Saturday, February 9, 2008

Brian Eno & Scent Mapping



"I wouldn't care if the recording studios were closed. I'd do something else. I don't have to be a musician. I could do whatever the situation demanded. For instance, in that cupboard where I have aromatic oils... essences. I mix them up...I wouldn't be at all unhappy if that was all I was left to work with for awhile.There's no vocabulary for it." --Brian Eno


Eno's ambition is to make really exceptional perfumes. He has given lectures that include his thoughts on perfumery and scent mapping techniques. He creates perfumes for friends and feels that certain scents connect directly with the brain, in that the molecules of the smell itself actually enter the brain and stimulate it. While our other senses may have interpretive mechanisms, he explains, our olfactory sense does not. Eno makes this his entry point for studying scent.

His music has been called 'audio perfume.'

Bob Dylan mentions Brian Eno's love of perfume in an interview. (see my January 13th 2007 post)