Ambre Cello as a desert mirage – desert picture via Pixabay, Ambre Cello bottle picture by L’Orchestre Parfum, all edited by Emmanuelle Varron for L’Orchestre Parfum.
Launched in 2017, L’Orchestre Parfum’s credo is to create perfumes in harmony with music through scented notes and sounds. The idea is to combine an instrument with a fragrance and a musical composition in a common universe. The first six fragrances were Kora Leather, Asakusa Incense, Flamenco Neroli, Piano Sandalwood, Rose Trombone and Darbouka Tea; Bouquet Encore and Electro Limonade followed in 2020. A few weeks ago, L’Orchestre Parfum Ambre Cello, composed by Symrise perfumer Pierre Gueros (also former ÇaFleureBon Guest contributor), and accompanied by a musical piece by the composer and cellist Javier Martinez Campos and a performance by the famous cellist Gautier Capuçon was announced.
Pierre Guguen, Gautier Capuçon and Javier Martinez Campos about L’Orchestre Ambre Cello musical composition – video via L’Orchestre Parfum
When founder of L’Orchestre Parfum, Pierre Guguen started teasing Ambre Cello on social networks, without unveiling its name, my heart was racing as I immediately recognized the cello characteristics in the skillfully masked visuals. It is an instrument that means a lot to me, since it was the one my father played his whole life, as a soloist in the Opéra de Paris orchestra, but also in recording studios for song albums or film scores. The cello accompanied the first twenty-two years of my daily life, as a full member of my family, and today remains apart in my heart. And emotional aside, I find the cello to be the orchestra’s most sensual instrument: its harmonic palette gives particularly intense, dark and velvety bass while its treble goes up high without being sharp, but sound sometimes like tears. And because the size of the strings needs force to bring out the notes, the vibrato that characterizes it is generous, round and undulating. It is also an instrument of strong contrasts, whose sound identity immediately speaks to our unconscious soul. You may have noticed that a love scene or the death of a character in film scores are usually accompanied by a cello solo: Eros, Thanatos, love, death… Life!
Inside a Cello – picture by ©Adrian Borda
Growing up with a musician father (and being drawn into learning an instrument yourself) brings you into contact with specific smells: that of aged wood, carved and sanded, of course. Varnish that protects it and intensifies its color. The strings metallic ones. Fingerboard and tuning pegs cold and acrid ebony. Bow hair and the rosin you apply to it to glide over the strings. Or the instrument case, a real scented patchwork with all these familiar smells. That is for the cello. On the other side, my father wore Clinique Aromatics Elixir, this floral chypre adored by women at the time (he had stolen from my mother!). On his skin and clothes, the woody notes of patchouli, the iris, cloves and oak moss trilled. It was his signature scent that he wore until he passed away and I always associate it with his instrument.
Hubert Varron, Emmanuelle’s father, as a young cello pupil – picture from Emmanuelle Varron personal collection.
Pierre Guguen explains that he wanted to pay tribute to a nomadic cellist, whose story was told to him by a gentleman who ran an apothecary in Deira, a district of Dubai. This musician would travel in the desert, in possession of a very precious amber. On the skin, L’Orchestre Parfum Ambre Cello is indeed an incredibly beautiful woody-amber fragrance, which immediately evokes warmth and mystery.
Left picture with Pierre Guguen, Gautier Capuçon and Javier Martinez Campos – picture by L’Orchestre Parfum – Right picture with Pierre Gueros – picture via Symrise.
Built around spicy, vanilla and balsamic notes, it takes me on a journey to desert regions. The opening is sparkling thanks to the bergamot, but very quickly the spices and myrrh start a dance on my skin that would almost makes me dizzy, plunging me into the atmosphere of the souks and its intoxicating smells. Tonka bean enters and calms this dance with its woody and gourmet notes that go so well with the spices, without dulling the composition. On the contrary, it brings a velvety, almost fruity note, which I initially perceived close to cognac, but which Pierre Gueros explained to our Editor-in-Chief Michelyn Camen is in fact a dry fruit date accord, obtained by damascone-rose-vanilla .
Hippolyte Girardot (cellist Dr Courette) and Gerard Depardieu (Lieutenant Charles Saganne) in Alain Corneau 1984 Fort Saganne movie -Screenshot by Emmanuelle Varron.
While L’Orchestre Parfum Ambre Cello speaks to me of my father and his Russian origins; it is a different tale for Pierre Guguen- one of the Middle East. The warm spices of L’Orchestre Parfum Ambre Cello takes me to the middle of the south Algerian Sahara, to Fort Saganne, Louis Gardel’s novel adapted for cinema in 1984 (nicknamed “the French Lawrence of Arabia”). All this is captured in the short film and musical score composed by Philippe Sarde, based on an intimate and mystical melody, of undulations between bass and treble, like a walk in the middle of the desert in search of oneself, interpreted by Xavier Gagnepain. The deep emotive cello scenes remind me of Ambre Cello playing its scented melody.
Notes: bergamot, cardamom, saffron, myrrh, musk, tonka bean, balms, ambroxan, rose, vanilla absolute, benzoin.
Disclaimer: Thank you to L’Orchestre Parfum founder Pierre Guguen for the samples provided for this review. The opinions expressed are my own. And many « mercis » to Michelyn Camen for offering me the opportunity to write about a perfume dedicated to an instrument that will be part of my life forever.
Emmanuelle Varron, Senior contributor
L’Orchestre Parfum Ambre Cello image by L’Orchestre Parfum
Thanks to the generosity of Pierre Guguen, L’Orchestre Parfum’s founder, we have L’Orchestre Parfum Ambre Cello 100 ml bottle for one registered reader worldwide. To be eligible, please leave a comment bout Emmanuelle’s review, where you live and if you have ever linked a perfume to a musical instrument. Draw closes 7/1/2021
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