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Hanami: New Perfume from Ayala Moriel

Hanami Brings Together Poetry, Photography & Perfume at Blunda’s Natural Botanical Perfume Exhibition No. 2, April 18th 2009

April 14th, Los Angeles, CA & Vancouver, BC. In a unique exhibition of perfumery, poetry and photography, Ayala Moriel Parfums releases her newest perfume Hanami. Inspired by a poem by Ezra Pound, Hanami is a sophisticated interpretation of flower viewing in an urban landscape.

It all started with a poem: In March 2008, perfumer Ayala Sender was invited along with 14 other leading perfumers in the niche perfume industry to interpret a haiku-like poem by Ezra Pound, “In A Station of the Metro” for a project titled “Perfume In A Poem” Memory & Desire blog. One year later, Ayala Moriel releases the perfume at Bluda Aromatics in Los Angeles, in the 2nd of their 8-part Natural Botanical Perfume Exhibitions.

“As I was reading the poem, I envisioned a perfume that is subtle and urbane: flowers and dusty dirt”, says Ayala. She drew on her olfactory experiences in the metro stations in New York and Montreal, and the cherry blossom boulevard in Burrard SkyTrain station, which is the heart of the Cherry Blossom Festival (Hanami) in Vancouver.

“The challenge was to create the feel of concrete, asphalt and metallic surroundings using natural aromatics only”, says Ms. Sender, who used Haitian vetiver, cabreuva oil, French Cassie and Oleander to create the feel of metal, wet wood and concrete. These serve as a backdrop for the cheerful lightweight floral notes of sakura, mimosa and magnolia, creating a perfume that is ever changing, ranging from “sweet floral notes in the sunshine to cool dampness of concrete and steel”.


The exhibition at Blunda allows guests to experience Hanami with all their senses: you will experience the perfume, enjoy perfumed tea and chocolate truffles made by the perfumer; and view original photography of cherry blossoms that inspired the perfume. At 2pm, the perfumer will present the different notes of Hanami and demonstrate how the perfume was conceived and constructed. The presentation will be followed by Q & A.

Persephenie Snyder, the curator of the exhibitions and founder of Blunda Aromatics in Los Angeles wanted to present natural perfumery as an art form. “Perfumery, like painting, gives you freedom to go in many different directions”, says Persephenie. “the natural botanical perfumers’ scented organ offers materials with diverse qualities (…) and a supreme authenticity and richness which needs to be understood in order to appropriately work with the materials”.. Persephenie will be hosting 7 other perfumers in the Blunda Natural Botanical Exhibitions. Each exhibition focuses on one perfume artist and their body of work, and allows for interaction with the perfumer and their aromatic creations in various mediums.

What:
Natural Botanical Perfumery Exhibition #2: Hanami by Ayala Moriel

When:
Saturday, April 18th, 1-5pm
Ayala Sender will speak at 2pm

Where:
Blunda Los Angeles
304 South Edinburgh Ave.
Los Angeles, CA, 90048
RSVP: (323) 658-7507 or email: rsvp@blundaaromatics.com

Following the exhibition, Hanami perfume will be available exclusively through Blunda and Ayala Moriel’s studio @ #314-1230 Haro Street in Vancouver, and the online boutique www.ayalamoriel.com

For media inquiries contact:
Ayala Sender
(778) 863-0806
ayala@ayalamoriel.com


ABOUT THE PERFUMER
Ayala Sender, the Nose behind Ayala Moriel Parfums creates perfumes that are inspired by her deepest emotions and memories from her childhood landscapes of the Mediterranean. “My art stems from my love and longing for the Mediterranean natural and cultural landscape”, Ayala says, “It is strongly rooted in those ancient and colourful aromatic traditions”.

Born in Montreal and raised in Israel, Ms. Sender’s work is influenced by her eclectic background in fine art, music, philosophy, psychology and education. “Perfumery is my means for self expression, and where all my interest integrate into a beautiful whole” says Ayala. “My perfumes tell a story. They capture a moment in time, an emotion, a memory, and entice you into their world”. Combined with an intuitive understanding of each individual’s need for self expression through personalized fragrance, Ayala creates customized Signature Perfumes as well as ready-to-wear perfumes. “My perfumes have their own personality and evolve with time almost like real living people” tells Ayala. “When I make a perfume for a person, I help them to translate who they are into a beautiful perfume that is as complex and multi-faceted as they are”.

ABOUT BLUNDA
Blunda means “ to close one’s eyes“ in Swedish. Blunda Aromatics specializes in a wide range of Natural Botanical Perfumes, Essential Oil Pharmacopeia, Exotic Perfume Materials, Education, and Collectible Treasures. Blunda’s founder, Persephenie Synder, is a certified aromatherapist, perfumer and a visual artist. The studio offers classes and workshops in natural perfumery, aromatherapy, candle and incense making and more. The studio store offers select lines of renowned natural perfumers and rare essences from around the world.

