about this too. “Fragrance and music have a lot in common. We talk about fragrance notes and fragrance accords. You can talk about a theme or a melody within a fragrance.”
Image of Art Meets Art Lilac and Jeff Buckley by J
Art Meets Art Lilac Wine opens with smooth creamy purple hues blossom from soft aromatic lavender, it’s slightly dried creating this gentle fuzz as cedar adds texture and soft powdery haze to the perfumes base. It feels like guitar stings gently jangling under a cool full smooth warm musky voice with the gentle fuzz of brushes on hi-hats. Violet leaf adds octaves of depth with subtle green woods and a delicate floral feel that when it oscillates with the aromatic lavender and sage, it’s notes play you this heady aromatic lilac melody. It’s paired with a softly herbal fruity boozy liquor that’s rich and smooth, whose flow is intoxicating as it melts into a mysterious musky haze that drunk on this heady lilac melody. Light and dark elements add a subtle complexity, with freesia bringing this gentle sweet sparkling high note, as moss brings a softer darker luxurious texture, giving just a hint of ennui and longing, like the ghost of a floral chypre is haunting the memories of this aromatic Fougère.
Jeff Buckley – Lilac Wine | Cabaret Metro | Chicago, IL | 5/13/1995 youtube
Art Meets Art Lilac Wine has a classic melody, yet is played a new way with cedar, moss and musk giving it a more contemporary feel. I love the combination of heady drunken lilac floral aromatics meeting cedar, moss and musk, making it feel like an acoustic number has gone electric. It sings with sage turning the herbal liquor into a rich golden cognac, adding rich smooth dulcet tones to the voice of the perfume, also letting the sage shine with a loving embrace of herbal tea like warmth. Where the violet leaf gave things space, this boozy accord pulls you in with a creamy depth and flow, that reverberates into the ether of musk that make Art Meets Art Lilac Wine a smooth and luxurious, as if a powerful voice is softly wrapping notes elegantly around you like a silky veil. Its intoxicating warm heady musk echoes, haunting your skin with a dreamy and refined air of elegance. A suave melody that’s hard to forget. I’m excited to see what songs might be next. All I know is that Art Meets Art will do it with a beautiful French touch.
Top notes: lavender, violet, plum: Mid: cognac composition, clary sage, freesia: Base: cedarwood, musk, moss
Disclaimer: Review is based on a bottle kindly sent by the Art Meets Art. My description is how the perfume sings to me and like music we all have our own tastes.
-Guest Contributor J Wearescentient, is an artist and olfactive writer.
photo courtesy of the brand
Thanks to the generosity of Art Meets Art, we have a draw for one 50 ml bottle of Lilac Wine for one registered reader in the US, UK or EU. To be eligible, please leave a comment about what appealed to you about JScentient’s review and where you live. Giveaway closes 9/20/2023
Please read Michelyn’s Interview with Frank Voelkl here
Frank Voelkl was featured in our Perfumers Signature Series here
Available on the brand’s website and JOVOY PARIS
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