Ma Nishtana Parfum Prissana 2019
1
A Mystical Journey
Here is a good example of perfume's ability to cross cultures and reinforce the point that what unites us is often stronger than what divides. Prin Lomros introduces Ma Nishtana as a meditation on religious ritual: its title is drawn from the Jewish Passover ritual . But he also points out that many of the notes in this fragrance are part of the lived experience of other Middle Eastern cultures. Incense and precious spices are unifying element in different religious (and gastronomic) traditions.
Ma Nishtana offers an olfactory expression of the search for the numinous which all religious traditions have in common, in three distinct phases. First there is the hubbub of the public space: the spice market, where a succession of piquant notes - cardamon , clove, black pepper, caraway and cumin, - clamour for attention like the tightly-packed contents of an Arabian souk. Eventually they begin to mingle with perfumed smoke: not the solemn liturgical incense of a Gothic cathedral, but the more intriguing Levantine bakhoor with its distinctive fruity, green and slightly spicy aroma. Finally, in the dry down, the fragrance moves into a more contemplative phase, like settling into to an old leather chair, smoked with decades of rosy incense. The location could be synagogue, mosque or chapel, but the instinct to find a place of inner calm and an opening to the divine is the same.
Never has the name perfume - from the Latin 'per fumum' meaning 'by means of smoke', - been better applied. Ma Nishtana takes you on a mystical journey, beginning with the naive religious question (traditionally posed by the youngest participant at the start of seder ritual), 'Why is this night different' ? It then evolves into a subtle and multi-layered exposition of the search for religious and aesthetic meaning that leaves the answers hanging elusively out of reach, like the smoke from the incense stick, denser than air, that gets diffused into the room before fading into nothingness.
Ma Nishtana offers an olfactory expression of the search for the numinous which all religious traditions have in common, in three distinct phases. First there is the hubbub of the public space: the spice market, where a succession of piquant notes - cardamon , clove, black pepper, caraway and cumin, - clamour for attention like the tightly-packed contents of an Arabian souk. Eventually they begin to mingle with perfumed smoke: not the solemn liturgical incense of a Gothic cathedral, but the more intriguing Levantine bakhoor with its distinctive fruity, green and slightly spicy aroma. Finally, in the dry down, the fragrance moves into a more contemplative phase, like settling into to an old leather chair, smoked with decades of rosy incense. The location could be synagogue, mosque or chapel, but the instinct to find a place of inner calm and an opening to the divine is the same.
Never has the name perfume - from the Latin 'per fumum' meaning 'by means of smoke', - been better applied. Ma Nishtana takes you on a mystical journey, beginning with the naive religious question (traditionally posed by the youngest participant at the start of seder ritual), 'Why is this night different' ? It then evolves into a subtle and multi-layered exposition of the search for religious and aesthetic meaning that leaves the answers hanging elusively out of reach, like the smoke from the incense stick, denser than air, that gets diffused into the room before fading into nothingness.
Frankcrummit