The Golden Eagle contest. Photo by National Geographic. Editing and treatment by a_nose_knows for Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir
Come, riding your reindeer stag
The feet of the roe doe tied to the saddle
Come, riding your reindeer hind
The feet of the maral doe tied to the saddle (English translation of famous throat-singing Tuvan song (Huun-Huur-Tu Ödügen Tayga)
“Birds are ready, Sire”.
He got up straight, as he always did, in one pouring motion, as if his life hadn’t been spent on horseback; as if he wasn’t springing from Kabul and Yesugei (great warrior his father was, but notoriously ungraceful on land); as if he’d been the wind itself.
“Borte Khatun?”
“Rosy cheeks and strong, Sire, I’m told… may the wind keep Her Highness. The healers are done and sounded the auspicious gong.”
“And Bo’orchu?”
“With the foreign chanters. Paid them handsome dinars, two pelts, a perfume pod and a horse each, as you demanded. They’ve been waiting for the Word.”
“Hm. Tell them this child’s name shall be Checheyigen. Sing to Checheyigen”. (Note: the above hypothetical incredible conversation was written by dana-Michelyn)
The Alash group of master Tuvan singers. Editing and treatment by a_nose_knows for Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir
No, we do not know if, indeed, Gengis Khan’s daughter was welcomed into this world by overtone harmonies paid in musk and Mongol harness; nor do we have enough on how this eerie, hypnotic, superhuman ability came to be. But as students of the arts, it’s only appropriate that we take a closer look at what, in 2009, was inscribed on UNESCO’s “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”, under the name Mongolian art of singing (Khoomei).
Mongolian Men feeling the ice, photo by Frédéric Lagrange. Editing and treatment by a_nose_knows for Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir
Just like many other mountain-born sounds (the Turkish whistling languages, the Buciums of the Carpathians, the tongue clicks of Southern Africa, the deep flutes of the Andes) throat singing came about—and stayed—as a way to not just send a message, but commune (with other villages, with nature, with partners)… at a distance. It thus manifests, indeed, very much like a smell: emitted in an explosion of outward-facing tones, it, too, is very hard to produce: the performer has to emit a fundamental pitch and—simultaneously—layer one or more complementary pitches over that. Moreover, just like an odor, it has to work with its surroundings of whence, intrinsically, it came (both ethnomusicologists and headspace scholars talk about animism and the notion that everything is alive, interconnected, a vibration).
Master Tuvan singer Bady-Dorzhu Ondar’s overtone diagram. Editing and treatment by a_nose_knows
Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir came, to me, right as such: powerful in vibration, deep in tone, far-reaching, and amply present, like the hyper realistic echo of a sound scale you are familiar with, but now intimidates. I thus am utterly (and uncharacteristically) incapable to detach myself from the notion of immortal, vast, magnificent Mongolian plains—so please allow me to describe Royal Elixir using the typical harmony cosmos of overtone (throat) singing.
Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir. Photo and creative digitalization by a_nose_knows
Sub-bass: undetectable as sound but present as vibration (think bricks-on chest, wind-through-tunnels, ground shaking under hordes), the support here is laid deep by thick ambroxan, suspended in hints of benzoin and elemi.
Low bass: orris, vanilla, musk
Bass: tonka, patchouli, styrax
High bass: cedar, cade, salt
Low mids: orange, bergamot
Mids: osmanthus
High mids: green aldehydes, hay
Low treble: rose, tea
Treble: jasmin, smoke
High treble: pepper, iron
Disclaimer: Royal Elixir selected by me and provided for review by Europerfumes Thank you.
– dana sandu, Sr. Contributor
Thanks to the generosity of Ormonde Jayne and Europerfumes the US distributor we have a 50 ml tester of Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir for one registered reader in the US. You must register here. To be eligible, please tell us what surprised you most in dana’s review and where you live. Draw ends 12/6/2019
photo courtesy of Ormonde Jayne
Editor’s Note: The Ormonde Jayne Elixir Collection revisits 5 classic Ormonde Jayne favorites – Osmanthus, Ta’if, Ambre Royal, Isfarkand, and Ormonde Man – and either amps them up with higher concentrations (as is the case in Royal Elixir) or adds a high-quality Cambodian oud. Lauryn has reviewed Ormonde Elixir here, T’aif Elixir here, Ormonde Man Elixir here and Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir based on the best selling Ambre Royal which Editor Sebastian Jara reviewed here
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