David Falsberg via David©

Artisanal perfumer and former CaFleureBon Contributor David Falsberg and I met years ago at a fragrance event in NYC; I was already well-acquainted with his compositions. In 2013, he was a strictly natural perfumer. My favorites from his collection were two completely disparate perfumes: Far NW, a photorealistic scent replete with skunks and forest (anyone who knows me well is aware that I adore skunks and their odor!), and Rucher Fleuri – a honeyed aldehydic rose sprinkled with galbanum, embedded in vanilla, sandalwood and civet. The name Phoenicia Perfumes and its logo arise [sic] from the perfumer’s lengthy ordeal battling an iatrogenic (read: illness caused by medical treatment) life-threatening disease known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis – in which the skin blisters, peels, and sloughs off in layers. People suffering from this affliction require urgent hospitalization (if they aren’t already hospitalized), and often end up for months in a burn unit, being intensively treated with skin grafts, antibiotics, steroids, opioids, and intravenous immunoglobulins. If the afflicted doesn’t become comatose from all the trauma, they are placed into a deliberate medically-induced coma – so that bodily functions can be regulated, and painful treatments can be instituted. The induced comas often assist the body in healing itself, as bizarre as it may seem. As David’s eyesight dwindled, his olfactory sense went into overdrive and morphed him into a super smeller.

David Falsberg and Mary Jones at the Olfactory Art Keller  December 3, 2022

In 2008-09, while living in Seattle with his parents’ post-hospitalization, David decided to write down his experiences from his four-month-long coma. He had spoken so often of his altered waking-dream state, thoughts, hallucinations and sensations, that he felt it best to commit them to paper while they remained fresh and foremost in his mind. No one was aware that he was writing this memoir at the time. When The Olfactory Art Keller  in NYC (which won a Best of 2021 award from Michelyn) decided to create an exhibit entitled “Bodies Odors Trauma Disease”, the inclusion of David Falsberg’s The Coma Aroma Chronicles was a perfect fit. David’s memoir, Coma Life So Beautiful – was part of a multisensory presentation which included both the written and spoken word, musical loops expressing the shock and awe of his experience, and the artwork of Mary Jones. Ms. Jones was inspired by David’s writings and the two correlative perfumes, PTSD (created for the exhibit – only 8 30 ml. bottles) and Skin Graft: in her paintings, she incorporated David’s X-rays and visual allusion to his experiences of intrusive procedures, an understandably heightened sense of mortality, and dream states.

Courtesy of Olfactory Art Keller

David describes PTSD as follows: “Bright citrus and hairspray are followed by funereal indole and finished off with warm woods and dark, moldy terminal notes.” His thoughts on Skin Graft are as follows: “Skin Graft Ltd. Is a piece unique for this project. In 2013 I made the original version and it was a cult hit. An all-natural uneasy blend of hospital gauze and psychedelic flowers was inspired by coma memories. This updated version is a more contemporary fragrance using mixed media and was soaked in pigskin for a month. (Pigskin is the material used to regenerate dead skin.)”

David was kind enough to both send me a copy of Coma Life So Beautiful (which I read posthaste) and to answer the questions which I put to him. I have not altered any of the text which he sent in response nor added/deleted any punctuation, capitalization, grammar or syntax. The goal was to present the author/perfumer as his authentic self – and stay true to his integrity as an artist.

Ida Meister: Your book Coma Life So Beautiful is scented with PTSD perfume. Tell me more about the fragrance, and why you chose it instead of Skin Graft.

David Falsberg: One reason I chose to provide Skin Graft as a sample was its accessibility, wearability. I was not sure how long the scent sprayed on the book lasts and felt like PTSD is a challenging scent that rabbit holes into gray darkness but subtly so the reader could consume the writing with the PTSD providing a background that the reader could actually use to enhance how the text affects them. For better/for worse.

You began creating fragrance years ago. Why publish now?  What sparked the urgency? Was it the Olfactory Art Keller’s idea? Yours?

David Falsberg: Keller Gallery inspired me to kill two birds with one stone. I had a frag about my illness and text that could be applied together. The PTSD was made after the idea of marrying the text/Graft already was cast in my mind. I already had thought about collabing with Mary as she had already used my implant x-ray in her work.