Hanami

Perfume In A Poem, March 2008: 15 perfumers were invited by Memory & Desire blog editor Heather Ettlinger to interpret one poem. Hanami is my contribution to the project. And although it refers to the Japanese tradition of flower viewing, it is really about the contrast of the botanical and the urbane; between real life and still-life.

Some of out most accurate feelings can be defined by tactile everyday details: Hot pavement in humid New York City; The liberating sense of anonymity in Montreal’s dusty Metro; The surprising blooming cherry boulevard above Burrard SkyTrain station, washed out by the Vancouver rain; Almond blossoms wasted in the dusty desert wind like wilted butterfly wings.

I wanted this perfume to be subtle and urban, floral but also dusty-dirty. The kind of dirt you wash from your hair after commuting back from work in the Metro, your clothes and skin contaminated with the lives of strangers and passers by. And for a moment you give away a part of yourself just so that you can return back home…

I want this perfume to randomly create an ever-changing, estranged impression on the beings that weave in and out of its presence… And the notes I chose to spell this emotional haiku are:

Top notes: Cabreuva, Frangipani, Mimosa, Rosewood

Heart notes: Pink Lotus, Magnolia, Tuberose, Violet Leaf, Oleander

Base notes: Haitian Vetiver, Tonka Bean, Cassie, Siamwood, Vanilla CO2, Copaiba Balsam, Bakul Attar

Hanami is now available online, just in time for the Hanami season which spans from end of March to beginning of April (varying with location and weather). Cherry blossom are hesitatingly opening up to the doubtful spring air in Vancouver, while in Japan they are at the peak.

Happy Shavuot!

Happy Sahvuot/Bikurim/Hag Matan Torah!

The day was mostly spent baking while the evening was spent celebrating with friends and eating the fruit of my labour - blinztes, cheescake and cheese and wine of course. It's a cheesy holiday ;)

For those not in the know, Shavuot occurs 7 weeks after Passover, which is when Moses got down from Mount Sinai with the Torah and gave it to the people of Israel. It also coincides with the beginning of the wheat harvest season and celebrates the first crops of summer - hence the first fruit, vegetables, wheat and the infant stock animals would be brought as offering to the temple when it was still standing. Nowadays, what we just stay up late for Tikkun Leil Shavuot and/or eat cheese...

As far as fragrance goes - since the weather was so un-summery and inappropriate for the holiday (at this time of the year in Israel it's unbearably hot and the air is full of little black flies that were disturbed from their home inside the wheat straw stems) I wore my interpretation of In A Station of the Metro which reminded me of the beginning of spring when the weather is mostly gloomy and is only cheered up by the presence of myriads of pink cherry blossoms.

Resurrection


Resurrection, originally uploaded by Ayala Moriel.

You are sown in order to blossom again.
The Lord of the harvest goes forth

and gathers us in sheaves

when we have died.
*

What awaited me at the very end of March were the last breaths of winter, persistently attempting to overpower the burst of cherry blossom with a flood of cold caressing cotton balls. At the same time Mahler’s symphony no.2, AKA “Die Auferstehung” (Resurrection) is playing, and I am wearing the first mod I’ve created for “In A Station of the Metro”. Interestingly, both perfume and music were inspired by a poem. One is longish, the other very short as you may know.

The great Romantics of the late 19th century were not merely death obsessed; they saw death as a positive thing, mulling over concepts that perhaps before were more prevalent in the East, such as incarnation, the rise of spirit above matter and so on. I am not particularly inclined to connote Spring with death, but through the lessons of life, I’ve learned that spring is not always just sunny daffodils and birthday parties. Early spring is a time of struggle, a battle fought wearing coat of arms made from bursts of showy flowers. While to some, waking up in the morning is an appealing and easy task, the rise from near-death sleep (or a dark Winter hibernation, for that matter) takes a lot of energy, and we may need all the flowers we can get to get out of this death-bed.

* “Wieder aufzublueh’n wirst du gesat!
Der Herr der Erhnte geht
und sammelt Garben
uns ein, die starben!” (from “ Die Auferstehung” by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, translated by a mysterious translator who works for Decca record label, and copied from the pamphlet accompanying the 1975 recording Zubin Mehta & Wiener Philharmoniker and soloists Christa Ludwig and Ileana Cortrubas)

In A Station of the Metro


Sparrows' acts, originally uploaded by tearoom.

Visit Memory and Desire to read my olfactory interpretation of "In A Station of the Metro" - a poem by Ezra Pound.

Readers who comment on this blog entry or all other Memory and Desire posts related to the Perfume Inside a Poem project will enter to win an extravagant sample package of rare perfumes from all the 14 perfumers who participated in the project, including a few perfumes that were inspired by the poem.

If you comment on this post on Smellyblog, you will be entered to win 1 of 3 samples only available of my own olfactory interpretation of "In A Station of the Metro" - the first draft, that is... Simply add a comment below and as long as it's related to the poem or the project, you will be included in a draw which we will hold here as well on March 31st.
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