Ganymede Marc-Antoine Barrois 2019 Eau de Parfum

Quentin Bisch is one of the new shooting stars of the industry, and what you really have to give him credit for is that he is genuinely striving for his own, especially a modern signature. This is not always easy for someone like me, who has been shaped by the creations of the 70s and 80s when it comes to fragrances.
I can’t relate at all to heavily applauded scents like ‘Sauvage’ or ‘Aventus’, and when the word ‘Ambroxan’ appears in any fragrance pyramid, it’s already game over for me.

However, when I recently saw the first fragrance created by Bisch for Marc-Antoine Barrois called ‘B683’ in one of my favorite perfumeries, I had to test it - despite the dreaded word ‘Ambroxan’ in the description.
At first, I thought: Wow, a really great leather scent with a bearable modern touch, but then, after a good while, the disillusionment: Ambroxan! That cursed stuff that has ruined every fragrance for me and somehow makes everything smell like ‘Axe’... What a shame. (It’s not quite that bad, but more on that later.)

I picked up ‘Ganymede’ without much hope, sprayed a bit on a test strip, and thought: aha, this time it’s Calone.
Once home, I dug the strip out of my pocket again, smelled it once more, but the Calone had disappeared. Instead, suddenly: bitter-spicy saffron, a curry-like note, and light suede - I liked that!
The next day, I returned, sprayed some on my skin, and was instantly torn. Again, that Calone I’ve smelled a thousand times, which is described as either aquatic or ozonic and is supposed to evoke water, sea, spray, etc. - ‘Cool Water’ and its millions of descendants say hello!

Behind this watery-salty, airy aspect, fruity nuances soon emerge, underlined by an increasingly prominent light suede accord that somehow reminds me of my beloved suede Clarks from the late 70s...
Above all, however, the multifaceted, strict spiciness of the saffron dominates the center of the fragrance. In contrast to ‘B683’, this spicy-leathery accord does not tend towards a dark, earthy direction, but rather the smooth opposite. Here, everything is bright and well-ventilated.
After a while, a note of immortelle, which is no less complex in comparison to the saffron, slowly emerges from the shadows of the base, beautifully corresponding with its curry nuances to the slowly dissipating spice.
This straw flower accord has its own character, as it is crafted by Quentin Bisch without any sweetness (Annick Goutal’s ‘Sables’!) and exudes its gnarled, dust-dry, hay-like spice accord, along with the aforementioned curry references, for an infinitely long time.
Yes, the fragrance is indeed remarkably long-lasting, and I have already been approached multiple times about this immortelle note - mostly when I wasn’t even aware of it anymore.
At least from one person who approached me, I know he is a big fan of Corsica and loves the scent of the maquis.

Even the next morning, I can clearly detect the last traces of this straw-like dry flower, and unlike some other fragrances that are often allowed to fade much earlier because they have stressed me quite a bit, I am pleased in the case of ‘Ganymede’, as the fragrance does not strain me - at least not at any phase.

On the contrary. Quentin Bisch has created a wonderfully present yet not loud fragrance that takes on a beautiful three-act progression and is excellently calibrated. The ozonic beginning, the leathery-spicy middle, and the immortelle finish merge perfectly into a truly well and carefully composed fragrance.
Both ‘Ganymede’ and ‘B683’ are thoroughly modern works. ‘B683’ may still have certain references to the great leather heroes of the past, especially to ‘Knize Ten’ and ‘Cabochard’, but with ‘Ganymede’, I find these references no longer, or only to a very small extent. The already mentioned ‘Sables’ comes to mind, but only because of the prominent immortelle note; otherwise, the overlaps are rather limited. Or the also old ‘Eau de Monsieur’ from Annick Goutal from the 80s, which was much too classic ‘Eau’, yet still had a similarly dominant straw flower accord in the base.

No, ‘Ganymede’ is, in my opinion, a small modern masterpiece that perhaps excites me precisely because I had almost lost faith in the capabilities of modern perfumery.
But lo and behold, it is still possible!

I also like the name: ‘Ganymede’, the largest moon of Jupiter, under whose icy surface a huge saltwater ocean is said to be hidden. This saltwater aspect can also be found in the fragrance, as well as the maquis-scented coastal air of Crete, whose inhabitants are said to be linked to the legend of Ganymede and Zeus as a couple, which legitimized love between men in antiquity.
‘B683’, which borrowed its fantasy planet from ‘The Little Prince’ by Saint-Exupery, represents Jupiter/Zeus, and Ganymede is the moon of Jupiter, or the lover of Zeus...
Wonderfully intertwined sources of inspiration, right?!

A little addition: the spray mechanism is fantastic! In the 70s, instead of ‘vaporisers’, there were so-called ‘atomisers’ that finely misted the fragrance. The spray mechanism of Barrois’ fragrances reminds me of these ‘atomisers’. However, this time, the fragrance, atomized into the smallest particles, actually reaches the skin and doesn’t disperse in all directions.