Mary Jones Dreams Always Happen in a Place

Why/how did you go about choosing this particular format? Were you influenced by Joyce, Dylan Thomas, or other writers? Did you feel that a stream of consciousness best reflected your state of being?

David Falsberg: I think the stream of consciousness came from verbally telling the story to anyone who’d listen. The snippets just rolled off my tongue.

Please expand upon the editing process for me. Was it a joint decision not to tamper with typos, misspelling, inconsistencies concerning capitalization? To leave everything as is?

David Falsberg: Me, me, me. I felt the typos and any brain farts were reflective of my condition, my eyesight and brain waves made it hard to conform so I winged it and decided to leave it “as was” when I went to print it.

What do you want readers to take away from their reading experience?

Mary Jones Depths of the Collective Unconscious, 2022

David Falsberg: I want to humanize the land of the near dead. To let people, know that coma life can be very real magick, to inform people of the synchronicity and easy transportation between life and death. That words, smells and art help us explore boundaries and coalescence.

David, we at ÇaFleureBon are so proud of your tenacity, creativity, and fearlessness. Thank you for sharing such personal material with us. We continue to follow your chosen path with interest – as we have from the beginning of your olfactory journey.

 

Coma Life So Beautiful photo Ida

Coma Life So Beautiful Book Review

The very first thing you notice when you open the mailing envelope in which your volume is enclosed, is the potent waft of PTSD perfume: it permeates each page, imparting a pungent, melancholy beauty which is wistfully dark and purposeful. It is a love-or-hate pinnacle which sets the scene for what rapidly ensues – a violent, life-threatening response to a little orange pill prescribed by his personal physician which eventually resulted in overall severe burns and coma. It wasn’t long before David’s speech became slurred; his sensorium seriously addled, as if he were intoxicated; he coughed uncontrollably. It was a shock to him when he found himself lying on a heated sand mattress (the kind utilized for patients with hard-to-heal wounds and burns), a tube in every possible orifice, and blackened skin (as a former burn nurse, my educated guess was that this color was the direct result of the profuse use of silver nitrate solution – which is used to prevent infection and promote epithelial healing).While many people have little recollection of this inpatient trauma, David recalled every moment – all the while enveloped in a floating lucid dream state, under the influence of seriously strong opiates. Breathing in itself was a travail, and he sustained myriad losses: loss of family, a disrupted marriage, near-blindness, and an inability to chew or swallow food. In his coma travels, his visions were vivid and seemed perfectly natural, the result of overhearing snippets of random conversations (the comatose can often hear what is said, unless there is a specific hearing impairment present) and juxtaposing, reconstructing a mélange of certitude with fantasy.

David was resuscitated three times. He was frequently in an extended crepuscular state; he time-traveled, had elaborate dreams populated with famous characters and bizarre events, political themes. He faced multiple challenges, including weaning from opiates, learning to breathe adequately, fighting to maintain a balanced nutritional state despite prolonged bleeding from his throat, and having become a physical shadow of his former robust self, now so deconditioned.

Coma Life So Beautiful is a testament to resilience in the face of multiple trauma adversity. While the author feels that this book is easy to read, I would beg to differ. It is important to read, humorous, tragic, and highly informative – but it takes a certain degree of forbearance to soldier through its idiosyncratic literary style in the beginning. Once one acclimatizes to David’s style, it is easy going and well worth it. I applaud his candor and courage. Memoirs of this sort do not roll trippingly off the tongue, nor are they meant to be taken lightly: that would be doing both book and author a disservice.

– Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor

Please read David Falsberg’s Profile in American Perfumery here

Former Managing Editor Mark Behnke’s review of Skin Graft 2013

Ida’s Review of Raspberry M’Oud here

Rachel Watson’s review of RealOud here

You can purchase Coma Life So Beautiful on the Olfactory Art Keller here

Read more about David’s collaboration on the Olfactory Art Keller site here

 

Thanks to David’s generosity, we have a 15ml sprayer of Skin Graft ($125 value) for one registered reader in the USA. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment about what sparks your interest in Ida’s article, David’s incredible journey, the interview and review of Coma Life So Beautiful Draw closes 2/28/2022

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