Olivier Durbano Aram courtesy of Olivier Durbano

“Aram, Aram blows…

When the Stones are Light On an Earth World that has withered their Souls And in the Silence of a Profound Healing Think…

Bandage the body, and the renewed mind

Aram, Aram Blows..

Sun and Moon enlighten with the same Strength Born Love, Unadorned Man, New Earth

Initial, Pure Alliances of Essences When the Stones are Light… He is He

Aram, Aram Kepha…

Today the words are Silence Time makes itself Known to the shadows of illusion A Breeze goes by, Eternal Wake, Unique And Light comes

Aram When the Stones are Light”—Olivier Durbano

 

Detail of Al-Tawashi Mosque, Aleppo, Syria, photo Daniel Demeter

Aram, Aramea, whose Biblical names rings across millennia like a distant muezzin’s call, touch some ancient memory entombed in the heart. These were the ancient names for a part of Syria at whose center lay the magnificent, now-ruined, city of Aleppo. Aram, the sixteenth in jeweler, designer and perfumer Olivier Durbano’s Pierre Poemes series is a paean to the beauty of what was, to memory, but also to the transformative strength of hope, which always looks to the future.  The perfume essences used to create Olivier Durbano Aram were inspired by images and olfactory impressions from Olivier’s first journey to Syria; the drift of narghile smoke and tea in long shadows of the souks, the tickly, fresh smell of newly cut cedar from the woodworkers, the flinty stones of the mosques, the sand that seems to scatter everywhere. And in the heart of the old city, the tender perfume of Damascus, or damask, rose, rippling in the wind like a muslin scarf.

 The Turban and the Cloud Photo by Martin Bailey

Aram opens in brilliant sunlight and the chartreuse of herbal artemisia. Punctuated by bitter citrus fruit, it is zesty and almost kinetic, like the bustle of the bazaar in late morning. Grapefruit dominates the top, pungent, its sparkle stripped down to the deeper perfume of the pith and rind. It is accentuated and lifted by the vibrant astringency of green tea, and soon, vetiver begins its rooty ascent into green leaf and loam. Cedar, too, comes through early, lending a subtle masculinity, while a dab of cistus nods to the passersby in the heat. At this moment, Aram makes me think of a more herbal version of  Durbano’s lovely, spirited Chrysolithe, with its verbena top note and vetiver-cedar underpinning.

Palmyra, Monumental Arch, Palmyra. Photo by Nick Brundle Photography

But then, without indication, Olivier Durbano Aram leaves the Grand Citadel for dusty Palmyra and the further sands of the coast. What is the smell of sand and rock? Something like the parched odor of cracked bone and wave-worn wood, the cool minerality of ground stones and dried grass. It is an old smell, of time before time.  In Aram, Olivier Durbano’s signature mineral accord summons the sweeping expanse of Latakia’s shoreline and then, gathering incense, moves back in time to the great temples of Palmyra. Elemi and olibanum are central to Durbano’s work, and in Aram, they run through the middle like a rivulet through cleft rock, giving the fragrance a continuous but unobtrusive rhythm, like a quiet bassline. He uses an unusual ingredient in the middle section – gum ammoniac, a powerful resin incense with a bitter, aromatic odor – alongside his more usual elemi and olibanum. The gum ammonium tweaks the fragrance with a sense of something strange but slightly familiar, the smell of something you might have caught once in passing but can’t quite remember where or what it was.

Aram courtesy of Olivier Durbano

As I am thinking it has passed me by, the rose finally emerges from the mineral-incense-herbal loom Durbano weaves, downy and subtle. It is joined by myrrh and the taffy sweetness of benzoin, which bring a touch of warmth back to the composition. As Aram dries down, the stones, sand, wood and fruit gather and surround the rose. As it dries down, the rose sleeps in the sand, washed by waves older than the ruins.

Lauryn with Olivier Durbano at Pitti Fragranze 2019, photo by Lauryn

Aram is full of half-memories, those sensations of a past reality that come not through experience but through telling, like stories one has heard in childhood. With its glowing opening and evocation of timelessness,  Olivier Durbano Aram embodies a deep love of place that makes you yearn to return somewhere even before you’ve left it.

Notes: Grapefruit, elemi, olibanum, artemisia, cistus, green tea, damask rose, gum ammoniac incense cassie, tobacco, cedar wood, benzoin, myrrh, vetiver.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Olivier Durbano Aram generously sent to me by the ever-lovely Olivier Durbano. My opinions are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

photo courtesy of Olivier Durbano

 

Editor’s Note:  We are honored to review Aram.  Congratulation to Olivier Durbano for 16 years as an independent perfumer and for giving the world of  artistic perfumery 16 scents with soul. Olivier Durbano Aram will be available on his website soon and was to debut at Pitti Fragranze 2020, which was postponed due to the Pandemic. Tu me manques tres cher Olivier. Lauryn’s review of SpeM Petram, 15 here –Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

 

Olivier Durbano Aram 15 ml bottle, photo by Lauryn

Thanks to the generosity of Olivier Durbano, we have an avant premier 15 ml bottle of Aram for one registered reader in the U.S., Canada , UK or the EU. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what struck you about Olivier Durbano Aram and whether you have a favorite  Olivier Durbano perfume. Draw closes 10/03/2020.

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